“The Conspirator” is the first film produced by the American Film Company. At the film’s premiere, held at Ford’s Theatre here in Washington with stars walking a makeshift red carpet, Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts said he founded the company because he wanted to see “grown-up” films about his country’s history that were as accurate as they were entertaining. To ensure fidelity to the historical record in this film about the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, producers hired historians to go over the script and inspect the visuals. They seem to have missed a few things — unless life back then was so black and white that every Union member was blindly hellbent on revenge and every Confederate citizen was ardently bound to principle.

Robert Redford goes behind the camera once again to direct “The Conspirator,” in theaters the very day Lincoln died 146 years ago. It opens the night before, with Union soldiers celebrating Lee’s surrender and Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln enjoying a night at the theater. Sinister figures lurk in the shadows around town; then they strike.