Conspiracy Movie Review 2001

Another in HBO's long line of excellent movies based on real-life events. This one covers the January, 1942 meeting of high-ranking Nazi SS and civilian government leaders to decide what to do about "the Jewish question." Led by SS Geneal Reinhard Heydrich (Branagh, in a riveting performance) and set up by SS Col. Adolf Eichmann (Tucci), this conference was conducted like a board meeting, and that's where the power of the movie comes from, because the outcome of the conference was implementation of the "final solution," the attempted extermination of the Jewish population of Europe. While every man in the room is a villain, they aren't the kind of Nazi villain we're used to. They are bureaucrats who offer administrative and logistical objections, but only token moral dissent (which is dispensed with rather quickly and completely).

Distribution

HBO, 1100 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10036, Phone: (212)512-7400, Fax: (212)512-7498, URL: http://www.hbo.com, Remarks: Online sales through www.store.hbo.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 96 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Nazis & Other Paramilitary Slugs, World War II, The Holocaust

Screenplay

Loring Mandel

Cast

Stanley Tucci, Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth, Barnaby Kay, Ben Daniels, David Threlfall, Jonathan Coy, Brendan Coyle, Ian McNeice, Owen Teale, Nicholas Woodeson, Ewan Stewart, Kevin McNally, Brian Pettifer

Cinematography

Stephen Goldblatt

Director

Frank Pierson