The Conspirator Blu-ray Review
The death of the President is only the beginning.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, August 13, 2011
One of the more peculiar "parlor games" of synchronicity-like coincidences in American history has to do with the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Both were elected in years ending in 60, both had Vice Presidents surnamed Johnson, both were assassinated, and perhaps oddest of all, Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln. There's another, less well known, common thread uniting these two tragic figures, a thread emanating from the dastardly act of their murders. With Lincoln's killing, there was absolutely no question a conspiracy was at hand, for the same night Lincoln made his ill-fated visit to Ford's Theater, Secretary of State William Seward was viciously and repeatedly stabbed while recuperating in his home from a carriage accident, and it soon became evident that Vice President Andrew Johnson had also been slated to be killed, though his appointed murderer panicked at the last moment and didn't follow through. As many people, including JFK historian Theodore Sorenson, have pointed out, in the wake of the Kennedy assassination there was great fear that another conspiracy was unfolding, perhaps at the behest of a foreign power, and soon to be President Lyndon Baines Johnson was beyond worried that his own life was in danger and was therefore intent on getting Air Force One airborne and getting both himself and his inner circle back to what was considered the safe confines of Washington, D.C. Though it's of course been debated endlessly in the many years since Kennedy's killing, the bulk of the most widely accepted evidence is that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, managing to alter the course of history with some unexpectedly "impressive" sharpshooting skills. And while it's generally, if not overly widely, known that there was
some sort of conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the tides of history have become muddled in the century and a half or so since that horrendous April night in 1865, and very few other than historians can actually recount the ins and outs of the various conspirators and what actually transpired. Robert Redford has sought to shed at least a little light on perhaps the least known story within this "assassination subset," that of Mary Surratt, a Washington, D.C. boarding house operator who had the misfortune to host John Wilkes Booth and his cohorts (one of whom was Surratt's own son, John), a fact which ultimately led to her arrest, trial and execution. While
The Conspirator's title refers of course to Surratt (Robin Wright), the real focus of the film is actually on Surratt's young and inexperienced attorney, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a Union Captain who, according to the film anyway, was more or less badgered into taking Surratt's case and then slowly began to question his own prejudices against her.
The Conspirator is the first outing of the relatively new American Film Company, an enterprise founded by Ameritrade's Joe Ricketts in order to bring actual "real life" dramas culled from America's story to the screen. (In fact one of the truly annoying things about this Blu-ray is a minute long promo for the American Film Company which plays before the main menu pops up, and which it is impossible to chapter skip over or fast forward through, and which must be sat through each and every time you start up the disc—not a smart marketing plan). It's wonderfully laudable, though, that a group of investors is willing to sort through the
arcana of American history to exploit little known stories, and
The Conspirator certainly has one of the most authentic feeling historical ambiences of recent film, one aided by a virtually pitch perfect production design, one which brings the surprising smallness of mid-19th century Washington, D.C. fully to life. But
The Conspirator failed to ignite at the box office in its theatrical exhibition and came in for some less than stellar reviews. With such a fascinating premise, such an excellent cast (which also includes Danny Huston, Colm Meaney, Kevin Kline and Tom Wilkinson) and such an iconic director, how could this film fail to be a towering achievement?
The fact is, in my estimation at least,
The Conspirator is a much better film than it was generally given credit for being upon its theatrical release, but it has enough problems that it is probably rightly seen as having at least partially missed the mark. The film is curiously distant from its own characters, which in the case of Surratt is perhaps understandable, as Redford and scenarist James D. Solomon deliberately hew a mostly ambiguous tone with regard to Mary's guilt or innocence. But with regard to Aiken, the film never really delves into the character's interior world, and instead gives us a series of unrelated lurches in motivation which seem strange at best and inexplicable at worst. And while the distance from Surratt is perhaps more understandable, it also presents problems, as the film not so subtly engages in a little political posturing, positing a "vast right wing conspiracy" to convict the poor woman, except that the poor woman may indeed have been guilty of her crimes.
The Conspirator may well have been better had Surratt's guilt or innocence been more firmly delineated, letting the political machinations surrounding her imprisonment and execution play out anyway, instead of vacillating, suggesting she may have known more than she lets on while at the same time making her into some kind of martyr.
If you can get past this dissociative quality to
The Conspirator, there is a largely riveting film here, one which does indeed give some fascinating background into a little known corner of a
very well known room in the edifice of American history. Though quite a few liberties are taken with the actual story,
The Conspirator does a remarkably good job of giving us a general overview of a country in disarray, and the teeming emotions that were still frothing as the Civil War wound down. Redford, certainly never shy about espousing liberal causes, and Solomon perhaps go a bit overboard in drawing all too obvious parallels to our current day state of affairs
vis a vis The Patriot Act, military tribunals, oaths of loyalty, and the like, and in painting supposed "villains" like Secretary of War Stanton (Kline) or Major General David Hunter (Meaney), head of military commission trying the conspirators, with too broad a brushstroke. But despite this occasional hyperbolic element,
The Conspirator does in fact raise important questions about how we as Americans respond to attacks, and how the promises made in our Constitution are sometimes cavalierly tossed asunder for convenience sake when it suits various people's purposes.
The performances in
The Conspirator are for the most part excellent, though McAvoy has the tendency to make Aiken a kind of petulant mid-19th century "surfer dude" sort of defense attorney on occasion. Despite being the ostensible titular character, Wright doesn't really have a lot to do in this film, but she manages to evoke a tragic heroine of sorts, one whom the film ever so subtly suggests may be innocent, while still providing shades of guilt around the edges. Tom Wilkinson is wonderful as Reverdy Johnson, a Congressman who initially takes on Surratt's defense but decides his own Southern heritage would mean she couldn't get a fair trial (something that she couldn't get in any case, as it turns out). Meaney is kind of a cartoon in this film, playing a character who is, well, a meany, an officious military officer who simply doesn't care if an individual's civil and legal rights are trampled in a mad rush for vengeance masquerading as "justice."
Redford has crafted a surprisingly gorgeous film here, one which is structurally mostly sound (despite a couple of really odd flashbacks that just sort of erupt out of nowhere), and one which looks absolutely stunning.
The Conspirator is often like a daguerreotype brought to life, and the recreation of Washington, D.C. is elegantly handled and certainly deserves an Academy Award nomination for cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel as well as Production Designers Kalina Ivanov, Mark Garner and Melissa M. Levander. The film is perhaps too "talky" for its own good, but the core issues it explores are more relevant than ever today, and certainly deserve exploration.
Getting back to bizarre synchronicities which dot American history—there's a fascinating little synchronicity with regard to
The Conspirator's Frederick Aiken and one of director Redford's most famous and iconic roles as an actor. As the film closes and we get brief "updates" on what happened to several characters, pay attention to where Aiken ended up. Here's a hint: muckraking journalists weren't around only in the 1970's.
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