The Conspirator premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2010[5] followed by a special premiere screening on March 29, 2011 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Another premiere screening was held on April 10, 2011 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, the site of the assassination. The US theatrical release took place on April 15, 2011, the 146th anniversary of the death of Lincoln. The film was released in Canada on April 29, 2011 and was in the UK on July 1, 2011. Lionsgate Home Entertainment released the DVD and Blu-ray on August 16, 2011.[6][7]
Plot
On April 14, 1865, five days after the Civil War ends with Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, lawyer and Union veteran Frederick Aiken, with his friends, William Thomas Hamilton and Nicholas Baker, and his wife, Sarah Weston, celebrate. Later that night, after John Wilkes Booth enters Ford’s Theater, Southerner Lewis Powell (referred to as Lewis Payne in the film) stabs Secretary of State William Seward, seriously wounding him in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. German immigrant and carriage repair business owner George Atzerodt is assigned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, but becomes afraid, gets drunk, and runs away. Meanwhile, Booth sneaks into the President’s box and shoots his target, President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head as he watches the play, Our American Cousin. Booth stabs diplomat and military officer Henry Rathbone, who was a guest in Lincoln's box, and leaps onto the stage, shouting, "Sic Semper Tyrannis! The South is avenged!" before escaping into Maryland. A crowd, including Aiken, Hamilton, and Baker, watches in horror as the unconscious President is taken to a nearby boarding house, where he dies early the next morning. Andrew Johnson becomes the next President.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders the arrest of all suspects, including Mary Surratt. Booth and David Herold manage to evade capture for some days, but Union soldiers find a barn where they suspect the conspirators are hiding and set it on fire. Herold surrenders while Booth is shot and killed by sergeant Boston Corbett when he sees Booth raising a rifle at the other soldiers.
Maryland Senator Reverdy Johnson, Aiken's boss, is Mary Surratt's defense attorney. Her son, John Surratt, has escaped and now hundreds of agents are looking for him. Also charged are Herold, Powell, Atzerodt, Michael O'Laughlen, Edman Spangler, Samuel Mudd, and Samuel Arnold. Reverdy feels unable to defend Surratt because he is a Southerner and asks a reluctant Aiken who is a Northerner to take over the defense.
Aiken visits Mary in her cell to question her. Mary asks Aiken to look in on her daughter, Anna. Aiken does so and searches the boarding house for clues. He finds a ticket with the initials "LJW" (Louis J. Weichmann). At the court, Weichmann, a seminary friend of Mary's son John, is the first witness. He describes John's meetings with Booth, and points out Herold, Powell, and Atzerodt as frequent guests in Mary's boarding house. Aiken incriminates Weichmann by making him appear as guilty as the rest of the conspirators.
Aiken again tries to stop defending Mary because he believes that she is guilty. He meets with her intending to get evidence of her guilt when she explains that John and the others conspired to kidnap Lincoln, not to kill him. They were about to attack a carriage but were stopped by Booth, who reported that Lincoln was elsewhere. She says that John left town and went into hiding two weeks before the assassination and that she has no idea where he is. Aiken asks Anna for information to help with his trial preparations, but she refuses.
At the court, Chief Prosecutor Joseph Holt brings the innkeeper John Lloyd to the stand. Lloyd claims that Mary gave him binoculars to give to Booth and told him to prepare shooting irons and whiskey for Booth and Herold on the night of the assassination. Aiken angers Lloyd by implying that he, an admitted alcoholic, was bribed with whiskey for his testimony. Lloyd is dragged out of the courtroom after he threatens Aiken.
