Conspiracy

Conspiracy (2001)

No question here—finely made, piercing and disturbing movie made with high realism about a famous Nazi meeting where it become official policy to exterminate the Jews of Europe.

That's enough to make watching it necessary—at least the first half hour, where the cold-blooded tone and the top-down enforcement of brutality (over the wimpy objects of a few at the meeting) are made clear and chilling.

Kenneth Brannagh is almost too brilliant at his role, playing the smart, unyielding, pushy yet conniving officer at the head of his meeting. He's so natural and so not overacting it's terrific. Equally strong in his lesser role as the notorious Eichmann is Stanley Tucci (whose atrocities would only grow as the war wore on—the officer in charge of the meeting was soon assassinated by a pair of British experts).

You'll note Colin Firth in a slightly more sympathetic role as Dr. Stuckart— Stuckart hates the Jews but only enough to want to sterilize all 11 million of the, not kill them. And the actor Brendan Coyle known as Mr. Bates in "Downton Abbey" makes a supporting appearance here, a decade earlier.

Tightly filmed, scripted according to one surviving set of notes from the proceedings, and played with efficiency, this is a great fast entry into the minds of the Third Reich. Thoroughly impressive.

That doesn't mean it's a totally "great" film in part because if its intentions. It recreates the meeting but the meeting, as drama, is more historically interesting than actual theater—or Hollywood. It has a lot of convincing talk, and a lot of the same evil themes and attitudes throughout. After awhile it isn't so much about dramatic development but about seeing how the history might have actually looked.

The other reviewer her could not be more wrong, and shows a lack of historical knowledge. Heydrich WAS rushing to get through the meeting -- that was why it only lasted 90 minutes! The meeting was not held to plot the Holocost, but rather was a staged production organized by the SS (who already had started planning the final solution and embarked on mass murder at smaller scales 7 months earlier)to obtain administrative and cooperative buy-in from the other facets of the German government, and their recognition of the SS's total authority over carrying it out. And Heydrich was alternatively charming and then abrupt and short: he was head of the Gestapo, after all. Although Branagh is much smaller and better looking than Heydrich was, he does what an actor does -- capture the essence of a presence, the gist of the personality. Likewise, Tucci embodies the "banality of evil" -- a schedule obsessed numbers & detail man, an accountant concerned only with pleasing his superiors and making mass murder efficient, while dissociating himself from the meaning and consequences of his actions.

Although not as well-acted, the German language Wansee Conference is actually a bit better in imparting the agenda-driven business meeting quality of the event. Anyone who has ever been to a business planning meeting (in any business, but especially in government or regulated utility during budget planning time) cannot help but feel sick at the ordinary familiarity of it all. Replace killing people with making and marketing widgets, and you got it.

This movie sets several things straight. The Wannsee conference is not the place and time where Nazi Germany decided to commit the Holocaust. The Holocaust had been going on for quite some time by January 1942, the time of the conference. Dachau had been in business for years. The SS Einsatzkommandos had already marched into Poland and Russia, gunning down Jewish men, women, and children by the hundreds of thousands. Even the extermination camps had already opened for business. Hermann Göring, at Hitler's direction, had already given the order to proceed with the Final Solution of the Jewish Question.

Thus, the purpose of the conference is not to decide on whether to murder the Jews of Europe. That decision already having been made, the conference is called so Reinhard Heydrich, as chief of the SD and second-in-command to Himmler in the SS, can ram the decision down the throat of the rest of the German government. The interesting thing is the other German leaders' reaction. Many applaud, some object to the wastage of Jews whom they consider more valuable as slaves than as corpses, some favor sterilization instead of murder, and some get physically sick. But, enthusiastically or grudgingly, they all accept.

The well-deserved demonization of Adolf Hitler has the regrettable side effect of obscuring the evil of his cronies and subordinates from anyone but historians, like a baleful sun whose light obscures the stars. Below the level of Hitler, the public's view of the German government dissolves into an amorphous mass called `Nazis,' the interchangeable automatons of the Führer. If the movie achieves nothing else, it will put Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann on the map as villains in their own right, not mere extensions of Hitler. Kenneth Branagh's performance as Heydrich, the `Blond Beast,' is unnerving; he is the personification of that ruthless will, impervious to either reason or human feeling, which Hitler admired. This performance would be a star-making turn for a young actor; for Branagh, it is routine, maybe even a bit below average for this amazing performer.

