Movie Study
Summary:
“The Conspirator”directed by Robert Redford is a new historical drama.The basic ethical and political problems are the murder of the president and the simultaneous coordinated attempts on the lives of Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward which throw Washington into panic. After John Wilkes Booth is killed in a shootout with soldiers, his fellow plotters are arrested and tried, not by a jury of their peers but by a committee of officers.
Among those on trial is Mary Surratt, a widow whose boarding house was a meeting place for the conspirators and whose son John appears to have been one of the conspirators.On trial for her life, Mary is defended by Frederick Aiken, a decommissioned captain in the Union Army.
Aiken is initially reluctant to be the advocate of a suspected traitor, but he is deceived into taking the assignment by Reverdy Johnson , a powerful Democratic senator from Maryland. And as he becomes inform with Mary and her daughter Anna, Aiken becomes passionately dedicated to proving Mary’s innocence, or at least saving her life.He finds, though, that the deck is accumulated, and the audience may feel the same way, in purpose of the movie’s show of fidelity to the historical record.
The chief prosecutor, Joseph Holt, is played by Danny Huston, whose silken baritone and crooked smile are so immediately indicative of duplicity that the filmmakers might as well have cast a talking snake. Colm
Corruption in the United States government takes the power away from the people and puts it into the hands of elite groups and politicians. This corruption is prevalent in the film “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”. The film has a strong message about corruption in the government, and places an innocent and naïve character, Mr. Smith in the middle of the corruption. In Washington, Mr. Smith discovers the corruption that has overtaken the capitol, but does not let it falter his integrity. Although Mr. Smith is surrounded by corruption, he is able to fight the system and bring some integrity back to Washington.
Mary Surratt: A Co-Conspirator for the Lincoln Assassination Mary Surratt should have been executed. She was guilty of lying to authorities and she held evidence for Lincoln’s murder at her tavern. Mary surratt should have been executed because she held all the supplies for the murder at her tavern.
Mary Surratt should have been executed. Mrs. Surratt helped with the the plot such as helping with the kidnap, the package delivery, lying to the the authorities and supplying the weapons, That is why she should have been executed . Mary Surratt supplied the weapons that were in her tavern (source 1). This shows she got the weapons took them to the tavern and that's what they later used to kill Lincoln, she had them in the tavern which was not smart to keep the weapons at the tavern. Mary Surratt delivered a package to Booth (Source 2).
In Source 3 paragraph 4 it says” John Wilkes Booth has shot the president“. This shows that Mary Surratt did not kill Lincoln Booth did. The second reason is that Mary Surratt is innocent because there is physical proof that she is innocent. In Source 2 paragraph 10 it states “It is possible that Mary Surratt knew of the kidnapping plot but not the plot to
Bill O’Reilly’s and Martin Dugard’s book Killing Lincoln delves into the events leading up to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the repercussions upon the people involved, as well as a detailed analysis of the ongoing war efforts and the affects one has upon the other. While unraveling the conspiracy and its members, the reader is given compelling evidence and speculative reasoning that leads the reader to believe that the plot to assassinate Lincoln involves additional people, and could in fact be a conspiracy that reaches into the regions of power far above what is historically proven.
The mystery of how John Wilkes Booth pulled off the most influential and notorious assassinations in history is revealed in Killing Lincoln. The author of this book, Bill O’Reilly, built up the plot of the story through vivid historical details and pieced them together like a thriller. He tries to explain all of what happened on one of the most interesting and sad days in American history. Many conspiracies and Civil War ideals are on full display in the book. I agree with most of O’Reilly’s ideas but there are some that I am not really sure about because of his point of view like many of the conspiracy theories. Killing Lincoln by Bill O’Reilly was a very compelling read which described the Civil War, lives of
Mary Surratt was the first woman in the United States of America to be executed by the Federal Government. She was executed because she was found guilty of conspiring to kill President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Steward. Evidence that proves Mary Surratt was guilty includes that she denied knowing Lewis Powell, she had close ties with John Wilkes Booth, and an associate of the Surratt family, Lewis J. Weichmann, who testified against Mary Surratt. One reason Mary Surratt was guilty is because she denied knowing Lewis Powell, even though she had met him many times before.