Aiken arrives at the Century Club to attend a party and discovers that his membership has been revoked for defending Mary Surratt. This triggers an argument with Sarah, who disowns and leaves him. Aiken asks Anna to testify. Anna testifies that Mary had no part in the assassination of Lincoln and that it was her brother John who did. Anna visits Aiken at his house and tells him about Booth and John. Aiken then visits Father Jacob Walter, who has been attending to Mary, but he also insists he does not know where John is. Aiken asks Walter to deliver a message to John saying that his mother will hang for his crimes if he does not surrender. On July 6, Mary is found guilty on all charges and is at first sentenced to life in prison, but with Stanton's intervention, she is then sentenced to hang with Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt while Mudd, Arnold, O'Laughlen, and Spangler are given prison sentences. Aiken procures a writ of habeas corpus, signed by a reluctant Judge Andrew Wylie, for the release of Mary so that she can be tried in a civilian court, but President Johnson suspends the writ, and the four condemned prisoners are hanged.
Sixteen months later, Aiken visits John Surratt, who was captured abroad and is in jail. John thanks him for his kindness to his mother. Aiken offers him Mary's rosary, but he declines. The epilogue goes on to state that a year later, the US Supreme Court ruled that citizens were entitled to trial by a civilian jury, not a military tribunal, even in times of war (Ex parte Milligan), and that a jury of Northerners and Southerners could not agree on a verdict for John Surratt, and he was freed. Aiken left the law and became The Washington Post's first City Editor.
Cast
James McAvoy as Captain Frederick Aiken, an idealistic young war hero who reluctantly defends Surratt and, in the process, comes to believe in her innocence
Gerald Bestrom as Abraham Lincoln, the President who is assassinated in the beginning of the film. Bestrom, who does not speak, was a professional Lincoln lookalike who died in April 2012.[11]
John Bankson as Alexander Gardner, the photographer of the executions
Craig Crumpton as Major General Robert Sanford Foster, a member of the military commission
John Deifer as Brigadier General James A. Ekin, a member of the military commission
Ron Stafford as Benn Pitman, stenographer at the trial
Jeremy Tuttle as Samuel Arnold, one of the conspirators
Production
Principal photography began in October 2009, in Savannah, Georgia and wrapped in December 2009. Fort Pulaski National Monument, located east of Savannah, served as the military prison in the film. Civil war reenactors and living historians were used to portray soldiers in various scenes. To supplement the reenactors, extras from the local community were also employed as soldiers.
The Mary E. Surratt Boarding House still stands, and is located at 604 H Street NW in Washington D.C.'s Chinatown. Mary Surratt's farmhouse in Clinton, Maryland, is now a museum. The town in which the farmhouse stands was originally called Surrattsville. The United States Post Office renamed the town Robeysville due to the notoriety of the Surratt name. In 1879, Robeysville was renamed Clinton.
Release
The Conspirator premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2010. A few days after its screening, the film was acquired by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions for distribution.[12] The film was released theatrically on April 15, 2011.
Reception
Box office
The film performed poorly at the box office grossing only $3,506,602 during its opening weekend. After its initial run, the film grossed $11,538,204 domestically with a worldwide total of $15,478,800. Because the film had a budget of $25 million, the film is considered a box office flop.[2]
Critical reception
Upon its release, the film received a mixed reception from critics. Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 55/100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13]Rotten Tomatoes reports that 56% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 173 reviews, with an average score of 6.1/10. The website's critical consensus states that "The Conspirator is well cast and tells a worthy story, but many viewers will lack the patience for Redford's deliberate, stagebound approach."[14]
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth theatrical family from Maryland, he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate sympathizer; denouncing President Lincoln, he lamented the then-recent abolition of slavery in the United States.
Samuel Alexander Mudd Sr. was an American physician who was imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth concerning the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Mary Elizabeth Surratt was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and remains controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried in the conspiracy, but was not convicted.
David Edgar Herold was an American pharmacist's assistant and accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After the shooting, Herold accompanied Booth to the home of Samuel Mudd, who set Booth's injured leg. The two men then continued their escape through Maryland and into Virginia, and Herold remained with Booth until the authorities cornered them in a barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth was shot to death by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Herold was tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to death for conspiracy, and hanged with three other conspirators at the Washington Arsenal, now known as Fort Lesley J. McNair.
