The Conspirator (2010)

All Critics (169) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (94) | Rotten (76) | DVD (6)

Atmospheric, illuminating and affecting, The Conspirator captivates like an untold story -- one that you can't believe you've never heard until now, and won't soon forget.

May 6, 2011 Full Review

Christine Champ

Film.com

Top Critic

Once the ideological cat is out of the bag, the drama is degraded to the level of a historical pageant.

April 29, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Liam Lacey

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

Leaves us feeling as empty as a raided tomb.

April 28, 2011 Full Review

Peter Howell

Toronto Star

Top Critic

A bracing courtroom drama whose every scene seems wreathed in mist, dust motes and cigar smoke, the better to suggest a nation befogged by grief.

April 22, 2011 Full Review

John Anderson

Newsday

Top Critic

There's a stiffness that keeps the story from packing a punch. Still, it's handsomely mounted, and at its best moments has the patina of a Masterpiece Theater production.

April 17, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Claudia Puig

USA Today

Top Critic

The nightmare of Lincoln's assassination, and its immediate aftermath, is effectively delivered, and Wright, shrouded in black, her face a mask of indomitable sorrow, gives great gravity to what might otherwise have been a waxworks historical reenactment.

April 15, 2011 Full Review

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

Robert Redford teams with The American Film Company for The Conspirator, a project better left to the History Channel than the big screen.

April 21, 2013 Full Review

Billy Tatum

We Got This Covered

Wonderfully cast and carefully shot, there's barely a hint of a great filmmaker working with a fraction of his normal budget in this period piece...

January 12, 2013 Full Review

Roger Moore

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

If nothing else, this is certain to have a long life playing in middle school history classes for decades to come.

January 30, 2012 Full Review

Michael Dequina

TheMovieReport.com

The Conspirator deserves a lot more praise than it got on initial release: yes it is slow in parts and even provocatively tentative, but it is intricately crafted, a wonderful example of precision and attention to detail.

January 2, 2012 Full Review

Simon Gallagher

What Culture

full review at Movies for the Masses

December 26, 2011 Full Review

Joseph Proimakis

Movies for the Masses

While the film is pretty heavy-handed in framing the story in political terms, it is a compelling historical drama that will be news to many Americans.

November 29, 2011 Full Review

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

The Conspirator conveys the heaviness of its story and its setting -- a torn nation desperate to heal the lingering wounds on both sides after the close of the Civil War.

September 9, 2011 Full Review

Neil Pond

American Profile

A talky and often-stodgy film that will please history buffs but leave ordinary viewers a touch cold.

August 26, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Mike Scott

Times-Picayune

Instead of mounting a crushing procedural picture filled with facts and figures, director Robert Redford elects for a more melodramatic route, turning all the accusations and disgust into a wobbly drama of limited emotional impact.

August 24, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Brian Orndorf

BrianOrndorf.com

Not one to shy away from political themes (after all, he starred in "The Candidate," "All the President's Men" and "Lions for Lambs,"...Redford can't help but make us think about the times we live in now.

August 16, 2011 Full Review

Michael A. Smith

MediaMikes

The first half hour feels too much like a history lesson but from thereon in, The Conspirator is a compelling drama.

August 1, 2011 Full Review

Matthew Toomey

ABC Radio Brisbane

Robert Redford's courtroom drama about the trial of Mary Surratt after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is both a gripping drama and a rather stuffy flag-waving exercise.

July 30, 2011 Full Review

Simon Weaving

Screenwize

This does not feel like a real movie. It is an 'epic' along the lines of Entourage's Medellin, or 30 Rock's The Rural Juror.

July 26, 2011 Full Review | Comment (1)

Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

It works on every level as an engaging drama with high stakes

July 23, 2011 Full Review

Andrew L. Urban

Urban Cinefile

A fascinating piece of history gets buried in the telling of this rather turgid courtroom drama that explores issues of principle, justice and protecting the rights of the innocent

July 23, 2011 Full Review

Louise Keller

Urban Cinefile

Drama offers a fresh twist on an infamous episode in American history

July 19, 2011 Full Review

Don Groves

sbs.com.au

• 1. Frederick Aiken: For the lawyer as well as a soldier, there is an equally imperative command. That duty is to shelter from injustice, the innocent, to protect the weak from oppression and when necessity demands, to rally to the defense of those being wronged...
  – Submitted by Manas P (8 months ago)
• 1. Joseph Holt: Was this the man? [grabs a head of one of the Conspirators]
  2. General David Hunter: No sir.
  3. Joseph Holt: [he stands stunned, then realizing his mistake, he grabs another conspirator] Was this the man?
  4. General David Hunter: Yes sir.
  – Submitted by Grieg E (17 months ago)
• 1. Frederick Aiken: It's not enough, is it Mr. Holt? It's not enough that you set the rules, you pick the judges. Now you have to turn my witness as well.
  2. General David Hunter: Counselor control yourself.
  3. Frederick Aiken: Control the prosecution! Every witness I wish to call has been turned by jail or the threat of it!
  4. General David Hunter: Counselor I'm warning you...
  5. Frederick Aiken: There is no limit to how far the prosecution is willing to go!
  6. General David Hunter: That's enough!
  – Submitted by Anna B (20 months ago)
• 1. Frederick Aiken: I'm just upholding my oath as an attorney and doing my job. That's what you asked, that's what you TOLD me to do.
  2. Reverdy Johnson: This quoting me back to me can become most irritating. You have your mother's convictions and your father's annoying habits.
  – Submitted by Anna B (20 months ago)
• 1. Mary Surratt: Have you ever cared for something greater than yourself?
  – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)
• 1. Frederick Aiken: There is no limit to how far the prosecution is willing to go!
  – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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