CONSPIRACY individualizes the Nazis at the conference, and shows the different facets of evil. Tellingly, Colin Firth's Wilhelm Stuckart is one of the least repulsive characters present, even though he is the architect of the barbaric Nuremberg Laws which forced Jews out of the professions and decreed death for any Jew who should marry an Aryan. He, at least, is one of the few who has the courage to stand up to Heydrich, if only for a little while, and resist the SS thugs' insistence on mass murder. His insistence that Jews must be oppressed only according to the strict letter of the law is insane, absurd, but it is a principle, which is more than most of these people have. Klopfer, Martin Bormann's lackey, is the most disgusting man present, even if he can't match Heydrich for pure evil; not even the veneer of civilization is left on him, and he shows sadistic pleasure at the thought of murdering the Jews. Other reactions range from zealously uncritical compliance with orders, to cheerful indifference, to a sort of put-upon resentment that the work of extermination is falling on them.

But the most disturbing character is Kritzinger, secretary of the Reich chancellery, the only person present who wants not to be a murderer. He is not, as some think, the only one present who realizes that what they're doing is wrong; even Heydrich knows that, as can be seen by his careful precautions to keep the crime secret. But while the others all want to get away with what they know is wrong, Kritzinger doesn't want to do it at all. Still, after being privately browbeaten and threatened by Heydrich, he states his support for the murders. Of all those present, Kritzinger is spiritually the closest to the audience, and naturally invites the question of what we would do in his place. Could you, unarmed and alone, look right into the eyes of the Blond Beast, a man whose hands are dripping with the blood of thousands of dissenters from the Reich, and tell him, `No, I defy you,' knowing that while you are risking your own torture and death, you will probably not even save a single Jew? I wish I could just write that I don't know, but the honest thing to write is that I doubt I could do that.

Kritzinger's case is a brutal warning of the malevolent power of groupthink. Even as the killers sit at the table and exchange smiles, one senses a spiteful, hungry vigilance for the first sign of sympathy for the people they are planning to slaughter, waiting to pounce on the dissenter and rip him apart with scorn and threats.

When it comes to flaw-picking time, I can only say that the ending should have shown some of the consequences of the meeting. There should have been at least some reference to the millions of people who were killed by these men. Instead, we are treated only to the fate of the men themselves, although that is disturbing in itself when we see how many of them escaped justice at Nuremberg.

People look at the pictures from Dachau and Buchenwald, the piles of starved corpses and the lamps made of human skin, and they say, `How could they?' Watch the movie. This is how they did it: over drinks around a table.

Rating: ***½ out of ****.

Recommendation: Everyone mature enough to understand should see this movie.

Conspiracy debuted on HBO in 2001 and centers on the infamous Wannsee conference, where fifteen high-ranking officials of Nazi Germany government and military devised the final solution of the Jewish problem in Europe. The meeting took place in a beautiful house in rural Germany, where food and wine were served, and ideas were born.

This film is the best World War II era film i have ever seen, and one of the best movies i have seen, period. The cast is mostly unknown, but out-act any all-star cast Hollywood has ever produced. Kenneth Branaugh delivers an excellent performance as Heydrich, the head of the table at the meeting. He threatens people with a smile on his face, and barely bats an eye while speaking of killing thousands of people. Stanley Tucci is also great as the party-planner Eichmann, who set up the entire meeting, from the venue to the food to the topics. The way he counts the number of Jews that can be exterminated in a a given period of time is downright creepy. The cast also includes great turns by Colin Firth, a lawyer and professor who thinks the systematic slaughter of the Jews is bad for Germany's future, and Ian McNiece, who plays a hateful and witty official.

The dialogue is smart, funny, and chilling, and contains some jabs at all sides of the biggest war in Earth's history. This is a great movie to show in a history class, before watching a bunch of war movies, or if you just have an interest in the war. It teaches a lot more about the time than Saving Private Ryan (great movie too, but really one-sided), and features the best acting this side of the Godfather.---9/10

This excellent co-production by HBO and BBC is based on real-life deeds and previously shot in i984 a German film by Heinz Schirk .It concerns about the meeting of high-ranking Nazi SS and civilian leaders at the Wannsee Conference held on January 20,1942, to plan the Final Solution of the Jewish question. This interesting, important movie depicting, in real time, the conference during which 14 members of the Nazi hierarchy decided in eighty five minutes the logistics and means of effecting the Final Solution. The film is magnificently played by complete casting. Special mention to Kenneth Branagh as cold General Reinhard Heydrich, Colin Firth as dubious Dr Stuckard, Ian McNiece as the fat Dr Klopfer, David Threlfall as the regretted Dr Kritzinger and Kevin McNally as undersecretary Martin Luther . The picture is accurately adapted by Loris Mandel based on the Wannsee Protocol. Furthermore evocative cinematography by Stephen Goldblatt. This TV movie is well directed by Frank Pierson, a prestigious screenwriter and director.

