Conspiracy (2001)

On January 20, 1942, with the tide of war turning in favor of the Allies, a small group of SS officers, government ministers, and Nazi officials met near Berlin to decide the fate of Europe's Jews. Based on the only surviving record of that meeting, Conspiracy is a powerful combination of historical reconstruction and speculation that attempts to offer new insights into a pivotal moment in history.

The cast does a marvelous job of fleshing out the documentary evidence to create convincing characters. Kenneth Branagh is especially chilling as SS Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich, who uses a combination of charm and ruthless power-mongering to gain support for his plans. Colin Firth is fascinating as Wilhelm Stuckart, a lawyer who sees the brutal tactics of the SS as a threat to his own intellectualized anti-Semitism, and Stanley Tucci gives a wonderfully understated performance as Adolf Eichmann.

Conspiracy is a carefully crafted, completely unsensational film that offers ample proof of the banality of evil. There are no histrionics and no comic-book Nazi villains, just a small group of politicians and war-weary soldiers arguing about the meaning of words and the logistics of extermination, calmly preparing to unleash an unimaginable horror on the world. --Simon Leake Amazon.com

Branagh Shines as Heydrich

I missed this film when it originally aired since I do not have HBO. However, a friend of mine brought it to my attention about 4 years ago and I am glad he did. For an entire film taking place (for the most part) in one room, it is amazingly riveting. Watching these Nazi's sitting around the table eating, drinking, and joking while they discuss the "final solution" is quite chilling. Those familiar with the Wansee Conference will respect the accuracy of the portrayal of events while those new to this will simply be shocked at the casual discussions about the most serious of subjects.

Kenneth Branagh stands out in a superior cast in the role of Reinhard Heydrich. He comes across as the coldest and most unfeeling of the lot with frightening effect. Stanley Tucci's portrayal of Adolph Eichmann is good, if somewhat out-of-sync with historical perseptions of his role at the meeting.

I highly recommend this film to anyone curious about this period in history. July 22, 2008

Manuel Vidal. Es una película que captura la decisión sobre la solución final

En esta película se muestra la banalidad que acompañó a la discusión en la cual se decidió la solución final para la "Judenfrage" o "Cuestión judía". Es un complemento que aporta mucho a la comprensión del libro de Hannah Arendt: "El juicio de Eichmann en Jerusalén". La pregunta entre los asistentes a la reunión de Wannsee no radicaba en si era bueno o no acabar a un pueblo entero, no entre todos abirtamente, sino en cómo hacerlo más eficaz, eficiente y efectivamente al menor costo para el Reich. Sugiero complementar esta pelicula con el libro mencionado y con "The Nazis, a warning from history", dcumental excelente de la BBC, y con las películas "Rosa blanca" o "Sophie Scholl", y "Out of the ashes", además de "Los falsificadores", "Napola" y otras tantas. Es una película que sin salir de la reunión, hace pensar en la gravedad de la banalidad frente al mal, de cómo lo potencia. Para hacer el mal extremo no hay que ser un mostruo o un demonio, basta con ser banal. July 6, 2008

Deadly Dry... But That's Not A Bad Thing

A ninety minute dramatization of the infamous "Final Solution" meeting where a little over a dozen high-ranking wartime Germans got together and talked, in euphemistic, statistical, and theoretical terms, about mass murder. The film spices things up by showing the rivalry behind the usually monolithic-looking Nazi Party, but the lesson to take from this one is, indeed, the dryness. Here is a bunch of mere men talking about killing millions of people with no more morality than a board meeting talking about advertising strategies. The most impassioned argument against murder comes not from any sort of love or compassion, but rather as an argument of the primacy of -already blatantly racist and anti-Semetic- laws. The most conscientious member of the panel is reduced to arguing that should all the Jews be killed, what else will there be for Nazism to work for?

History has shown that the Holocaust and crimes like it are not fantastic, extraordinary things. Once it gets to the point of systematic extermination, it is absolutely banal. Once things become banal, even normal bureaucratic mooks, such as Eichmann, can involve themselves and still sleep at night. This movie exemplifies that; the awe and shock comes not so much from what is portrayed as what is wholly missing: the better points of humanity. June 12, 2008

Low Budget Genius

I know it's been said before, but I have to say that it's amazing what you can do when you get an outstanding cast of actors together with an outstanding script. This film is basically like a one act play. Very simple, no scene changes, no special effects, but boy does it work!

This film is a dramatization of the meeting where Hitler's leading men decided the fate of six million jews. Probably, the most disturbing thing about the film is that everything seems so commonplace, like an ordinary business meeting. These men, apart from their politics, seem like ordinary men that you meet and work with everyday and yet their plans resulted in the death of six million people.

Dr. Stuttgart is an interesting character. He objects to the plan because it goes against the established laws which he devised. He favors sterilization as opposed to death because he believes, perhaps rightly, that the world would not condemn such milder measures.

Dr. Kritzinger is perhaps the one person at the meeting who had courage enough to object on humanitarian grounds. At the Nuremberg trials he was the only one who openly showed regret and remorse over the mass killings. But when the SS General Heidrich threatens him he grudgingly gives approval at the meeting.

The movie serves as a sharp warning to us. If we do not fight to preserve the principles that our society was founded on such as the inherent value of each individual, the rights outlined in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and loving your neighbor as yourself then these principles probably will not be preserved. It would be to easy for some megalomaniac to come along and lead people down the wrong path.

My only wish is that the writers and director might have aimed for a PG or PG-13 rating and thus make the film more accessible to a wider audience. May 19, 2008

chilling

I just happened to stumble on this when it first showed on HBO, and was tickled to see it on dvd. Absolutly fascinating to watch a room full of nazis sit and eat and drink and smoke and smooze..and calmly discuss the best method to extinguish and entire race of people. A great look at the depths of human evil. May 17, 2008

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