Conspiracy (2001 film)

Conspiracy
Written by	Loring Mandel
Directed by	Frank Pierson
Starring	Kenneth Branagh Stanley Tucci Colin Firth Ian McNeice Kevin McNally David Threlfall
Composer	Dennis McCarthy
Country of origin	United Kingdom United States
Original languages	English German
Production
Producers	Nick Gillott Frank Pierson
Cinematography	Stephen Goldblatt
Editor	Peter Zinner
Running time	96 minutes
Production companies	BBC HBO Films
Original release
Network	HBO
Release	19 May 2001 (2001-05-19)

Conspiracy is a 2001 made-for-television drama film that dramatises the 1942 Wannsee Conference. Using the authentic script taken from the only surviving transcript recorded during the meeting, the film delves into the psychology of Nazi officials involved in the "Final Solution of the Jewish question" during World War II.

The film was written by Loring Mandel and directed by Frank Pierson. Its ensemble cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Stanley Tucci, Colin Firth and David Threlfall. Branagh won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, and Tucci was awarded a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role.

Plot

On 20 January 1942, Nazi officials hold a conference at a villa in Wannsee, a wealthy district on the outskirts of Berlin, to determine the method by which they will make Germany's territory free of Jews, including the occupied countries of Poland, Reichskommissariat Ostland, Czechoslovakia and France.

Chairing the meeting is Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Security Main Office, who states he has been given a mandate in the form of a directive from Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring to achieve a "complete solution of the Jewish question." Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger responds that the meeting is pointless and that the Jewish question has already been settled. Heydrich announces that the government's policy will change from emigration to "evacuation", and Fascist Italy will be forced to cooperate. There is consternation over the use of euphemisms from several of the participants, and Heydrich insinuates a policy of genocide that will become more explicit as the meeting progresses.

The men discuss sterilisation and exemptions for mixed-race Jews who have one or more non-Jewish grandparents. Heydrich's willingness to entertain various competing ideas suggests the ultimate fate of the Jews has not been decided. As the discussion continues, however, it becomes evident to the participants that the purpose of the meeting is not to formulate policy but to receive direction from the SS. Heydrich calls a break in the proceedings, and after praising Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, a lawyer in the Reich Ministry for the Interior, takes Stuckart aside to warn him about the consequences of his stubbornness. On reconvening, Heydrich reveals in frank detail the policy that had already been decided before the meeting convened: the wholesale extermination of Europe's Jewish population using gas chambers and ovens to incinerate the bodies.

SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann then reveals that the SS has been building extermination camps at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, and making preparations for the "Final Solution" under the noses of Germany's civilian bureaucrats. Eichmann describes the method that will be used: asphyxiation of Jews in gas chambers built at locations such as Auschwitz.

Throughout the meeting and over refreshments attendees raise other side issues, reflecting the interests of their respective work areas, including concerns that cholera and typhus could break out from the overpopulated ghettos in Poland. A break is called and this time it is Kritzinger's turn to be taken aside and intimidated by Heydrich. Kritzinger realizes 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 of his father, so much so that his life loses its meaning once his father dies. Heydrich later interprets this as a warning that a similar fate awaits them after the Jews are exterminated, though he rejects the warning, telling Müller and Eichmann that he will not miss the Jews.

Heydrich then recalls and concludes the meeting. 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 adjourn and begin to depart.

As the officials depart, a brief account of the fate of each one is given. Most of the members either died during the war or were arrested immediately after; two, Josef Bühler and Karl Eberhard Schongarth, are convicted by Allied military tribunals and executed, and the others acquitted to live a peaceful life in postwar West Germany. Heydrich would be assassinated by Czechoslovak partisans for his brutal rule in Bohemia and Moravia within six months, while Eichmann would flee to Buenos Aires but be captured, tried and sentenced to death by Israel in the 1960s. The film ends with the house tidied up and all records of the meeting destroyed as if it had never happened. The final card before the credits reveals that Luther's copy of the Wannsee minutes, recovered by the US Army in the archives of the German Foreign Office in 1947, was the only record of the conference to survive.