Adding more details along with the well developed on the movie, the deeds were happened of the following manner:

The meeting took place in the Berlin suburb of Grossen-Wannsee, where the decision was made to adopt the Final Solution, the contemplated extermination of Jews . On Julio 31, 1941, Herman Goering issued orders to Reinhard Heydrich,chief of the SD, the security service , to submit a comprehensive plan of the Jewish question. The meeting was originally scheduled for December 8,1941, but it was to be postpones until noon on January 20, 1942. It was to be followed by a luncheon. Fifteen Nazi bureaucrats were present. Minutes of meeting taken in Protocol that read in part: ¨As a further possibility of solving the question, the evacuation of the Jews of the east can now be substituted for emigration ,after obtaining permission from the Fuehrer to that effect.However ,these actions are merely to be considered as alternative possibilities, even though they will permit us to make all those practical experiences of great importance for the future final solution of the Jewish question. The Jews should in the course of the Final Solution betaken in a suitable manner to the east for use as labor. In big labor gangs ,separated by sex. The Jews capable of work will be brought these areas for road building, in which task undoubtedly a large number will fall through natural diminution. The remnant that is finally able to survive all this must be treated accordingly, since these people, representing a natural selection, are to be regarded as the germ cell a new Jewish development, in case they should succeed and go free. This remnant survivor is undoubtedly the part with the strongest resistance. And they go free as history has proved. In the course of the execution of the Final solution , Europe will be combed from West to east¨.

The conference was opened by Heydrich, who declared that he was the plenipotentiary for the final of the Jewish question. He then reviewed the emigration problem. Until this time a plan had been held in readiness to deport all Jews to the island of Magadascar, off the coast of Africa, but the Madagascar Plan had fallen through after the invasion of the USSR on June,22,1941. There was no longer any possibility of transporting Jews in this fashion. Instead of emigration the Fueherer had given his sanction for the evacuation of all Jews to the East as a solution possibility. The evacuees would be organized into huge labor columns. Undoubtedly, a majority would fall through natural diminution. The survivors of this natural selection process, actually the hard core of Jewry and the most dangerous because they could rebuild the Jewish life,would be treated accordingly. Although Heydrich did not elaborate the phrase ¨treated accordingly¨the plain meaning was that, in the course of time,with insufficient food and exhausting work, the survivors would be weakened and ready for the specially equipped extermination camps. The conferees then became involved in a lengthy discussion of the problem of the individuals of mixed race, and that of Jews in mixed marriages. About the half the time was taken up with this special discussion, but not drastic reclassification was made. Then the conferees adjourned for lunch. Thirty copies of the record were made and circulated in the ministries and SS offices. News of the Final Solution traveled quickly through the Nazi bureaucracy. Within a few months the first gas chamber camps were set up in Poland. The events are known as Wannsee Protocol by Martin Luther's copy of the Conference minutes was discovered in the files of the German Foreign by American investigators in 1947.It is the only record of the meeting that survives. Destination of the Conference participants is the following : Reinhard Heydrich killed in Praga. Gestapo Chied Heinrich Muller, disappeared after the war. Dr Gerhard Klopfer, arrested 1945 for war crimes, discharged for lack of evidence,died 1987. Dr Krtzinger, arrested 1945,declarated ashamed of Nazi atrocities released 1947. Otto Hoffman arrested 1945,sentenced to 25 years. Dr Alfred Meyer committed suicide in the Spring of 1945.Dr Stuckard sentenced 1949 to time served. Martin Luther sent to concentration camp,died of heart attack 1945. Dr Buhler arrested 1945,executed 1948,Poland. SS colonel Schongarth executed 1946. And Colonel Adolf Eichmann captured in Argentina by Israeli agents 1960,tried, convicted and hanged for crimes against humanity,Jerusalem,May 31,1962