Conspiracy (2001 film)

Conspiracy
Directed by Frank Pierson
Produced by Nick Gillott
Frank Pierson
Written by Loring Mandel
Starring Kenneth Branagh
Stanley Tucci
Colin Firth
Ian McNeice
Kevin McNally
David Threlfall
Production
company
Distributed by HBO
Release date
  • 19 May 2001 (2001-05-19)
Running time
 96 min.
Country United Kingdom
United States.
Language English
German

Conspiracy is a 2001 BBC/HBO war film which dramatizes the 1942 Wannsee Conference. The film delves into the psychology of Nazi officials involved in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" during World War II.

The movie was written by Loring Mandel, directed by Frank Pierson, and starred an ensemble cast, including Colin Firth, David Threlfall, Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann. Branagh won an Emmy Award for Best Actor, and Tucci was awarded a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Eichmann.

Plot

In 1942, a meeting is held in order to determine the method by which the Nazi government is to implement Adolf Hitler's policy, that the German sphere of influence should be free of Jews, including those in the occupied territories of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia and France. As the film opens, various officials from different German agencies arrive and mingle at a lakeside villa in the Berlin borough of Wannsee. Among those present:

It is quickly established by those present that there is a significant "Jewish problem", in that the Jews of Europe cannot be efficiently contained, nor can they be forced onto other countries. Kritzinger interrupts at several points to opine that the meeting is pointless, given that the Jewish Question had previously been settled, but Heydrich promises to revisit his concerns.

A discussion follows of the possibilities of sterilization, and of the exemptions for mixed race Jews who have one or more non-Jewish grandparents. At this point, Stuckart loses his temper and insists that a sturdy legal framework is paramount, and that ad hoc application of standards will lead to administrative chaos. He also chides Klopfer for his simplistic portrayal of Jews as subhuman beasts, simultaneously painting his own picture of Jews as clever, manipulative, and untrustworthy.

Heydrich calls a break in the proceedings, and after praising Stuckart aloud takes him aside to warn him about the consequences of his stubbornness, implying that others in the SS will take an unwanted interest in his actions. When the meeting reconvenes, Heydrich steers the discussion in the direction of wholesale extermination using gas chambers. This causes consternation among some attendees, notably Kritzinger, who objects on the grounds that Hitler had given him personal guarantees that extermination of the Jews was not being considered, and Bühler who is shocked to discover that the SS have been building extermination camps and making preparations for the "Final Solution" under his nose.

It eventually become clear to everyone at the meeting that they have been called together not to discuss the problem but to be given orders by the SS, who are intent on wresting control of the operation from other agencies such as the Interior Ministry and the Reich Chancellery. Eichmann now describes the method that will be used, i.e. the gassing of Jews. Many have already been killed in specially-designed trucks and his figures include tens of thousands of victims. He even describes their bodies as coming out "pink" (a symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning), at which point Hofmann is suddenly taken ill. He later puts it down to a bad cigar.

Throughout the meeting and over refreshments attendees raise other side issues, reflecting the interests of their respective work areas. Lange warns executing Jews by shooting has a deleterious effect on the morale of his troops, and he clashes with Luther's indifference. Klopfer requests that the Party retains some discretionary power over the process. Bühler presses for urgency, concerned that typhus could break out from the over-populated ghettos in Poland. Meyer and Neumann do not want production stymied due to disruption or the loss of skilled workers. Heydrich admonishes Hofmann over his insistence that his office takes the lead in managing resettlement in Hungary.

A break is called and this time it is Kritzinger's turn to be taken aside and intimidated by Heydrich, who warns that Kritzinger is influential but not invulnerable. Heydrich tells Kritzinger that he wants not only consent but active support, and Kritzinger realizes that any hopes he had of assuring livable conditions for the Jewish population are unrealistic. In return, he tells Heydrich a cautionary tale about a man consumed by hatred of his father, so much so that his life loses its meaning once his father dies; Heydrich later interprets this as a warning that a similar fate awaits them if they allow their lives to revolve around antisemitism, but rejects the possibility.

Heydrich then recalls and concludes the meeting, giving clear directives that the SS are to be obeyed in all matters relating to the elimination of the Jews. He also asks for explicit assent and support from each official, one by one. After giving careful instructions on the secrecy of the minutes and notes of the meeting, they are adjourned and begin to depart.

In the evening twilight, a stunned Kritzinger remarks to Hofmann, "It is night in Moscow already. Soon it will be dark here. Do you think we will ever see the dawn in our lifetime?"

As the servants at the villa tidy away the remains of the meeting, and the officials depart, a brief account of the fate of each one is given. The movie ends with the house tidied up and all records of the meeting destroyed as if it had never happened. The final card before the credits reveals that Luther's copy of the Wannsee minutes, found by the United States Army in the archives of the German Foreign Office in 1947, was the only record of the conference to survive.

Cast

Additional cast members include:

  • Tom Hiddleston, in one of his first film roles, briefly appears in the beginning and end as a phone operator.
  • Ross O'Hennessy, appears in the beginning and middle as the SS Officer in charge of the Building.

Reception

Critical reception

The film has an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on almost 3,000 user ratings.[1]

James Rampton in The Independent praised the film, stating: "Showing as part of the BBC's commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day, Frank Pierson's film underscores only too well the old maxim that evil prospers when good men do nothing."[2]

An impressed Austin Film Society had a lengthy review of the film and details about its making.[3]

A Finnish review of the DVD release of the movie was positive.[4]

A German reviewer for the Treffpunkt Critic praised the film, writing "they have done an excellent job."[5]

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ R.T.
  2. ↑ From The Independent, 19 January 2002.
  3. ↑ Austin Film Society Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ elitisti
  5. ↑ treffpunkt
  6. ↑ 61st Annual Peabody Awards, May 2002.
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