The Conspirator

Friday night I rented a movie from Redbox that I’ve wanted to see for a bit.  Robert Redford’s The Conspirator.  It’s a story and alternate view of Mary Surratt’s place in history as a “potential” conspirator in the plot to assassinate President Lincoln.  Before I rented it and started watching I didn’t know who was all in the cast.  Really good set put together, and James McAvoy will one day win an Oscar, calling it now. 

 

The focus is on Surratt and Frederick Aikin, the lawyer representing her.  He as a Union soldier doesn’t want to represent her, but as a lawyer it his is job and does it so in front of a Military Tribunal.  The way he argues her case makes it seem like she took the fall for her son and that being the ultimate sacrifice.  This is part of the history of the assassination that really isn’t told and found it really interesting.

 

The weeks after I graduated high school back in 1996 I was able to take a trip to Washington DC and got to see all the sites there and went to Ford’s theater and then the house across the street where President Lincoln ultimately died.  Seeing that in the movie brought that trip all back to me and made me want to go back. 

 

But back to the movie, Redford did a masterful job getting it back to the proper time frame, again a great cast and made you feel sorry for Mary Surratt and how she was portrayed by the government in the trial.  The trial and work of Aikin also made him a bit of an outsider in DC and among the government.  He quit being a lawyer and eventually was the first editor and chief of the Washington Post. 

 

Overall, a great flick…you should see it if you’re a history buff.

 

4/5 Stars