The Conspirator

[Abbey Marie]

If you like movies that are total left propaganda, that pay little attention to historical facts, then this may be the movie for you.

I was interested in the subject matter of Lincoln's assassination. I guess Redford had a real axe to grind.

[darin]

what was wrong with it, factually? What I saw was a woman get bamboozled by 'the system'. Teach me?

[Abbey Marie]

what was wrong with it, factually? What I saw was a woman get bamboozled by 'the system'. Teach me?

Factual fallacies that made the woman look pretty innocent aside, the whole film was geared to making military tribunals look like kangaroo courts. Redford's way of protesting military trials/justice for terrorists, it would seem.

One site:

Myth: Mary Surratt wasn’t guilty of her role in the conspiracy.

Mary Surratt

Fact: This is the whole crux of the debate that has existed since July 7, 1865. The fact is when the detectives first searched the boarding house, Surratt herself was said to exclaim, “For God’s sake! Let them come in. I expected the house to be searched” (Swanson, 119). The movie excluded a lot of other testimony which gave more conclusive proof of Surratt’s guilt and failed to include that. The film IS correct in asserting Reverdy Johnson’s plea that the trial was unconstitutional because she was a civilian being tried in front of a military tribunal, which was the heart of Johnson’s argument throughout the trial, but the defense team examined numerous witnesses which only further concluded Surratt’s guilt. In fact, while trying to portray her as a pious Catholic church-goer, her defense team called up five priests, none of whom could testify that they knew her for any length of time. In essence, her own defense team unknowingly worked against her.

...
http://thisweekinthecivilwar.com/?p=219/

And, I swear I did not read this before my comments:

The villains of the film are Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Kevin Kline) and his deputy, Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt (Danny Huston). Stanton dismisses Aiken’s claims for leniency by citing national security concerns. The American public demands swift and certain justice to put the assassination behind them, while Southerners need to understand that continued resistance and plots will not be tolerated by the government. In other words, a defiant Stanton makes it clear that issues of security must trump concerns regarding due process and justice. Thus, as several members of the AHA audience suggested, it becomes easy to read the film as an allegorical commentary on the response of the Bush administration to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. In this reading of The Conspirator, Stanton becomes a Dick Cheney figure intent upon using almost any means necessary to prevent further acts of treason and terror. Stanton insists upon employing military tribunals to try the civilian defendants of the Lincoln conspiracy, not trusting juries and legal technicalities for these 1865 versions of civilian enemy combatants. Images of Guantanamo Bay detainees are evoked by the Spartan conditions in which the prisoners are incarcerated, as well as the hoods worn by the male defendants. Screenwriter Solomon, however, asserts that that the script for The Conspirator was written before 9/11. Nevertheless, it would certainly appear that doubts about the Patriot Act and concerns over violations of the civil liberties of those incarcerated in the global war on terror contributed to getting this script to the screen.
...
http://hnn.us/articles/135526.html

[darin]

Thanks Abbey - I'll admit; I saw the movie in Iraq, after a 13-hour day, and slept through more than half.

[Abbey Marie]

Thanks Abbey - I'll admit; I saw the movie in Iraq, after a 13-hour day, and slept through more than half.

Quite different circumstances from how I watched it. I saw it in bed with my husband, with candles lit around the room, while I drank wine and he drank scotch.

[darin]

That's the kind of marriage I want someday

[cadet]

If you like movies that are total left propaganda, that pay little attention to historical facts, then this may be the movie for you.

I was interested in the subject matter of Lincoln's assassination. I guess Redford had a real axe to grind.

I can't wait for that historically correct movie to come out, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer"

[Abbey Marie]

I can't wait for that historically correct movie to come out, "Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Slayer"

Thank goodness you will be in the Air Force, where you may be able to take out those vampires from the sky.