My first thought was one of hesitance: how interesting could a movie that seeks merely to recreate a meeting - even as serious and horrendous a meeting as the Wannsee Conference - be? I've been to a lot of meetings of many kinds over the years, and even the most "important" of them wouldn't make a particularly good movie. And certainly, looked at just in the context of the usual Hollywood blockbusters, "Conspiracy" isn't very exciting. But therein lies the brilliance and power of it. How can a movie about a meeting to plot the extermination of the millions of Europe's Jews possibly be dull? And yet "Conspiracy" manages to portray, in entirely believable fashion, the routineness of the whole thing. And it's the very routineness of the meeting - the simple administrative nature of the whole thing - that makes a person take notice. This was the reality of Nazi Germany - where plotting the mass murder of Jews was just another part of the day's work.
The movie is simply put together. Most of the "action" is restricted to an oval Conference table in a large meeting room. The participants in the meeting indulge in wine and food and cigars - and their little plot. One is drawn into a deeper understanding of the brutal nature of this regime. The disputes around the table have nothing to do with the morality of mass murder. Instead, we have the representative of the Reich Chancellory (Dr. Kritzinger, played by David Threlfall) whining and pouting because he feels this business should be left to the Chancellory and not to SS Chief Heydrich (played by Kenneth Branagh); we have Dr. Stuckart from the Interior Ministry (the author of the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws, played by Colin Firth) complaining not about the plan to kill the Jews, but merely that they aren't following the letter of the laws he so carefully drafted; then we have the grotesque Dr. Klopfer, representing the Nazi Party, (and played by Ian McNeice) believing that anyone who dared question Heydrich (including Kritzinger and Stuckart) must be a "Jew-lover." Absolutely horrifying, and a terrifying glimpse of what the world might be like if Germany had won World War II.
Special mention must be made of Kenneth Branagh, who was magnificent as Heydrich. Branagh offered a portrayal of Heydrich coolly and calmly presiding over this Conference without moral qualms about the subject matter.
And there was a final lesson to anyone who falls into the trap of hate. (Some might consider this a spoiler, so please beware.)
In the middle of the movie, Kritzinger takes Heydrich aside and tells him a story, but the camera doesn't stay on the two as the story is told. After the Conference is over, Heydrich finally tells Adolf Eichmann, his chief aide (played by Stanley Tucci) what the story was. Let's cut to the chase here. I know a fair bit about German history. Anti-Jewish sentiment was a regular feature of German politics. Candidates for office tried to outdo each other in anti-Semitic slogans. But it was all politics; that was understood. Part of the game, if you want to call it that. But Hitler and the Nazis took it very - and tragically - seriously. And the moral of Kirtzinger's story raised a question: if you put all your energies into hating the Jews, then once you exterminate them, you have no purpose left. Hate serves no purpose. Marvelously illustrated by this movie.
9/10
The movie is simply put together. Most of the "action" is restricted to an oval Conference table in a large meeting room. The participants in the meeting indulge in wine and food and cigars - and their little plot. One is drawn into a deeper understanding of the brutal nature of this regime. The disputes around the table have nothing to do with the morality of mass murder. Instead, we have the representative of the Reich Chancellory (Dr. Kritzinger, played by David Threlfall) whining and pouting because he feels this business should be left to the Chancellory and not to SS Chief Heydrich (played by Kenneth Branagh); we have Dr. Stuckart from the Interior Ministry (the author of the Nuremberg anti-Jewish laws, played by Colin Firth) complaining not about the plan to kill the Jews, but merely that they aren't following the letter of the laws he so carefully drafted; then we have the grotesque Dr. Klopfer, representing the Nazi Party, (and played by Ian McNeice) believing that anyone who dared question Heydrich (including Kritzinger and Stuckart) must be a "Jew-lover." Absolutely horrifying, and a terrifying glimpse of what the world might be like if Germany had won World War II.
Special mention must be made of Kenneth Branagh, who was magnificent as Heydrich. Branagh offered a portrayal of Heydrich coolly and calmly presiding over this Conference without moral qualms about the subject matter.
And there was a final lesson to anyone who falls into the trap of hate. (Some might consider this a spoiler, so please beware.)
In the middle of the movie, Kritzinger takes Heydrich aside and tells him a story, but the camera doesn't stay on the two as the story is told. After the Conference is over, Heydrich finally tells Adolf Eichmann, his chief aide (played by Stanley Tucci) what the story was. Let's cut to the chase here. I know a fair bit about German history. Anti-Jewish sentiment was a regular feature of German politics. Candidates for office tried to outdo each other in anti-Semitic slogans. But it was all politics; that was understood. Part of the game, if you want to call it that. But Hitler and the Nazis took it very - and tragically - seriously. And the moral of Kirtzinger's story raised a question: if you put all your energies into hating the Jews, then once you exterminate them, you have no purpose left. Hate serves no purpose. Marvelously illustrated by this movie.
9/10