The Conspirator

With the outstanding historical drama The Conspirator released just in time for the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War, director Robert Redford and writer James D. Solomon achieve something that many schoolteachers and professors fail to do: make history not only come alive, but also relevant to our current times.

The inciting incident of this movie is one of the most notorious events in American history: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, by actor John Wilkes Booth. A nimbly edited sequence depicts Booth’s murderous act, his escape, and his subsequent demise more than a week later at the hands of Union soldiers who surrounded his barn hideout, set it aflame, then shot him. This sequence also illustrates the often overlooked fact that Booth’s action was the only successful part of a three-pronged planned attack; Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward were also targeted for death the same evening, but the attempts on their lives failed.

Unlike the muddled aftermath of the John F. Kennedy assassination nearly a century later, there was obviously a conspiracy at work due to the attempt to commit three murders simultaneously. The question was, how far did this conspiracy extend? After rounding up and incarcerating a wide swath of possible suspects — even including the actors onstage at the moment of the President’s assassination — the U.S. government tried eight civilians, all alleged conspirators, before a military tribunal. Of these eight suspects, one was female: Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), who operated a boarding house where Booth and his Confederacy-sympathizing compatriots met and plotted their nefarious deeds.

The Conspirator centers on this lone, mourning-draped woman and on Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a lawyer before the war, then a captain of the Union army, wounded in battle. He is asked by his mentor, Maryland Senator Reverdy Johnson (Tom Wilkinson), to serve as Mary Surratt’s defense counsel during the tribunal. Aiken is initially appalled by the idea, as his deep-seated Union loyalty makes him as desiring as the rest of the stricken nation for justice to avenge this scurrilous act. But his belief in the rule of justly applied law, and in the rights and protections affirmed by the U.S. Constitution, inspires him to investigate further and mount a spirited defense.

Because the real questions were, did the conspiracy extend to Mary Surratt? How much did she know? What about her son John (Johnny Simmons), Booth’s close friend but missing since before the assassination? Or her daughter Anna (Evan Rachel Wood), unarrested but under guard at her mother’s boarding house? What evidence does the prosecution have to link Mary Surratt directly to the conspiracy? Or is she simply guilty by association?

The latter would seem to be the case from observing the shocking efforts at railroading the woman at her trial by the prosecuting attorney (Danny Huston), the chief officer (Colm Meaney) of the nine military jurists, and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline). Stanton, who is essentially Donald Rumsfeld in a frock coat, doesn’t care about justice for all, or whether a possibly innocent woman is convicted and executed, so long as it will help bring closure, sate the public’s bloodlust, and theoretically help heal the nation.

It’s very telling that The Conspirator mounts its re-creation of the assassination early and quickly. Unlike Oliver Stone’s JFK, which laboriously analyzed every angle of that assassination and pointed fingers at a panoply of suspects, this film skimps on analysis of the events, though it raises a few intriguing questions. With the inclusion of a few flashbacks, the bulk of the film focuses on Mary’s trial — and her right to a fair one. Aiken, as well as the audience, are stunned by the disregard for jurisprudence, and scenes with Aiken away from the courtroom sharply illustrate the “guilt by association” he experiences merely by serving as her only legal representative.

Though Redford and Solomon thankfully avoid getting preachy about it, one can’t help but draw parallels between Surratt and Aiken’s story and the post-9/11 fearmongering and abrogation of rights under the guises of “justice” and “healing” during the Bush II and Obama administrations. Stanton wants to placate the rumor-ridden country (one Washington socialite remarks that she heard Mary Surratt wears a Union soldier’s bones for jewelry), and if that means the government hangs a woman for the first time — even an innocent one — so be it. Seems reminiscent of, for example, Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of providing secret information to WikiLeaks, who is already widely reviled nationwide and incarcerated under appallingly tight restrictions, but not yet tried and convicted, though that seems a fait accompli — or any other person tarred by the government and/or the media as “giving aid and comfort to the enemy” without due process of law.

The Conspirator has a couple of weak spots, most notably two soldier buddies of Aiken (one of whom is an annoyingly off-period Justin Long) who behave like frat boys goofing off during a Civil War re-enactment. Their presence seems forced and unnecessary, and detracts from screen time that would have been better spent on some of the real conspirators. And Mark Isham’s generic, forgettable score adds little to the proceedings. But the story is intriguing, the script is thought-provoking, the production design and photography beautifully detailed, and Redford directs with a steady, well-balanced hand. Robin Wright, James McAvoy, and Kevin Kline all provide exceptional acting fuel for the film.

The Conspirator is the first release from The American Film Company, dedicated to telling stories of America’s past. Granted, there will usually be some degree of dramatic license taken, but I applaud their first film and hope they produce more stories from American history as accurate and compelling as this.