THE CONSPIRATOR 3.0****


You may think you know the story about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln but probably not… I didn’t. ! You almost certainly don't know the story of one of the so called conspirators Mary Surratt who ran the boarding house where John Wilkes Booth met with his friends The story starts off focusing on Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) a young Union officer wounded on the battlefield during the Civil War. It turns out that he is a lawyer in civilian life and shortly after he leaves the military he is being pressured by his senior law associate to defend Mary Surratt (Robin Wright). The trial is being conducted by a military court ( think Guantanamo) with judge and jury being Union soldiers and an ace prosecutor Joseph Holt with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline) calling the shots from behind the scenes. Besides being a fascinating piece of little known history, the film is beautifully photographed, with near perfect period costumes but yet it draws the viewer in and makes you feel that you are watching a very real life high stakes drama. Of course this is also a thinking person's movie and you have to come away appreciating how the strength of our constitution gets tested from time to time and you wonder if it passed the test after Lincoln got shot as we sometimes wonder how it is doing today.

The entire cast was excellent especially Robin Wright as the owner of the boarding house where the plot was born, and James McIvoy as her defense attorney. Her case and possible involvement were the crux of the fine story. With exactly the right touch and control, special praise goes to director Redford. His sparse direction kept the story moving without those often used overlong, anguished and soulful scenes played mainly to evoke viewer pity. Redford told this story without gross sentiment, but factually and straightforward, with excellent historical accuracy in personal mannerisms, grooming, speech patterns, costumes and scene staging.

A truly excellent Civil War drama that showed that nothing ever changes in the ambitions of the power driven human political animal, as that ambition always comes first no matter the immorality, cruelty and inhumanity used to achieve it. And, as always, we who are not that way are all the worse due to those who are. Another example of the fact that we never seem to learn much from our many mistakes and inhumanities committed through the years.

Clark