Click on the headline to link to a Wikipedia entry
for Robert Redford’s The Conspirator.
The Conspirator, directed by Robert Redford, American
Film Company, 2010
Round- up everybody in sight, storm into houses without
search warrants grabbing everything in sight, make the rules of evidence and procedure
as you go along (as opposed to some vaunted “rule of law” that is the norm), trial
by military commission rather than civilian trial by a jury of peers when such
courts are open, suspension of the writ of habeas corpus (bring forth the body-to
some court for adjudication of a wrong), no right of appeal, torture, and
execution. All episodes from today’s “war of terror” as the American government
(and others as well) round up the bad guys, or whoever they suspect of being
the bad guys.
Well, yes.
But also, according to this Robert Redford –directed first film in the American
Film Company production line, the prevailing atmosphere on the Union side, political,
legal and military around those who conspired to kill Abraham Lincoln (and Vice-President
Johnson and Secretary Of State Seward) along with John Wilkes Booth. The film
centers on the pre-trial and trial events of the only woman brought to trial in
the conspiracy (it was at her boarding house where conspiracy was advanced),
Mary E. Surratt who was tried before a Union Army military commission, and
eventually the first woman hanged by the federal government, for her part in
the conspiracy.
We all, those of us who revere the historic memory
of Abraham Lincoln are glad, glad as hell that the south and slavery were defeated.
We are nevertheless as supporters of democratic rights now (and hopefully back
then, as well) concerned about the modern day issues that this film brings out
whether we are sympathetic to Mary Surratt’s plight (or those of today’s political
prisoners). Watch this thought-provoking
film which is a well-done production highlighting these issues without being
maudlin about it.
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