Lincoln was overrated?

That sounds familiar. Do you remember what was said right before that line?

I think it was his pitiful attempt to take the blame off himself. If Lincoln was overrated, then maybe his assassination wasn't so terrible a thing. Therefore, by comparison, what he did might not be so terrible either.

Be still...

Although the first post here was quite a long time ago, I just saw the movie tonight and wanted to see what people had to say about it.

I believe the point of Hearst calling Lincoln overated was not to put Lincoln down, but to uplift himself. Not long before this comment, it was explained that Hearst had gotten the current US president elected only two weeks prior. The point was that not even the commander in chief held the power that Hearst held. And in the movie, what better way to show this true power than to see him get away with murder?

To me this movie was a great find, I rented it not knowing what it was about. For anyone who was bored in viewing the film, you really should watch Citizen Kane (it's about Hearst, amongst other things) and everything else you can about what happened behind the scenes. You will see how great it is that fifty years later, and nearly twenty years after his death, Orson Wells, not Hearst seems to have the true power. The power of a true friend like "Cat's Meow" director, Peter Bogdanovich.

I took the line to be an almost throw-away comic line, which in the context of the preceding dialogue is very funny. They were speaking about how, if the bullet was lodged in Ince's brain, how could he still be alive? The surgeon says that it is possible, and that Lincoln lived for hours after being shot. Had the doctors known more in Lincoln's time, he might have been saved. Then Hearst utters the line almost to himself, under his breath. I thought it was one of the more memorable scenes, and funniest lines.