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Rating:  - Deadly Dry... But That's Not A Bad Thing
A ninety minute dramatization of the infamous "Final Solution" meeting where a little over a dozen high-ranking wartime Germans got together and talked, in euphemistic, statistical, and theoretical terms, about mass murder. The film spices things up by showing the rivalry behind the usually monolithic-looking Nazi Party, but the lesson to take from this one is, indeed, the dryness. Here is a bunch of mere men talking about killing millions of people with no more morality than a board meeting talking about advertising strategies. The most impassioned argument against murder comes not from any sort of love or compassion, but rather as an argument of the primacy of -already blatantly racist and anti-Semetic- laws. The most conscientious member of the panel is reduced to arguing that should all the Jews be killed, what else will there be for Nazism to work for?
History has shown that the Holocaust and crimes like it are not fantastic, extraordinary things. Once it gets to the point of systematic extermination, it is absolutely banal. Once things become banal, even normal bureaucratic mooks, such as Eichmann, can involve themselves and still sleep at night. This movie exemplifies that; the awe and shock comes not so much from what is portrayed as what is wholly missing: the better points of humanity.
Rating:  - Low Budget Genius
I know it's been said before, but I have to say that it's amazing what you can do when you get an outstanding cast of actors together with an outstanding script. This film is basically like a one act play. Very simple, no scene changes, no special effects, but boy does it work!
This film is a dramatization of the meeting where Hitler's leading men decided the fate of six million jews. Probably, the most disturbing thing about the film is that everything seems so commonplace, like an ordinary business meeting. These men, apart from their politics, seem like ordinary men that you meet and work with everyday and yet their plans resulted in the death of six million people.
Dr. Stuttgart is an interesting character. He objects to the plan because it goes against the established laws which he devised. He favors sterilization as opposed to death because he believes, perhaps rightly, that the world would not condemn such milder measures.
Dr. Kritzinger is perhaps the one person at the meeting who had courage enough to object on humanitarian grounds. At the Nuremberg trials he was the only one who openly showed regret and remorse over the mass killings. But when the SS General Heidrich threatens him he grudgingly gives approval at the meeting.
The movie serves as a sharp warning to us. If we do not fight to preserve the principles that our society was founded on such as the inherent value of each individual, the rights outlined in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and loving your neighbor as yourself then these principles probably will not be preserved. It would be to easy for some megalomaniac to come along and lead people down the wrong path.
My only wish is that the writers and director might have aimed for a PG or PG-13 rating and thus make the film more accessible to a wider audience.
Rating: - chilling
I just happened to stumble on this when it first showed on HBO, and was tickled to see it on dvd. Absolutly fascinating to watch a room full of nazis sit and eat and drink and smoke and smooze..and calmly discuss the best method to extinguish and entire race of people. A great look at the depths of human evil.
Rating: - Very fine docudrama
'Conspiracy' is a rare thing, a TV movie that only gets better every time you watch it.
Not that you want to watch it very often, as it's essentially a dramatisation of how the Third Reich came to make its decisions about how the extermination of European Jewry should be planned and carried out. The Nazis called a conference in a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee; after it was over, all those who attended were sent copies of the minutes, and they were supposed to destroy these copies fairly swiftly. However, one attendee failed to do so. This last remaining copy of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference is one of the (many) major pieces of evidence that the Nazis planned the destruction of the European Jews at the highest level, and that it was not merely something that just sort of happened.
'Conspiracy' is a beautifully conceived and intelligently executed movie. The genius of it is that it's basically a movie about a committee meeting. We see the preparation of the buffet (the food looks truly yummy); we see everyone arriving and making small talk; we get a tantalising glimpse of the office politics; we get little glimpses of who has high status and who has low. The SS men (Barnaby Kay and Peter Sullivan) are tired, battle-hardened and cynical. The guy in charge of planning the economic future of the Reich (Ewan Stewart) is a naive and hopeful drone, constantly introducing himself to people and being snubbed in return. The lawyer who drew up the Nuremberg laws regarding the legal status of German Jews (Colin Firth), laws that this conference is about to consign to the dustbin of history, is simmering with barely-suppressed anger and resentment. Not because he's angry about the way Jews are being treated, but because he can see that all his hard work is about to be brushed aside. The only person in the room who appears to have anything resembling sympathy for the Jews is the representative of the Reich Chancellery (David Threlfall), and he's too pussy to do anything about it.
The acting honours go to all, as this is a real ensemble piece. But it's worth mentioning Stanley Tucci, who presents Adolf Eichmann as a classic kiss-up-kick-down middle management guy, nodding and smiling at his leader's taste in music and then dismissing it with contempt once the boss has left the room; and especially Kenneth Branagh as the top man at the conference, Reinhard Heydrich, who was at the time the head of the SS Security Service and one of the most feared men in Europe. The light-hearted way in which Branagh warns Firth not to try to stop the SS from doing whatever the hell it wants (because, he casually remarks as he lights a cigarette, 'there is no shortage of meathooks' in the Third Reich) is truly chilling. Branagh never scowls, never grimaces, never gets angry, never bullies anyone, never loses his glamorous cool. He smiles and smiles and smiles, but the implicit threat is always there. It's a great performance.
The script is incredibly economical, and expands on the historical evidence in a way that I (who have read quite a bit on the subject) find to be a respectable balance between the historically plausible and the dramatically effective. The direction is subtle and intelligent. Nobody here is presented as a spooky evil villain - the film is about the many ways in which they convince themselves that they're doing the right thing. And the acting, like I said, is top-notch. I would recommend this film to be shown in schools. It shows what happens when people think that their cause is so righteous that it justifies any kind of behaviour.
Rating: - Outstanding
Exceptional acting, direction, and writing. Wastes no time to get to the core of the story of what took place at the meeting. Recreates, through the interaction of the meeting members, the gravity and tension of what was being discussed: the Final Solution. Outstanding filmaking and story telling.
I went to the Wannsee Conference House outside Berlin in Spring, 2008, and the head librarian told me that the scenes outside the villa were shot on site, and that the filmakers measured the inside of the house so that the movie sets would be as close to the real villa as possible.
Note: The "story" picks up immediately. There is very little in the way of history, background, or context, so, if you don't already know a little of the history, I highly recommend doing a little reading in order to get the most out of this film. You can get some of that by reading the Wannsee Conference posting at Wikipedia.
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