John Wilkes Booth, murder of our beloved President, has been put to an end on April 26th in Mr. Garrett’s farm barn. John Wilkes Booth, a nationally renowned actor, should have a much better life than been the murder of Abraham Lincoln. “He was the son of the legendary actor and tragedian Junius Brutus Booth” (Swanson). It is his resentment over the Union destroyed his fames and brought his life to an early end.
In the book, Killing Lincoln, author Bill O’Reilly portrayed John Wilkes Booth as an obsessed assassin who recruited various conspirators. He described the events leading to President Lincoln’s murder and the hunt to capture Booth and his cohorts. Killing Lincoln is comprehensible to anyone as young as a middle schooler, although it would be best suited for an older reader with an interest in history and politics. Killing Lincoln could also be appealing to those intrigued by conspiracy plots and criminal motives. O’Reilly constructed an action packed thriller of patriotism and war to keep the reader engaged.
Mary Surratt was the defendant among the executed that received a punishment far out weighing her role in the crime. Mary Surratt was convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. She was sentenced to death and became the first woman to be executed by the U.S. government. Mary Surratt was the mother of John Surratt who was a conspirator that helped John Wilkes Booth plan Lincoln’s kidnap and later, his assassination. With the help of Chasing Lincoln’s Killer, “Lincoln and the Writ of Liberty,” and the movie The Conspirator, it can be proven that Mary Surratt’s punishment was unjust. Mary Surratt received a punishment far worse than what she deserved because she was innocent, blamed for her son’s actions, and she did
The most constant happening in one’s life is change. People change their minds, their hearts, their careers with each passing season. However, it is one’s character that remains even after the changes in personality and personal progression and shines through. In Robert Redford’s 2010 film The Conspirator, Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) protects a mother enduring a military trial due to her son’s actions. Aiken, a fair and honest Union soldier and lawyer, is forced against his will to defend Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) a southerner accused of conspiring to assassinate President Lincoln. Even though Aiken loathes the task given to him and the woman he is forced to defend, he tries his best to give Surratt the fair trial she deserves. Throughout
Mary Warren, a young woman living in Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, shows no exception to differing viewpoints. Throughout The Crucible, in which Mary Warren is a character, the very children whom the town considers holy, appear also to perpetrate the vicious crime of murder through false allegations of witchcraft. Unable to recognize the children’s crime because of their innocent appearance, citizens of Salem conduct dozens of
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a fantasy drama that adventures through Ben Stiller's portrayal of the classic short story by James Thurber. Walter Mitty (played by Ben Stiller) starts off the story as a simple negative assets worker for LIFE magazine. To escape his bland reality he imagines amazing fictional realities where he is brave, strong, and famous. When the magazine company gets bought out, Walter is entrusted with the last cover photo from Sean O'Connel (Sean Penn). Consequently the photo turns out to be lost, and Walter is forced to take a journey to find both Sean and the photo.
In The Conspirator, the audience is invited to maintain the overall assumption that humanity is inherently good. In manipulating narrative elements such as opening and closing scenes, cause and effect and range and depth of narration, the audience constantly engages in the shattering of this hope.
The film does like to allude to the fact that our bodies are constantly in battle with our minds when it comes to deceiving people or trying to conceal certain information. The most evident part of this is in the form of non-verbal communication with the characters. This can be seen especially with those who are perceived as the liars of the film. Near the beginning of the film when Roman is speaking with his fellow officers about his partner’s death, the camera immediately cuts to Niebaum. In this scene Roman is explaining the situation of his partner’s death and how it was mentioned that an officer from internal affairs was involved in the embezzling of funds that ended up in his partner’s murder.