The Conspirator

[j_garcia]

Forgot about this one after it left theaters, but it showed up on Netflix and Amazon so I watched it. Not bad, but not great. I thought the John Adams HBO miniseries was better (meaning this felt more like a made for TV movie than a feature), but it was decent and very interesting. I felt the acting was a bit flat for all but a few characters, and though there are a lot of names, some of the parts are either small or not fleshed out. The era seemed captured well both costume wise and in terms of scenery/period appearance.

I don't know my Civil War era history much and this story, aside from Mary Surratt and John Wilkes Booth of the conspiracy, I knew none of the names or this back story of the assassination and subsequent trial. Essentially, Mary Surratt ran a boarding house in which the conspiracy to murder Lincoln was planned. When the army cannot locate her son, one of the conspirators, they charge Mary instead and put her on trial.

Netflix only had it in stereo, but Amazon shows it as 5.1. Worth a stream or rental IMO.

 

[k0rww]

I haven't watched the Conspirator but intend to, especially since I can watch it on Amazon. I have watched John Adams which was excellent. I came away with a better appreciation of John Adams.

 

[skizzerflake]

I saw this one in the theater, could not miss it because it has some interesting local connections. It was one of those movies that demonstrates how good history often does not make box office busting movies and this one erred on the side of being accurate rather than theatrical. Nevertheless, it was one of the better history flicks in recent history.

I was interested because the Booth family is local here, having lived in Harford County (25 miles east) and part-time in Baltimore; Booth footprints are all over this area because, John aside, they were a very famous family at the time due to their theatrical activities. John's father Junius was the most famous actor of his era, brother Junius, Jr was an actor and older brother Edwin was the greatest American actor of the 19th century. Edwin was named for a friend of his dad, Edwin Forrest, another immortal of the 19th century stage. Sister Asia married a famous British comedic actor, so theatrics was all over the family, as were grand gestures, like John Wilkes' final performance in Ford's Theater. Father Junius and his mistress Anne had started out in England, part of the Byron, Keats and Shelly circle of Romantics.

The family still resides in a a great atmospheric cemetery in Baltimore City; John Wilkes was moved there about 1870 to the family plot. The rest of the conspirators were moved from the army compound where they were hung and now reside in a different cemetery in Baltimore (then a hotbed of southern sympathy), which has an area known as Confederate Hill, the resting place of a number of confederate generals and several hundred soldiers.

Growing up, I had a neighbor who was a direct descendant of Samuel Mudd, the Southern MD doctor who splinted Booth's broken leg. He spent his whole life in a quixotic quest to have Mudd's guilty verdict expunged and the case was even retried in a moot court in a local law school in the 1980's, which determined that Mudd and Mary Surratt should not have been convicted (Mudd was convicted based on his denial of involvement; a phrenologist testified that Mudd had the skull of a liar and hence his denials were lies). Mary's tragedy, as the movie suggests, is that she was willing to take the rap in order to save her son, a rather ungrateful wretch. It seems as though her worst guilt was in not paying attention to her son's activities due to being busy being a single mom (a widow) in the 1800's.

 

[johnusher]

For me, the movie was boring when i start watching

 

[j_garcia]

I saw this one in the theater, could not miss it because it has some interesting local connections. It was one of those movies that demonstrates how good history often does not make box office busting movies and this one erred on the side of being accurate rather than theatrical. Nevertheless, it was one of the better history flicks in recent history.

I was interested because the Booth family is local here, having lived in Harford County (25 miles east) and part-time in Baltimore; Booth footprints are all over this area because, John aside, they were a very famous family at the time due to their theatrical activities. John's father Junius was the most famous actor of his era, brother Junius, Jr was an actor and older brother Edwin was the greatest American actor of the 19th century. Edwin was named for a friend of his dad, Edwin Forrest, another immortal of the 19th century stage. Sister Asia married a famous British comedic actor, so theatrics was all over the family, as were grand gestures, like John Wilkes' final performance in Ford's Theater. Father Junius and his mistress Anne had started out in England, part of the Byron, Keats and Shelly circle of Romantics.

The family still resides in a a great atmospheric cemetery in Baltimore City; John Wilkes was moved there about 1870 to the family plot. The rest of the conspirators were moved from the army compound where they were hung and now reside in a different cemetery in Baltimore (then a hotbed of southern sympathy), which has an area known as Confederate Hill, the resting place of a number of confederate generals and several hundred soldiers.

Growing up, I had a neighbor who was a direct descendant of Samuel Mudd, the Southern MD doctor who splinted Booth's broken leg. He spent his whole life in a quixotic quest to have Mudd's guilty verdict expunged and the case was even retried in a moot court in a local law school in the 1980's, which determined that Mudd and Mary Surratt should not have been convicted (Mudd was convicted based on his denial of involvement; a phrenologist testified that Mudd had the skull of a liar and hence his denials were lies). Mary's tragedy, as the movie suggests, is that she was willing to take the rap in order to save her son, a rather ungrateful wretch. It seems as though her worst guilt was in not paying attention to her son's activities due to being busy being a single mom (a widow) in the 1800's.

We watched a documentary afterward about the same event and the movie was fairly factual, but seemed to make the assumption that you were already familiar with the events, as it did not go into a lot of detail on a number of things. It was also not quite correct on the actual assassination.

For me, the movie was boring when i start watching

It isn't an action movie

 

[skizzerflake]

We watched a documentary afterward about the same event and the movie was fairly factual, but seemed to make the assumption that you were already familiar with the events, as it did not go into a lot of detail on a number of things. It was also not quite correct on the actual assassination.



It isn't an action movie

The basic history - movie conflict. Realistic history movies are usually boring, too talky and static, fun history movies usually fantasize characters, condense events, make the confict simple enough that you can understand it in a minute, compress the timeline and add lots of action. The Conspirators erred on the side of detail (and even passed over most of at that) and had a lot of talking....not the right movie for Saturday night at the cineplex, but OK for history geeks, who were commenting on things like the length of Stanton's beard or the furnishings in the courtroom.

 

[j_garcia]

...fun history movies usually fantasize characters, condense events, make the confict simple enough that you can understand it in a minute, compress the timeline and add lots of action.

Exactly, this wasn't Abe Lincoln Zombie Hunter LOL.