DVDs:

	Conspiracy Clare Bullus, Kenneth Branagh Hbo Home Video, 2002 average customer review:based on 108 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

The cast does a marvelous job of fleshing out the documentary evidence to create convincing characters. Kenneth Branagh is especially chilling as SS Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich, who uses a combination of charm and ruthless power-mongering to gain support for his plans. Colin Firth is fascinating as Wilhelm Stuckart, a lawyer who sees the brutal tactics of the SS as a threat to his own intellectualized anti-Semitism, and Stanley Tucci gives a wonderfully understated performance as Adolf Eichmann.

Conspiracy is a carefully crafted, completely unsensational film that offers ample proof of the banality of evil. There are no histrionics and no comic-book Nazi villains, just a small group of politicians and war-weary soldiers arguing about the meaning of words and the logistics of extermination, calmly preparing to unleash an unimaginable horror on the world. --Simon Leake

for more information click here

Manuel Vidal. Es una película que captura la decisión sobre la solución final

En esta película se muestra la banalidad que acompañó a la discusión en la cual se decidió la solución final para la "Judenfrage" o "Cuestión judía". Es un complemento que aporta mucho a la comprensión del libro de Hannah Arendt: "El juicio de Eichmann en Jerusalén". La pregunta entre los asistentes a la reunión de Wannsee no radicaba en si era bueno o no acabar a un pueblo entero, no entre todos abirtamente, sino en cómo hacerlo más eficaz, eficiente y efectivamente al menor costo para el Reich. Sugiero complementar esta pelicula con el libro mencionado y con "The Nazis, a warning from history", dcumental excelente de la BBC, y con las películas "Rosa blanca" o "Sophie Scholl", y "Out of the ashes", además de "Los falsificadores", "Napola" y otras tantas. Es una película que sin salir de la reunión, hace pensar en la gravedad de la banalidad frente al mal, de cómo lo potencia. Para hacer el mal extremo no hay que ser un mostruo o un demonio, basta con ser banal.

for more information click here

The blind leading...the vicious

I'm not certain what I can add that hasn't already been said -- so elequently -- about this film. After seeing a film with someone, you might be tempted to ask that person, "Did you enjoy the movie?" This isn't a movie to be enjoyed; rather, it is an experience to be remembered and talked about. Needless to say, the acting is superb, as is the script. For me, I take note of what is said non-verbally...

When Heydrich tells Kritzinger that the Fuhrer will "continue to deny" any planning or intent to commit genocide no matter how many times Kritzinger broaches the subject with Hitler -- the look on Kritzinger's face is one of a man who has just had his rose-colored glasses ripped torn off and crushed in front of him. There could be no more rationalizations, no more putting on blinders. They weren't there to discuss anything. Kritzinger was there to listen...and obey.

A scene near the end -- mentioned by other reviewers -- where Heydrich gives Kritzinger his, "Oh, you'll answer now or you'll answer...later." ultimatum, you can see that the latter is totally deflated. He has become useless as a voice of reason. And his previously role as such a "statesman" was perfectly described by Heydrich when he told him, "And your philosophy is what -- hound them, improverish them, exploit them, imprison them, but do not kill them. And you are God's noblest of men. I find that very remarkable." Although Kritzinger murmured a feeble objection, he had to realize that he had been an instrument in the Nazis finally descending to the point of industrial age barbarism, complete with busload-sized ovens.

Finally, Klopfer's reaction to Eichmann's revelation that their latest version of "evacuating the Jews" would kill 2,500 defenseless men, women, and children per hour was...riveting. You could almost see in that pig's expression his attempt to visualize the slaughter.

The symbolic act of knocking on wood took on a whole new meaning for me after watching this movie.

And watch it, you should.

for more information click here

Branagh Shines as Heydrich

I missed this film when it originally aired since I do not have HBO. However, a friend of mine brought it to my attention about 4 years ago and I am glad he did. For an entire film taking place (for the most part) in one room, it is amazingly riveting. Watching these Nazi's sitting around the table eating, drinking, and joking while they discuss the "final solution" is quite chilling. Those familiar with the Wansee Conference will respect the accuracy of the portrayal of events while those new to this will simply be shocked at the casual discussions about the most serious of subjects.

Kenneth Branagh stands out in a superior cast in the role of Reinhard Heydrich. He comes across as the coldest and most unfeeling of the lot with frightening effect. Stanley Tucci's portrayal of Adolph Eichmann is good, if somewhat out-of-sync with historical perseptions of his role at the meeting.

I highly recommend this film to anyone curious about this period in history.

for more information click here

Super Movie

This movie is really good to have. It really brings home again how terrible a thing it was about the Nazis killing the Jews. A good movie to make a older teenage sit down and watch to understand history's violence and agression.


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.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

products you might be interested in

recommendations

87 great, impressive movies of 87 different directors (41-80)
Essential Holocaust viewing
Nazi Subject Films A - H
favorite war films
My Movies List

conspiracy

	Star Wars - Episode II, Attack of the Clones (Widescreen Edition) The Witches The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Single-Disc Edition) L.A. Confidential (Two-Disc Special Edition) The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital ...