# Think Tank > History >  (4/15/11) Lincoln Assassination Film "The Conspirator"

## Matt Collins

*
THE CONSPIRATOR - DIRECTED BY ROBERT REDFORD
IN THEATERS APRIL 15, 2011* 

 
* Official Site: www.conspiratorthemovie.com 
Follow us on Twitter: @1865Lincoln 
THE AMERICAN FILM COMPANY: www.theamericanfilmcompany.com 
ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS - PRESS SITE:  www.roadsideattractionspublicity.com*  

Directed by Robert Redford, THE CONSPIRATOR stars Robin Wright and James  McAvoy and features an incredible ensemble cast including Alexis  Bledel, Badge Dale, Jonathan Groff, Danny Huston,Toby Kebbell, Kevin  Kline, Justin Long, Colm Meaney, Stephen Root, Evan Rachel Wood, and Tom  Wilkinson. 

Set in the in the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, THE  CONSPIRATOR is the incredible true story of the one woman (Robin Wright)  - along with the seven men - arrested and charged with conspiring to  kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. 

Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted  lawyer, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy), a 28-year-old Union war-hero,  reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the  trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is  being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator  to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son. 

http://www.facebook.com/TheConspirat...pp_10442206389

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## Matt Collins

Interesting this is going head to head with Atlas Shrugged.


Any thoughts as to whether or not it will be accurate or a propaganda piece?

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## Matt Collins

SOURCE:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewr...ves/65769.html




> * New Redford Film Looks at Habeas Corpus After Lincoln* 
> 
>                       Posted by J.H. Huebert on September 18, 2010 06:55 PM
> 
> 
>                                       Most LRC readers are familiar with the injustices that resulted from Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus.
> 
> 
>  In this blog post  from the Toronto International Film Festival, Roger Ebert describes a  new movie related to Lincoln and habeas that should be of interest: _The Conspirator_,  directed by Robert Redford, about how a bloodthirsty government lynched  Mary Surratt, the innocent woman who owned the boarding house where  John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators lived — and how this led to  stronger habeas protections going forward.  Ebert notes: “It can not  have escaped Redford’s attention that the prisoners at Guantanamo have  been held without charge under both the Bush and Obama administrations,  in apparent violation of the principle of _habeas corpus_ as an international standard.”
> ...

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## Aratus

matt collins ...methinks poor mary surratt was tragically hanged becuz   
of john wilkes booth's mortal sins and vain preening boastful ambitions

i see that we are getting an INCOME TAX DAY flic by mr. redford some
146 years after the wars ending and some 150 years after its begining

hooded prisoners, wirz, andersonville, libby prison, edwin stanton, the plot?
jefferson davis, charles sumner, gen'l grant, pore andy johnson and more?

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## TheeJoeGlass

> Interesting this is going head to head with Atlas Shrugged.
> 
> 
> Any thoughts as to whether or not it will be accurate or a propaganda piece?


Directed by Robert Redford, safe bet would be propaganda piece.

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## Brent Pierce

> Directed by Robert Redford, safe bet would be propaganda piece.


I agree. Redford is notoriously liberal. My guess is that it is a liberal critique of US policy at Gitmo which is fine. Unfortunately they will be invoking the Lincoln cult beloved by statists and the brainwashed alike. I predict southerners will in general be portrayed a bigoted evil capitalists, and northerners as benevolent in victory and in their forgiveness of the south for the crime of Booth (who was from Maryland). I also would bet that the theft rape and murder of "Reconstruction" will be shown in a positive light as well.

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## randolphfuller

The most important fact to the American public at that time was that all conspirators were Roman Catholic.

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## Matt Collins

> Directed by Robert Redford, safe bet would be propaganda piece.


 Has anyone actually seen or reviewed this?

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## Aratus

i checked online today. the redford flic had a toronto premiere on sept 11th of last year.

it took some six months to get a general release for the movie robert redford's small company made.

april 15 is its art house release date.  the movie might do a respectible box office for an indie.

since i was not up in toronto, i was not there to review it. few folks have. it has a costume epic feel...

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## Aratus

kevin kline plays edwin stanton.  can the flic's honest abe 
equal henry fonda's able poetical young lincoln?

MEATLOAF by that logic should have been tapped for
 TENNESSEE JOHNSON... who is not to be confused with reverdy

shades of monty clift in raintree county verses larry olivier's
photogenic wife in GWTW? i am trying not to pan early...

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## Aratus

> The most important fact to the American public at that time was that all conspirators were Roman Catholic.


the hysteria is why mary surratt is hanged. andrew johnson held back from pardoning her. there was a line of soldiers ready, 
between the white house and the prison yard, standing ready to relay the pardon to the prison yard that day. andrew johnson 
held back. he did not pardon the guy who chickened out from attacking him when he was the veep. he may have gotten drunk 
with the fellow on one occation. this may be why that part of the plot fizzled out. andy johnson was luckier than william seward.

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## Aratus

> I agree. Redford is notoriously liberal. My guess is that it is a liberal critique of US policy at Gitmo which is fine. Unfortunately they will be invoking the Lincoln cult beloved by statists and the brainwashed alike. I predict southerners will in general be portrayed a bigoted evil capitalists, and northerners as benevolent in victory and in their forgiveness of the south for the crime of Booth (who was from Maryland). I also would bet that the theft rape and murder of "Reconstruction" will be shown in a positive light as well.


ole andy johnson like sam houston was a unionist.  they have a brit playing reverdy johnson, 
the senator from maryland. GOTO the senate trial in 1868 and we see REVERDY JOHNSON 
having more of a success when helping out a humble client. i'm sorta worried kevin kline's 
comedy roles will defeat the intent to be sincere to the greater tragedy. john wilkes booth took
two guns into the box that night. was it anna's gun they found, the woman's revolver, whereas 
johnny booth took a long barreled period piece pistol along on his mad dash thru the maryland 
countryside? did he rather calculatingly bee~line to dr. mudd's house? can we say crazy like a fox?
did he ORDER powell/payne to mary surratt's if he coundn't flee so as to implicate her deeper? 
did he leave clues for stanton's bloodhounds? i think john wilkes booth set them all up with powell's help. 
he had only ONE true accomplice, the young guy who was his equal conspirator. the kidnapping plot
 was always a mask for the full intent. he wanted andrew johnson and william seward dead also, 
and any contact with jefferson davis's d.c spies was only done in order to have a seeming justification
 in the eyes of the local copperheads. someone tore 18 pages out of john wilkes booth's diary.
i think john wilkes booth had written an account of the full plot months in advanced, and none of 
the diary pages were penned after he shot lincoln. what transpired around boston corbett at the 
burning barn explains the mystery of the missing pages, the pages that never got to the tribunal at all...

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## Matt Collins

Anyone going to see this?

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## The Dark Knight

I am going to see it and I from the previews it looks like they did a good job. of course it will show Lincoln in a positive light but other then that it will probably do a good job of showing how poorly the Union treated the Constitution and habeas corpus.

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## Aratus

the prisoners in 
the hoods, yes...

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## Aratus

ms. sally field has been cast as mary todd lincoln!

this evidently is the very year for costume romps!

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## Aratus

stephen spielberg has cast dan'l day lewis
as honest abe in HIS new history bio~flic!

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## 1000-points-of-fright

> of course it will show Lincoln in a positive light but other then that it will probably do a good job of showing how poorly the Union treated the Constitution and habeas corpus.


From a review I heard on NPR today you never even see Lincoln except for his feet and his blood.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/15/135343...-lincolns-foes

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## Aratus

i might have a review soon.

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## The Dark Knight

I saw it and loved it! every Libertarian should see this movie

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