Conspiracy (2001)

Here's the short version: watching Conspiracy is like drinking molten lead.Conspiracy is an almost flawless portrayal of naked evil being done by powerful men, each of whom has lost or abandoned his moral compass. It is dry, withering, completely transparent, all too believable-not merely because we know it's all true. We know that there are powerful men and women alive today who are willing to do blasphemously wrong things like killing 6 million Jews.Conspiracy dramatizes the Wannsee Conference that first officially articulated the Final Solution for the Jews of Europe. Stanley Tucci as SS Major Adolph Eichmann, Kenneth Branagh as Hitler's Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich, Colin Firth as Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart (a lawyer who wrote the racist Nuremberg Laws), and 12 others show how it was probably done-almost without passion--around a long conference table in a manor house outside Berlin. One of the participants failed to destroy his copy of the minutes. This surviving document was used in the post-WWII Nuremberg Trials.Conspiracy is frightening, horrifying, and disgusting. It is a perfection of the evil that men can do. The antidote for watching it is simple: do a good thing every day.Read more of my reviews here richardsubber.com

a film about Shoah. its roots. the idea. the reactions. the verdict. a fascinating portrait of a decision and the reactions about it. nothing new. but far to be one from another story about Holocaust. not only for the different perspective but for a splendid mix between acting, subject and images of tragedy from the memory of viewer. for the impeccable Heydrich of Kenneth Branagh and for the doubts of the members of Wansee reunion. for the cold air who becomes foundation of the atmosphere and for the tools of manipulation. for the last scenes. and for the high realism of an event who remains fundamental part of a dark page of history. for the blank cruelty. and for the reactions of few people who discover the dimension of moral deep hole.more than a history lesson, it is precise lesson about humankind.about vulnerability and cowardliness and moral abdication. short, about the evil.

Most people believe they know what evil looks like. It's dirty, rotten, unkempt, and generally unpleasant, located in surroundings that are equally repugnant. However, in the winter of 1942, men of true evil met in pristine, gorgeous surroundings. They eat fabulous food, take in the breath taking surroundings of an old mansion and go about their business leisurely. They are well groomed, seemingly normal people. They were meeting to plan one of the greatest atrocities of the twentieth century the Holocaust. And they did it with a smile and barely a hint of remorse. Conspiracy is a film produced by and originally broadcast on HBO in 2001, but it is the equal, and often the superior, of many theatrical films from that largely lackluster year, a chilling and fascinating look at the "banality of evil," as a commentator once described it. The conference was chaired by General Reinhard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh), a high ranking member of the SS, and he was assisted by Colonel Adolph Eichmann (Stanley Tucci), a man infamous for escaping capture by the Allies at the end of World War II. The conference was brief, only two hours, but in that time, these men would decide the fate of six million Jews and other ethnic groups. The main problem with this film is that the acting was just awful i can't even explain how bad the actors were. The next question is whether this was factual and i don't think it was unless the film was lying when they stop the note taker at times and not allowing people to listen to the taps of the conference and destroying them. But I still think that the movie was very good and if it was factual then it is truly disgraceful

The film conspiracy written and directed by Loring Mandel, in my opinion is a very interesting and a creative interpretation of an event where nobody but the 15 leading Nazis know what fully happened or what was exactly said around the conference table. The Wannsee Conference which was held on 20th January 1942 it was headed by Reinhard Heydrich; Himmler's second in command of the SS. The way the actor Kenneth Branagh played Heydrich was brilliant, you almost think he is Heydrich and the way he adopted the role to inform the viewer helps to show off Kenneth's ability to act. The film shows the confusing nature of the Nazi state and the competition within it. The members around the table are all competing with each other in a way that means they seem to be fighting with each other rather than actually achieving what they set out to do; which was deciding what should happen to the Jewish population. The main disagreements are over how the Jewish population should be treated; should they be deported, sterilised or exterminated. Those that failed to fully agree, like the character Colin Firth players are persuaded and almost threatened by Heydrich. The minutes of the meeting are known to have been kept a secret and eventually destroyed but the Final Solution is a topic that is known to be discussed at the conference. The stark reality that 15 leading Nazis made the decision of how the coordination and implementation of the final solution should take place and how the Wannsee Conference resulted in the majority of the Jewish population being systematically killed is shocking and very thought provoking.