The Conspirator

Marsh · General Joined: Aug 15, 2008 Posts: 328

The Union couldn't find anyone to take Davis to trial because there was no evidence for one. 2 Attorney General and 3 lawyers refused to take the job.

billy_yank · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 9:19 pm Post subject:

How accurate do you consider the movie? More specificially, from a historical standpoint, the characters in the movie and the actual events. I've never read trial transcripts and have read very little on the events of the trial, etc. For example, do you consider Stanton's portrayal as being accurate? He certainly does not come off as a very good person.

One thing that always concerns me is when history is fictionalized, and/or when it is taken from the past and used as an allegory for modern day, I frequently find it trouble to put words in peoples mouths which were most likely not spoken, yet they are almost presented as fact. Many have a position, and they want to make their point, with the facts if they can, or by changing the facts and introducing words into people's mouths to make their point.

Not sure if Mary Surratt was innocent or not. But I would really like to know more, and I plan to do more reading on this whole topic. I was just hoping others could weight in more about her, what is the worst evidence working against her, was Stanton really underhanded and simply detemined to rush things through without caring if innocent folks were convicted.

Lastly, did the lawyer really get a writ, near the end, which was overruled at the last minute by the President? It sounded too much like Hollywood to me, but maybe I'm wrong.

Somehow, I am having trouble trusting this movie. I guess I just don't like my history being presented by Robert Redford. I'll go look for some reliable books, instead.

CrescentCorps · General Joined: Jun 23, 2008 Posts: 294

Most of the reviews I have read say the film "strives for accuracy" without actually evaluating whether it is, in fact, accurate. The review below is one of the few I have seen that does not pull any punches.

http://dcist.com/2011/04/conspirator.php

RickAllen · Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 3:46 pm Post subject:

I just recently saw this flick. I thought it pretty much sucked.

Regards,

Rick
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corydon · General Joined: Apr 13, 2006 Posts: 2997 Location: Indy

I finally saw it a few weeks ago. I found it fairly entertaining.

I have to admit, though, that I wasn't fully focused all the way through and need to watch it again for some clarifications and also to jot down a few notes and then learn what I can about the real events (or everything of what historians think happened) and see how well the film lines up with them.
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