George Andrew Atzerodt was a German American repairman, Confederate sympathizer, and conspirator in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, but lost his nerve and made no attempt. Atzerodt was tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to death for conspiracy, and hanged along with three other conspirators.
Joseph Holt was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. As a leading member of the Buchanan administration, he succeeded in convincing Buchanan to oppose the secession of the South. He returned to Kentucky and successfully battled the secessionist element thereby helping to keep Kentucky in the Union. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army. He served as Lincoln's chief arbiter and enforcer of military law, and supporter of emancipation. His most famous roles came in the Lincoln assassination trials.
Lewis Thornton Powell was an American Confederate soldier who attempted to assassinate William Henry Seward as part of the Lincoln assassination plot. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he later served in Mosby's Rangers before working with the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland. John Wilkes Booth recruited him into a plot to kidnap Lincoln and turn the president over to the Confederacy, but then decided to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson instead, and assigned Powell the task to kill Seward.
Louis J. Weichmann was an American clerk who was one of the chief witnesses for the prosecution in the trial following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Previously, he had also been a suspect in the conspiracy because of his association with Mary Surratt's family.
John Harrison Surratt Jr. was an American Confederate spy who was accused of plotting with John Wilkes Booth to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln; he was also suspected of involvement in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. His mother, Mary Surratt, was convicted of conspiracy by a military tribunal and hanged; she owned the boarding house that the conspirators used as a safe house and to plot the scheme.
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.
Michael O'Laughlen, Jr. was an American Confederate soldier and conspirator in John Wilkes Booth's plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and later in the latter's assassination, although he ended up not directly participating.
Samuel Bland Arnold was an American Confederate sympathizer involved in a plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He had joined the Confederate Army shortly after the start of the Civil War but was discharged for health reasons in 1864.
The Surratt House is a historic house and house museum located at 9110 Brandywine Road in Clinton, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The house is named for John and Mary Surratt, who built it in 1852. Mary Surratt was hanged in 1865 for being a co-conspirator in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. It was acquired by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in 1965, restored, and opened to the public as a museum in 1976.
The Day Lincoln Was Shot is a 1998 American television film based on the book by Jim Bishop. It is a re-creation of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, co-written and directed by John Gray, and stars Lance Henriksen as Abraham Lincoln and Rob Morrow as John Wilkes Booth.
John Minchin Lloyd was a bricklayer and police officer in Washington, D.C., in the United States. He was one of the first police officers hired by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia when its Day Watch was first formed in 1855. He played a role in the trial of the conspirators in the Abraham Lincoln assassination. Arrested but never charged in the conspiracy, Lloyd's testimony was critical in convicting Mary Surratt.
James W. Pumphrey was a livery stable owner in Washington, D.C., who played a minor role in the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and its aftermath. Assassin John Wilkes Booth hired a horse from Pumphrey which he used to escape after the deed.
Frances Adeline Seward was the daughter of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward and his wife Frances Adeline Miller Seward. The youngest of five children born to the Sewards, she was their only daughter to survive to adulthood, although she herself died at the young age of 21.
The Mary E. Surratt Boarding House in Washington, D.C. was the site of meetings of conspirators to kidnap and subsequently to assassinate U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. It was operated as a boarding house by Mary Surratt from September 1864 to April 1865.
Frederick Augustus Aiken was an American lawyer, journalist and soldier. A veteran of the Civil War, Aiken was called on to serve as one of the defense attorneys for Mary Surratt, who was tried for conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
Manhunt is an American historical drama miniseries created by showrunner Monica Beletsky, adapted from James L. Swanson's book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. The series follows Edwin Stanton's search for John Wilkes Booth in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Directed by Carl Franklin and starring Tobias Menzies, the series was produced for Apple TV+, and released on March 15, 2024.
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