Imagine a present day war where eight million Americans perish. That’s the scope of the devastation produced by our Civil War, where 600,000, or two percent of our population, died. Taking place only days after Lee’s surrender and while battles still raged, the Lincoln assassination produced a government crisis where the Union’s fragility was starkly tested.

Robert Redford’s compelling The Conspirator chronicles a dark chapter in America’s history that took place amidst that crisis. The film depicts the outrageous trail by military tribunal of Mary Surrat (a radiant and dignified Robin Wright), who operated a rooming house frequented by assassin John Wilkes Booth, who was often in the company of Mary’s son. That Mary takes a hit for her vengeful son’s actions is an understatement. That she is innocent is still up for debate 150 years later.
Government prosecutor Danny Huston, taking cues from Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (an intensely forceful Kevin Kline), throws the Constitution to the wolves. The rush to judgement is driven largely by Stanton’s desperation to hold the tenous Union together at any cost. Stanton leads the charge to bring down any and all conspirators as quickly as possible, to leave them “buried and forgotten.”

With comically contradictory government witnesses against her, with no right to testify, no jury, no opportunity for appeal, and ultimately no right of habeas corpus, Mary’s trial quickly becomes aa shambles. She’s defended by a reluctant former Union soldier Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) whose mentor, the Senator and former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (a brilliant Tom Wilkinson) can’t defend Mary himself due to his southern background. Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer is the lone woman accused conspirator tried by a court that is more Kafka than kosher.

A strong supporting cast includes Evan Rachel Wood in a pivotal role as Mary’s daughter aand the incomparable Shea Whigham as a prosecution witness–his second such role recently after playing a jailhouse snitch witness so effectively in The Lincoln Lawyer.

The Conspirator is a vivid, dramatic old-fashioned-feeling film whose characters stand up to scrutiny and whose art direction poignantly depicts the era. Anything but a dry history lesson, it contains lessons nonetheless. Parallels to more recent dilemmas about the wisdom of military tribunals and their relationshp with government security can be drawn, as can the question of when is it ever moral for forecful political revenge to seek a convenient scapegoat?

8 Out of 10

Imagine a present day war where eight million Americans perish. That’s the scope of the devastation produced by our Civil War, where 600,000, or two percent of our population, died. Taking place only days after Lee’s surrender and while battles still raged, the Lincoln assassination produced a government crisis where the Union’s fragility was starkly tested.

Robert Redford’s compelling The Conspirator chronicles a dark chapter in America’s history that took place amidst that crisis. The film depicts the outrageous trail by military tribunal of Mary Surrat (a radiant and dignified Robin Wright), who operated a rooming house frequented by assassin John Wilkes Booth, who was often in the company of Mary’s son. That Mary takes a hit for her vengeful son’s actions is an understatement. That she is innocent is still up for debate 150 years later.
Government prosecutor Danny Huston, taking cues from Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton (an intensely forceful Kevin Kline), throws the Constitution to the wolves. The rush to judgement is driven largely by Stanton’s desperation to hold the tenous Union together at any cost. Stanton leads the charge to bring down any and all conspirators as quickly as possible, to leave them “buried and forgotten.”

With comically contradictory government witnesses against her, with no right to testify, no jury, no opportunity for appeal, and ultimately no right of habeas corpus, Mary’s trial quickly becomes aa shambles. She’s defended by a reluctant former Union soldier Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) whose mentor, the Senator and former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (a brilliant Tom Wilkinson) can’t defend Mary himself due to his southern background. Surratt, a Confederate sympathizer is the lone woman accused conspirator tried by a court that is more Kafka than kosher.

A strong supporting cast includes Evan Rachel Wood in a pivotal role as Mary’s daughter aand the incomparable Shea Whigham as a prosecution witness–his second such role recently after playing a jailhouse snitch witness so effectively in The Lincoln Lawyer.

The Conspirator is a vivid, dramatic old-fashioned-feeling film whose characters stand up to scrutiny and whose art direction poignantly depicts the era. Anything but a dry history lesson, it contains lessons nonetheless. Parallels to more recent dilemmas about the wisdom of military tribunals and their relationshp with government security can be drawn, as can the question of when is it ever moral for forecful political revenge to seek a convenient scapegoat?

8 Out of 10