Cast

• Kenneth Branagh as SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich: Chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) and Deputy Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia.
• Stanley Tucci as SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann: Head of RSHA IV B4.
• Colin Firth as SS-Brigadeführer Dr Wilhelm Stuckart: State Secretary, Reich Ministry for the Interior.
• Ian McNeice as SS-Oberführer Dr Gerhard Klopfer: State Secretary, Party Chancellery.
• Kevin McNally as Martin Luther: Undersecretary and SS liaison, Foreign Ministry.
• David Threlfall as Ministerialdirektor Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger: Deputy Head, Reich Chancellery.
• Ewan Stewart as Dr Georg Leibbrandt: Head of Political Department, Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
• Brian Pettifer as Gauleiter Dr Alfred Meyer: Deputy Reich Minister, Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
• Nicholas Woodeson as SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann: Chief of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office.
• Jonathan Coy as SS-Sturmbannführer Erich Neumann: Director, Office of the Four Year Plan.
• Brendan Coyle as SS-Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller: Chief of RSHA Department IV (the Gestapo).
• Ben Daniels as Dr Josef Bühler: State Secretary for the General Government of occupied Poland.
• Barnaby Kay as SS-Sturmbannführer Dr Rudolf Lange: Commander of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Latvia.
• Owen Teale as Dr Roland Freisler: State Secretary, Reich Ministry of Justice.
• Peter Sullivan as SS-Oberführer Dr Karl Eberhard Schöngarth: SD officer assigned to the General Government.

Additional cast members include:

• Tom Hiddleston, in one of his first film roles, briefly appears in the beginning and end as a telephone operator.
• Ross O'Hennessy, appears in the beginning and middle as the SS Officer in charge of the Building.

Production

Background

Colin Callendar, head of HBO NYC productions, identifies two primary historical arguments underpinning the narrative. He underscores the conference's role as a mechanism for consolidating Reinhard Heydrich's authority and that of the SS in executing the infamous "Final Solution." He also emphasizes the film's portrayal of a lack of a clearly defined and centralized policy preceding the Wannsee Conference. These insights reflect a functionalist interpretation of the Holocaust, highlighting the evolutionary and radicalizing nature of the genocide, often originating from lower ranks within the Nazi hierarchy. Callendar also notes the presence distinct groups of various ranking officials (and their conflict objectives) underscores the Holocaust's emergence as a result of competing interests among different governmental agencies.

In addition to Callendar, the producers had the input of three historians, including Michael Berenbaum of the United States Holocaust Museum and Andrea Axelrod as a historical advisor. Noted Holocaust historian Christopher Browning also acted as a consultant. Browning offered small critiques, including geographical mistakes, references to speeches and events that had not yet happened in January 1942 and how the German officials referred to each other. Axelrod provided extensive research and documentation (amounting to 170 citations), including verifying the amount of snowfall in Wannsee on the date of the conference.

Screenplay

Pierson brought Mandel into the project initially for an unproduced script entitled Complicity. This was intended to be a companion movie detailing the failure of the Allies to help with Jewish refugees. The piece never made it to the screen, most likely as a result of the sensitive subject of culpability of Western Allies.

Mandel utilized the only existing copy of the conference minutes, called the Wansee Protocols, found in 1947 in the German Foreign Office files as the basis for the script. During an interview discussing a later adaptation of the screenplay into a theatre production, the author noted "I had never heard of the Wansee Conference" and that Pierson told him "...it was the first thing he had encountered about the Holocaust that angered him rather than making him want to cry", he signed on to write the screenplay. The script is not verbatim from conversations at the conference and most of the actual dialogue is invented. The meeting occurred over a period of 90 minutes, which is the same running time of the movie.

