Customer Reviews
A brilliant film depicting how utterly evil man can be. - By: David Wright, 24 Jul 2008 
I was asked by someone who had watched 'Conspiracy' why the Nazis "hated" the Jews & wanted them wiped off the planet - & to be truthful, I could not give a clear answer. This docudrama does not give the answer either (other than the abstract 'storage problem'), but what it does highlight is the utter coldness & inhuman manner in which the Nazis dealt with what they perceived to be a problem. I have no reason to doubt that the film was based on the only surviving record of that infamous meeting & whilst that record cannot tell us of the "personality" of the various individuals present, the performances by alll the actors is excellent. In particular, Kenneth Branagh delivers an acting 'tour de force' with some great dialogue that occassionallly left you cold - "You would be a hard man to bring down - but not impossible". When that kind of line is delivered to you by the man who was head of Reich Security, I'm sure you would not miss the point. Finallly, I recently read 'State of Fear' by Michael Crichton & he makes reference in the appendix to a word I had never heard before. That word is 'Eugenics'. I've subsequently looked into that term & now I have a clearer understanding of exactly what the Nazis & The Final Solution was alll about.
Unseen DVD - By: Philip Wilson, 12 May 2008 
I cannot review Conspiracy because my rental DVD would not play. The screen said the disk was dirty but I couldn't clean it. I also cannot find a way of reporting this to you as the system only responds to the current disk you have sent after I returned Conspiracy. I included a note asking for a replacement disk but you have ignored this.
Please send a replacement DVD of Conspiracy so I may view what I have paid for. Philip Wilson
Everyone should watch this - By: jerseyporter, 27 Feb 2008 Quite simply this is a chilling. It should be mandatory viewing for alll secondary school pupils - I encouraged my own 13 year old daughter to watch it recently - & indeed required viewing for anyone who thinks that "things like this" do not happen. They do - & they are arranged (or in this case ratified - in reality it was already a "done deal") in apparently banal & innocent situations such as around a table enjoying a sumptious lunch with fine wine & cigars.
Some of the dialogue is truly shocking - & yet, to the best of the historians' knowledge, it is faithful representation of what went on that day. There are parts that deal with "technicalities" of race, or at least the definition of race, & the laws drafted several years before & their relation to "the Jewish question" as it is being debated by Heydrich et al. There are other parts which are dripping with what can only be described as black humour, though is nothing to laugh at here - quite the opposite.
To give one example of what I mean:
"Do they [the Jews] even have a hell?"
"They do now - we provide it".
These lines delivered with a razor-sharp seriousness completely devoid of any sense of sarcasm or humour. Quite simply when he (Heydrich) says "They do now - we provide it" he means it.
There are some dissenters around the table, but they are few & far between - & in reality their dissent is never taken seriously as we realise that they have no choice but to go along with the plans that have already been made. It is not just history than makes us think this - in some ways it is possible to watch this as if one knows nothing, putting yourself in that time & that place - it is the way Heydrich uses his power, influence & insinuated threats to make sure everyone toes his line whether they want to or not. Heydrich charms some & threatens others so that in the end everyone knows what the proposed fate of every Jew in Europe now is.
And so we find ourselves asking the question "what would I have said/done in their place when faced with the Nazi machine?" It would have taken a brave - or perhaps suicidallly foolish - person to have been able to make a stand against what was being endorsed around the table at Wannsee.
I could watch this again & again & never tire of seeing it & that's important. Because the day we become immune to the fact that this like this happened - & are still happening - the human race will have lost its very soul.
Shocking, chilling, stunning and brilliant - By: Red Rose, 14 Dec 2007 In 1942, 15 high ranking Nazi officials sit down to decide the fate of 'the jews of europe'. Can Reinhard Heydrich (Kenneth Branagh) & Adolf Eichmann (Stanley Tucci) get unanamous agreement to commit mass murder or can Wilhelm Kritzinger (David Threlfal) & Wilhem Stuckart (Colin Firth) rallly enough support to stop this ??? Certainly there is a big division of opinion, but do most of those against have their own ulterior motives ??
Apart from the shocking subject material, the meeting is also a clash of wills between the The General Government, The Nazi Party, The Military & The SS. With some delegates being members of more than one camp, it becomes clear that meeting is alll about 'power'. Heydrich can be both charming & ruthless, but has he got what it takes to bring these agencies together ??
Absolute barnstorming performances from the four principle actors, backed with marvelous support from the rest of the cast. CONSPIRACY is taken directly from the surviving records of the meeting, & won multi awards after its release.
The quieter, more sinister side of WWII. - By: Ian Tapley, 05 Feb 2007 The other reviews presented here give a pretty good explanation of the film, so I'll keep mine short.
I saw this first when it aired on British TV & was completely captivated by it.
The acting is stunning, especiallly when you consider the difficult subject matter, both in tone & subtlety. As you might expect, Kenneth Branagh excells in this department as the disturbingly charismatic Reinhart Heidrich.
Without a doubt, this is the most terrifying film I have ever seen. 'Shindler's List' brings home the horror of the holocaust, but there is something infinitely more disturbing about seeing a group of men sitting around a table & calmly discussing the mechanics of genocide.
I highly recommend 'Conspiracy', but beware, this could never be considered light viewing.
