The Conspirator

The Conspirator is a 2010 American mystery historical drama film directed by Robert Redford and based on an original screenplay by James D. Solomon. It is the debut film of the American Film Company. The film tells the story of Mary Surratt, the only female conspirator charged in the Abraham Lincoln assassination and the first woman to be executed by the US federal government. It stars James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, Jonathan Groff, Tom Wilkinson, Alexis Bledel, Kevin Kline, John Cullum, Toby Kebbell, and James Badge Dale.
"The Conspirator" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2010 followed by a special premiere screening on March 29, 2011 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Another premiere screening was held on April 10, 2011 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, the site of the assassination. The US theatrical release took place on April 15, 2011, the 146th anniversary of the death of Lincoln. The film was released in Canada on April 29, 2011 and was in the UK on July 1, 2011. Lionsgate Home Entertainment released the DVD and Blu-ray on August 16, 2011.
Plot.
On April 14, 1865, five days after the Civil War ends with the South's surrender to the North at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, lawyer and Union veteran Frederick Aiken, with his friends, William Thomas Hamilton and Nicholas Baker, and his girlfriend, Sarah Weston, celebrate. Later that night, after John Wilkes Booth enters Ford’s Theater 2 times, Southerner Lewis Payne seriously wounds Secretary of State William Seward in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. German immigrant and carriage repair business owner George Atzerodt is assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, but becomes afraid and runs away. Meanwhile, Booth enters the hallway to the President’s box and sees his target, President Abraham Lincoln. Booth sneaks into the President's box and shoots Lincoln, mortally wounds him in the back of the head, during a funny line of Our American Cousin. Booth stabs diplomat and military officer Henry Rathbone, who was a guest in Lincoln's box, and leaps onto the stage, shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis! The South is avenged!" before escaping into Maryland. A crowd, including Aiken, Hamilton, and Baker, watches in horror as the unconscious President, after being attended by the doctors, is taken to a nearby boarding house, where he dies early the next morning.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders the arrest of all suspects, including Mary Surratt. Booth and David Herold manage to evade capture for some days, but Union soldiers find a barn where they suspect the conspirators are hiding and set it on fire. Herold surrenders while Booth is shot and killed by sergeant Boston Corbett, a soldier who refused to obey orders by Stanton.
Maryland Senator Reverdy Johnson is Mary Surratt's lawyer. Her son, John Surratt, has escaped and now hundreds of agents are looking for him. Reverdy feels unable to defend Surratt because he is a Southerner and asks Aiken who is a Northerner to take over the defence. Aiken refuses but is ordered to defend her. He tells Sarah and his friends, who are shocked.
Aiken visits Mary in her cell to question her. Mary asks Aiken to look in on her daughter, Anna. Aiken does so and searches the boarding house for clues. He finds a ticket with the initials "LJW" (Louis J. Weichmann). At the court, Weichman, a seminary friend of Mary's son John, is the first witness and describes John's meetings with Booth. Aiken incriminates Weichman by making him appear as guilty as the rest of the conspirators.
Aiken again tries to stop defending Mary because he believes that she is guilty. He meets with her intending to get evidence of her guilt when she explains that John and the others conspired to kidnap Lincoln, not to kill him. They were about to attack a carriage but were stopped by Booth, who reported that Lincoln was elsewhere. She says that John left town and went into hiding two weeks before the assassination. Aiken asks Anna for information to help with his trial preparations, but she refuses.
At the court, Chief Prosecutor Joseph Holt brings the innkeeper John Lloyd to the stand. Lloyd claims that Mary sent binoculars to Booth and prepared shooting irons and whiskey for Booth and Herold on the night of the assassination. Aiken angers Lloyd by implying that he was bribed with whiskey for his testimony. Lloyd is dragged out of the courtroom after he threatens Aiken.
Aiken arrives at the Century Club to attend a party and discovers that his membership has been revoked for defending Mary Surratt. This triggers an argument with Sarah, who disowns and leaves him. Aiken asks Anna to testify. Anna testifies that Mary had no part in the assassination of Lincoln and that it was her brother John who did. Anna visits Aiken at his house, tells him about Booth and John, and sends him to John's hiding place. Aiken tells John that his mother will hang for his crimes if he does not surrender. On July 6, Mary is found guilty on all charges and, with Stanton's intervention, sentenced to hang with three others the next day. Aiken procures a writ of habeas corpus for the release of Mary so that she can be tried in a civilian court, but President Johnson suspends the writ, and Mary is hanged along with Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt.
Sixteen months later, Aiken visits John Surratt, who was captured abroad and is in jail. John thanks him for his kindness to his mother. Aiken offers him Mary's rosary, but he declines. The epilogue goes on to state that a year later, the US Supreme Court ruled that citizens were entitled to trial by a civilian jury, not a military tribunal, even in times of war ("Ex parte Milligan"), and that a jury of Northerners and Southerners could not agree on a verdict for John Surratt, and he was freed. Aiken left the law and became "The Washington Post"s first City Editor.
Production.
Principal photography began in October 2009, in Savannah, Georgia and wrapped in December 2009. Fort Pulaski National Monument, located east of Savannah, served as the military prison in the film. Civil war reenactors and living historians were used to portray soldiers in various scenes. To supplement the reenactors, extras from the local community were also employed as soldiers.
The Mary E. Surratt Boarding House still stands, and is located at 604 H Street NW in Washington D.C.'s Chinatown. Mary Surratt's farmhouse in Clinton, Maryland, is now a museum. The town in which the farmhouse stands was originally called Surrattsville. The United States Post Office renamed the town Robeysville due to the notoriety of the Surratt name. In 1879, Robeysville was renamed Clinton.
Release.
"The Conspirator" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2010. A few days after its screening, the film was acquired by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions for distribution. The film was released theatrically on April 15, 2011.
Reception.
Box office.
The film performed poorly at the box office grossing only $3,506,602 during its opening weekend. After its initial run, the film grossed $11,538,204 domestically with a worldwide total of $15,478,800. Because the film had a budget of $25 million, the film is considered a box office flop despite the fact that its widest release was in 849 theaters.
Critical reception.
Upon its release, the film received a mixed reception from critics. Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 55/100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Rotten Tomatoes reports that 55% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 169 reviews, with an average score of 6.1/10. The website's critical consensus states that ""The Conspirator" is well cast and tells a worthy story, but many viewers will lack the patience for Redford's deliberate, stagebound approach."
Critics have cited it as an analogy to the post-9/11 atmosphere. Writing for "Jacobin" in 2015, Eileen Jones criticized the film for promoting the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.