Conspiracy (film)

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Conspiracy
Directed by Frank Pierson
Produced by Nick Gillot
Written by Loring Mandel
Starring Kenneth Branagh,
Stanley Tucci,
Colin Firth,
Ben Daniels
Distributed by BBC / HBO
Release date(s) 2001
Running time 96 min.
Language English
Budget Not known
IMDb profile

Conspiracy is a BBC / HBO television film which dramatizes the Wannsee Conference of 1942. The film delves into the psychology of German officials involved in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" during World War II.

The movie starred an ensemble cast including Kenneth Branagh as Reinhard Heydrich, Stanley Tucci as Adolf Eichmann, and Colin Firth as Wilhelm Stuckart. It was written by Loring Mandel.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

A secret meeting is held in order to determine the method by which the German government is to execute Adolf Hitler's policy - that the German sphere of influence should be free of Jews, including those in the occupied terrorities of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Czechoslovakia and France. As the film opens, various officials from different German agencies arrive and mingle at a beautiful manor house in Wannsee, where Colonel Adolf Eichmann, SS Officer for Jewish Affairs, has meticulously planned the meeting. Among those present:

Last to arrive is SS General Reinhard Heydrich, who begins by explaining the purpose of the meeting.

It is quickly established by those present that there is a significant "Jewish problem", in that the Jews of Europe cannot be efficiently contained, nor can they be forced onto other countries. Dr Kritzinger interrupts at several points to opine that the meeting is pointless, given that the Jewish Question had previously been settled, but Heydrich promises to revisit his concerns. A discussion follows of the possibilities of sterilisation, and of the exemptions for mixed race Jews who have one or more non-Jewish grandparents. At this point, Stuckart loses his temper and insists that a sturdy legal framework is paramount, and that ad hoc application of standards will lead to administrative chaos. He also chides Klopfer for his simplistic portrayal of Jews as evil sub-humans, simultaneously painting his own picture of Jews as clever, manipulative and untrustworthy. Speculation grows at the meeting that Stuckart may be a Jewish sympathiser.

Heydrich calls a break in the proceedings, and takes Stuckart aside to warn him about the consequences of his stubbornness, implying that others in the SS will take an unwanted interest in his actions. When the meeting reconvenes, Heydrich steers the discussion in the direction of wholesale elimination using gas chambers. This causes consternation among many of the attendees, notably Kritzinger, who objects that Hitler had given him personal guarantees that extermination of the Jews was not being considered, and representatives of the Polish administration, who are shocked to discover that the SS have been building camps and making preparations for the "Final Solution" under their noses and in secret.

By this time it has become clear to everyone at the meeting that they have been called together not to discuss the problem but to be given orders by the SS, who are intent on wresting control of the operation from other agencies such as the Interior Ministry and the Reich Chancellery. The meeting breaks again as one of the officials is suddenly taken ill, supposedly due to a cigar.

This time it is Dr Kritzinger's turn to be taken aside and intimidated by Heydrich, who warns that Kritzinger is influential but not invulnerable. Heydrich tells Kritzinger that he wants not only consent but active support, and Kritzinger realises that any hopes he had of assuring livable conditions for the Jewish population are unrealistic. In return, he tells Heydrich a cautionary tale about a man consumed by hatred for his father, so much so that he is sorry to see his father die, for his life seems empty without the antipathy that drove him.

Heydrich then recalls and concludes the meeting, giving clear directives that the SS are to be obeyed in all matters relating to the elimination of the Jews. He also asks for explicit assent and support from each official, one by one. After giving careful instructions on the secrecy of the minutes and notes of the meeting, they are adjourned and begin to depart.

As the servants at the manor tidy away the remains of the meeting, and the officials depart, a brief account of the fate of each one is given.

[edit] Themes

While the majority of the content of the film is historical and taken from the few surviving records of the meeting, all other conversation is purely speculative. While the tragedy of the Holocaust has been portrayed in many forms such as Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List, Conspiracy focuses much more closely on the dehumanisation of the Jews by the perpetrators and on the prevalent cultural attitudes that allowed the Nazis to make the leap from persecution to genocide.

Conspiracy was intended to be a dark parallel to the film 12 Angry Men, where the inhumanity of the conspirators at Wannsee contrasts the conflict leading to the ultimate display of compassion in the classic Henry Fonda movie.

[edit] Style

Almost self-consciously clinical, the film eschews sentimentality throughout and provides a stark and uncomfortable account of the proceedings, accented by the shoulder-level camerawork that suggests the viewer as a participant. Sedate and lacking music until the final minutes, a gentle rhythm between silence and "crosstalk" gives a natural ebb and flow. The portrayal of everyday details of catering, writing namecards, taking minutes and cleaning up rubbish afterwards juxtaposes the mundane manner of the proceedings with the echoing historical significance of the subject.

Most of the film is set in a meeting room around a grand table in near-opulant surroundings. The viewer is part of the meeting and begins to feel drawn in yet helpless in the face of Heydrich's dominating personality and overbearing pushiness in forwarding his agenda. The meeting is conducted with complete aloofness to the horrifying subject matter; indeed, one believes the participants could have been discussing a problem as mundane but massive as relocating bushels of wheat rather than the systematic, cold-blooded murder of millions of people. The contrast of a seemingly open meeting against the obviously pre-ordained agenda leaves the participants and viewers feeling completely out of control. Combined with the gut-wrenching subject matter and the complete dedication of the radicals to their cause, this style leaves the viewer with the sickening disgust that has unfortunately been borne out by history.

[edit] Characterisation

Several hints are made at the ghoulish sadism of the officials present. During discussion of sterilisation procedures, there is merriment at the suggestion of using X-rays to sterilise children as well as adults. As for the effects of carbon monoxide on its victims, one attendee jokes about the Jews "going in red and coming out pink", presumably a reference to the stereotype of Jews as communist sympathisers.

One of the only participants to raise significant objections to the extermination, Stuckart, is hardly sympathetic himself - being less concerned with the fate of the Jewish people (whom he violently denounces in an angered speech to the room) than with the bureaucratic observation of existing laws and regulations - yet he and Kritzinger provide the only identification the viewer can obtain. Even Kritzinger seems to go along with the persecution of the Jews to some extent, and only seems truly shocked when told of the plan to exterminate them. Even then though, he backs down when intimidated by Heydrich and declares his support, albeit with a sense of despair. Worthy of note is the fact when Adolf Eichmann was interrogated by Israeli intelligence in 1960, he said that Stuckart was an energetic supporter of the "Final Solution". The alien quality of reason at Wannsee is a powerful demonstration of a vastly different mindset - a common set of assumptions about Jews that all at the conference shared implicitly. The only major divisions appear while discussing the correct way to deal with the "problem", with no consideration of whether there is a problem at all.

Both Kenneth Branagh (Heydrich) and Stanley Tucci (Eichmann) stated that they had difficulty playing their respective roles, because of the evil that has been associated with the men they were portraying.

[edit] Cast

The cast of the fifteen participants of the conference were as follows:

For more details on the participants, see the Wannsee Conference article.

[edit] External links

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