Filming

Kenneth Branagh, the actor portraying Heydrich in the film, reported that he found the role deeply unsettling. Despite grappling with a profound aversion towards the historical figure he portrayed, Branagh is acclaimed for delivering a remarkable portrayal of the allegedly flamboyant officer. Branagh's portrayal was challenging not only by the difficulty of delivering lines but also by the absence of discernible motivations or upbringing factors explaining Heydrich's chilling readiness to perpetrate genocide on an unprecedented scale. Branagh reaffirmed a recurring theme of the film, emphasizing its commitment to historical accuracy over sensationalism or star power, underscoring the importance of authentically recounting this harrowing chapter of history.

Reception

Critical reception

Conspiracy has a 100% approval rating from 7 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

In The American Historical Review, Alan E. Steinweis critically analyzes the film, offering insights from a historian's perspective. Steinweis highlights instances within the film where certain scenes are identified as dramatic inventions, pointing out discrepancies between historical accuracy and cinematic portrayal. However, Steinweis underscores a common limitation in historians' critiques of films, noting their tendency to focus solely on specific fictionalized elements while overlooking broader thematic arguments and the overarching vision of the film.

Steinweis also juxtaposes Conspiracy with its 1984 German predecessor, Die Wannseekonferenz, suggesting that the earlier film may offer a more historically accurate depiction by providing a more detailed examination of the killing process. He critiques the portrayal of Reinhard Heydrich in Conspiracy while commending the depiction of Adolf Eichmann as "refreshing." Yet, Steinweis argues that a deeper analysis, often absent in historical reviews of films, would involve an exploration of the film's production history to uncover the filmmakers' intentions, historical arguments, and research methodologies underlying the film's creation.

James Rampton in The Independent praised the film:

"Showing as part of the BBC's commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day, Frank Pierson's film underscores only too well the old maxim that evil prospers when good men do nothing."

— James Rampton

An impressed Austin Film Society had a lengthy review of the film and details about its making.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominee(s)	Result	Ref.
2001	Artios Awards	Best Casting for Movie of the Week	Linda Lowy	Nominated
	Online Film & Television Association Awards	Best Motion Picture Made for Television		Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture or Miniseries	Stanley Tucci	Nominated
		Best Editing in a Motion Picture or Miniseries		Nominated
		Best New Titles Sequence in a Motion Picture or Miniseries		Nominated
	Peabody Awards		HBO Films produced in association with the BBC	Won
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Made for Television Movie	Frank Doelger, Frank Pierson, David M. Thompson, Peter Zinner, and Nick Gillott	Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Kenneth Branagh	Won
		Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Colin Firth	Nominated
			Stanley Tucci	Nominated
		Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries or a Movie	Frank Pierson	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie	Loring Mandel	Won
		Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or a Movie	Stephen Goldblatt	Nominated
		Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special	Peter Zinner	Nominated
		Outstanding Single-Camera Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Movie	Peter Glossop, John Hayward, Richard Pryke, and Kevin Tayler	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special	Christopher Ackland, Gillian Dodders, Alan Paley, Felicity Cottrell, and Jason Swanscott	Nominated
2002	American Film Institute Awards	TV Movie or Mini-Series or the Year		Nominated
		Actor of the Year – Male – TV Movie or Mini-Series	Kenneth Branagh	Nominated
	Directors Guild of America Awards	Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television or Miniseries	Frank Pierson	Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television		Nominated
		Best Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television	Kenneth Branagh	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television	Stanley Tucci	Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Motion Picture Made for Television		Nominated
		Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television	Colin Firth	Nominated
			Stanley Tucci	Nominated
	Writers Guild of America Awards	Long Form – Original	Loring Mandel	Won
2003	British Academy Television Awards	Best Single Drama		Won
		Best Actor	Kenneth Branagh	Nominated

See also

• The Wannsee Conference, a 1984 German TV film
• Die Wannseekonferenz, a German TV docudrama
• List of Holocaust films
• List of conspiracy thriller films

External links

• Conspiracy at IMDb
• Conspiracy at the TCM Movie Database