Robert Redford
The Conspirator

THE REVIEW

Robert Redford is an icon of democratic America. The more reflective, "cultural," secular America. "Lions for Lambs" (2007) was Redford's manifesto in this sense, the most political film he has given us in the second half of his career. A directorial career that perhaps never really took off, almost as if dear old Redford couldn't shake off the image of the handsome actor from the '70s. Perhaps for this reason, and for a whole host of other reasons, the filmmaker Redford is less known and less appreciated than the actor Redford. But in his history behind the camera, Redford has produced a feature film that deserves more attention than it has received. It is "The Conspirator," which hit theaters in 2010.

The basic idea is one of the most controversial and obscure in U.S. history: the assassination of President Lincoln and the subsequent trial. Seven men and one woman, Mary Surratt (played by Robin Wright), were tried for that event, and defended by attorney Aiken (James McAvoy), a former Union Army officer. Under pressure from politician Reverdy Johnson, Aiken is "forced" to defend the woman accused of the assassination of "his" president. But is Mary Surratt truly guilty?

Robert Redford starts from one of the most studied events in American history, but consistent with his path, he doesn't stop at analyzing the culprits and responsibilities of the incident, but rather delves into everything concerning the trial that followed the killing, a less known and darker aspect of the triggering event. Day by day, attorney Aiken becomes convinced that his client is not an anti-democratic conspirator, a "superstructure" that public opinion wants to pin on her.

The stars and stripes democracy, which over the course of its history the country across the ocean has tried to impose on the rest of the globe, with force or without, has its roots also in episodes like this. Citizens who become "scapegoats" for an entire nation, who become the banner that others wave to emphasize the righteousness and strength of a certain political and social system.

Redford seems to want to tell us that great men, even those who have made history like Lincoln himself, remain men. Ideas, values, distinguish a society much more than the men who comprise it. Redford bases his "The Conspirator" on this, stuffing it with palpable and vivid dramatic tension, finding release in a finale that is cloaked in epic breath and pathos like never before has Redford managed.

With "The Conspirator," Robert Redford has constructed a film that refuses the public use of history, to dwell on the public use of justice, in order to pursue a single objective, the safeguarding of the political nation. What has changed since then?