The Film:

On April 14, 1865 President Abraham Lincoln was watching a play with his wife when John Wilkes Booth assassinated him. Growing up, everyone is taught this in history class. What many don’t learn about is the trial of the people that were arrested for conspiring to assassinate him. One of those people was a mother of two, 42 year old Mary Surratt. She owned the home where the group, including her son, John, and Booth had met to conspire on the assassination, or going by what Mary says, the kidnapping of the President. Since John had run and was not caught, the lawyers had decided to arrest Mary and bring her up on charges. If found guilty, she would be the first woman ever to be executed in the United States. There was only one thing standing between freedom and death for Mary, her lawyer, Fredrick Aiken. Fredrick was a soldier for the North in the Civil War and is reluctant to be on the defense for Mary because like everyone else he thinks she’s guilty of killing his President. As the trial went on and Fredrick learns more about Mary and what could have really happened, he becomes enraged. Mary is not getting a fair trial, but a military tribunal instead, even though she was not in the military. Fredrick feels that even someone like Mary should get a fair trial. With everything against her, Mary is found guilty even though Fredrick does a great job, and she’s sentenced to hang.

Being a lesser known story, it seems Robert Redford decided to direct THE CONSPIRATOR, from James D. Solomon’s script about what many to believe to be a miscarriage of justice, so that others might know what might have really happened. Joining him on this journey are Robin Wright as Mary Surratt in what should be an Oscar nominated role, but the movie might end up being overlooked due to being released so early in the year. James McAvoy plays reluctant defender Fredrick Aiken. His performance here is star making, not that he’s not a star already, but he proves that he can hang with the big boys. And hang with the big boys he does in this movie. Kevin Klein plays Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s war secretary, Tom Wilkinson plays Reverdy Johnson, the former attorney general who as U.S. Senator is the mentor to Aiken. Colm Meaney plays Major General David Hunter who is the president of the military commission that is in charge of trial. Rounding out the great cast are Evan Rachel Wood as Anna Surratt, daughter to Mary, Justin Long as Nicholas Baker, best friend to Fredrick and wounded Civil War hero, and Alexis Bledel who plays Sarah Weston, Fredrick’s girlfriend. Each role is just as good as the last and you just can’t take your eyes off the screen.

One thing that’s normally overlooked in movies is the costuming of the actors. For period pieces, it’s harder to be the head costumer, or at least it takes more time. Louise Frogley is in charge of the costume design here, and she does an amazing job making the clothing as authentic as possible.

Melissa M. Levander does an equally amazing job with the set decoration. Watching this film is almost like watching one of those recreation specials on the History Channel, but with a bigger budget and more well known cast. That doesn’t take away from the fact that this is one fantastic film. One other thing to point out is the score. Mark Isham, better know as the composer of films like QUIZ SHOW, THE MAJESTIC and MIRACLE, did an amazing job. His score is subtle and doesn’t take away from what’s being watched on screen. From top to bottom, the entire cast and crew did a great job with this movie. At a running time of 2 hours and 2 minutes, the film doesn’t drag at all from the opening assassination to the final verdict. If you’re a fan of historical films, this is a movie for you. If you’re a fan of courtroom dramas, this movie is for you. If you’re a fan of watching great acting, then run, don’t walk to the nearest store and pick up a copy of his amazing movie.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: The audio came in loud and clear and the video transfer is beautiful.

Special Features

Commentary track: Robert Redford: This track can be listened to just as an extra audio track or with picture-in-picture. Worth a listen.

The Conspirator: The Plot to Kill Lincoln: A nice feature that offers up even more information on the subject that the movie tackles so brilliantly.

The Making of The Conspirator: Standard issue behind the scenes EPK. Nothing special, but worth checking out once.

There are a ton of other features like, a Photo Gallery, Trailer, and many more, that make this a stellar disc.

The Film: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Brad Reiter: The sets look very authentic, were they built on a set or were they from a pre-existing actual location?

Brian Falk: Out of our nine weeks of production in Savannah, Georgia, we spent six of them filming in real locations, both in downtown Savannah and at nearby Fort Pulaski, which doubled as the Arsenal Penitentiary. The only set pieces were the courtroom, the jail cell, and Ford’s Theater. Per the mandate of the American Film Company — to deliver as much accuracy as possible — all of those sets were built based on detailed research into the real locations, and production designer Kalina Ivanov and her crew rendered them beautifully.

