Conspiracy

Conspiracy-720P

Conspiracy-480P

Conspiracy-360P

Conspiracy-720P

Conspiracy-480P

Conspiracy-360P

There may just be too many "Holocaust" movies and maybe we get a bit tired of analyzing them, seeing just how evil the Nazis were, maybe even feeling obligated. We even possibility get a bit cold and hardened to the reality of it all, but STOP, LOOK and THINK. This episode has some claim to authenticity, opinions may differ, but mostly in some fashion, it is not inaccurate, unless you just don't believe in the holocaust. Maybe it's not just exactly like what everyone thinks these characters were, or how this meeting was really conducted or etc. etc., but don't they get it? A bit deeper, not intellectually but real, skin crawling, no, not even skin crawling, or gut wrenching, or shivers deep inside, but soul twisting morals deeper. You just spent 96 minutes watching a table full of men sit and talk. Not even very interesting talk, sometimes trite and boring, they weren't outwardly even very interesting men, nor was the acting overwhelming. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be; maybe you weren't being entertained, maybe you were supposed to feel something else, see something else, no horror pictures or descriptions, no deep personalities, no sympathy strings, no dramatic scenes. Maybe we are not prepared to have something, so simple, so shallow go so so ??. Where does it go? I was mesmerized, or something; 96 minutes never took so long, nor went so fast, even the second time. I was angry waiting for the brakes to end. This wasn't the holocaust, it's not the hate, the violence, or the prejudices, it is not even the twisted evil man can weave, but looking at the soul of mankind. How could this be? So simple, just another step in the process? Maybe we should look a little more. I'd like to see Wannseekonferenz, and can?t wait to refresh my memory and see this again. 10 out of 10.

The other reviewer her could not be more wrong, and shows a lack of historical knowledge. Heydrich WAS rushing to get through the meeting -- that was why it only lasted 90 minutes! The meeting was not held to plot the Holocost, but rather was a staged production organized by the SS (who already had started planning the final solution and embarked on mass murder at smaller scales 7 months earlier)to obtain administrative and cooperative buy-in from the other facets of the German government, and their recognition of the SS's total authority over carrying it out. And Heydrich was alternatively charming and then abrupt and short: he was head of the Gestapo, after all. Although Branagh is much smaller and better looking than Heydrich was, he does what an actor does -- capture the essence of a presence, the gist of the personality. Likewise, Tucci embodies the "banality of evil" -- a schedule obsessed numbers & detail man, an accountant concerned only with pleasing his superiors and making mass murder efficient, while dissociating himself from the meaning and consequences of his actions. Although not as well-acted, the German language Wansee Conference is actually a bit better in imparting the agenda-driven business meeting quality of the event. Anyone who has ever been to a business planning meeting (in any business, but especially in government or regulated utility during budget planning time) cannot help but feel sick at the ordinary familiarity of it all. Replace killing people with making and marketing widgets, and you got it.

This is yet another pseudo-intellectual "let's make the Nazis look real bad" movie. The Nazis were pretty bad, no doubt - most of already know that. However, that does not necessarily make every movie on the theme good. A Discovery Channel presentation of "The Wannsee Conference" would have been much more interesting. "Conspiracy" falls on its ass between two categories: documentary and drama. It doesn't cut it as a documentary, the movie is too "staged" and the presentation too "common". It doesn't cut it as a drama, the characters are too shallow and conflicts too easily "solved". Another thing is the tagline: "One Of The Greatest Crimes Against Humanity Was Perpetrated In Just Over An Hour." As the movie shows the Wannsee Conference the meeting had nothing to do with reaching a consensus on the final solution. The decision on the solution had already been taken by the SS. The sole purpose of the meeting was to make all significant stakeholders commit themselves to an already established plan. There were no decisions or plans made at the Wannsee Conference. There was only threats and coercion (some needed less than others). Finally: One thing the movie does show (although in no exceptional manner) is, man has a tendency to turn to culture and aesthetics in an attempt to hide for himself the fact that he is committing appalling atrocities. This is seen in most powermongering "leaders" and politicians.

This is exactly what television should be like: intelligent, thought-provoking, brilliantly written and acted. The Wannsee Conference, held on January, 20, 1942, was convened by Reinhard Heydrich (played by Kenneth Branagh), Himmler's second in command of the SS, near Berlin: it gathered 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe. Heydrich and his deputy Eichmann (Stanley Tucci) kept minutes, so that this teleplay is based largely on historical fact. The genius of the actors, the director and writer Loring Mandel is to make us understand how ordinary top bureaucrats could be pushed into accepting the ultimate horror - and to make this into an entertaining, and sometimes even very funny movie. The writing is so crisp you want to remember every line - can't *wait* for the DVD.