Brad Reiter: Can you talk about some of the obstacles you had to overcome while shooting the film?

Brian Falk: Savannah can be a bit rainy in October, as we found out, which caused some unexpected shifts in our schedule early on. Other than that the production went incredibly smoothly. The other broader challenge was how to make an American history story relevant to a modern audience without beating them over the head with the obvious parallels to today. The key for Redford, writer Jim Solomon, and the producers was to make sure the personal story — a woman protecting her son, a man reluctantly defending her — was always the main focus of the story. Personal conflict is timeless.

Brad Reiter: The story of Mary Surratt is not very well know, what made you want to tell her story?

Brian Falk: The fact that most Americans don’t know that our country’s most famous murder was part of a larger plot is a bit damning of our educational system, but we saw the obscurity of the story as an asset. The “did you know” factor makes people curious, and curiosity can sell tickets. Also, the compactness of the story was ideal. The American Film Company is an independent production company, working with indy budgets. We couldn’t afford to make a movie on Gettysburg, or the Lincoln presidency. This is a fascinating smaller story that points at something much larger.

Brad Reiter: Can you let us in on how the movie was cast? Were the actors all on board right away for this one?

Brian Falk: Certainly the cast was attracted to the fine script by Jim Solomon, and the “true story” mandate of the American Film Company, but what sealed the deal was the chance for them to work with Robert Redford. Robin Wright and James McAvoy were both at the top of our wish lists for Mary Surratt and Frederick Aiken, and Redford’s presence and his interesting take on the material inked those deals very fast. Once we had Robin and James, the rest of the cast fell quickly into place, and we almost always got our first choice. It was casting heaven. Even the one or two day parts — Stephen Root, Jonathan Groff — were dreams come true.

Brad Reiter: The case of Mary Surratt proved to be a miscarriage of justice. Obviously everyone involved had preconceived notions going in to the trial. Even Mary’s own lawyer, Frederick Aiken had his mind made up before the trial had started. As the trial went on, though, his ideas were changed. Did you have ideas of Mary and her situation before you filmed the movie and were those ideas changed as you shot the movie?

Brian Falk: Definitely. It’s easy to believe when you see Robin (Mary Surratt) chained up in her cell that she is a woman wrongly accused because she’s being treated inhumanely and railroaded through a corrupt system. But spending time with historians and reading books and generally immersing myself in this story eventually led me to believe that she was probably at least guilty of conspiracy in the case and may have deserved some punishment. Ironically, because of the way the trial was conducted, we’ll never know the truth. But did she deserve what she got? Absolutely not, and that’s the more salient point.

The Conspirator is out now on Blu-ray/DVD from Lionsgate.

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, 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.

The film boasts an all-star cast with James McAvoy, Justin Long, Alexis Bledel, Evan Rachel Wood, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Jonathan Groff, Norman Reedus, Toby Kebbell and Tom Wilkinson. It will hit cinema’s on April 15th.

Source: The Playlist

If cast in the Columbia Pictures film, Hoffman would play team manager Art Howe, who frequently clashed with Beane over strategic decisions and Wright would portray Beane’s ex-wife (Variety). Those already part of the cast include Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt. Producing the film is Scott Rudin under Scott Rudin Productions, Michael De Luca under his Michael De Luca Productions label and Rachael Horovitz.

Wright will be appearing in the Robert Redford directed film The Conspirator, coming out in theaters sometime later this year. Hoffman bursts out into the scene this year with his directing debut of Jack Goes Boating, set for release hopefully later on in the year.

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. 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.

Wright Penn plays Mary Surratt, the only female charged in the conspiracy to kill the president, and McAvoy plays Frederick Aiken, the war hero assigned to defend her. Wilkinson will play Reverdy Johnson, the former attorney general who as a U.S. senator is the mentor to the young lawyer and sympathetic to Surratt. Wood plays Surratt’s daughter, Anna, and Kline plays Lincoln’s War Secretary Edwin Stanton. Bledel plays Aiken’s wife, Sarah Weston (Variety). Producing is Redford himself along with Greg Shapiro who’s previous credits include Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker”.