Conspiracy

In January of 1942, General Reynhard Heynrich convened the Wannsee Conference to force various factions within Hitler's government & military to buy in to the Final Solution. CONSPIRACY is drawn from the minutes of that Conference, is of both historical, psychological, and artistic interest as a reasonably accurate depiction of the Conference as a study in management, group dynamics, and power of peer pressure.

Kenneth Branagh stars as General Heynrich, the "Blonde Beast" who was the #2 man at the SS. By turns charming, threatening, officious, and chummy, he uses every tool at hand to ensure the compliance of the men around the table. Stanley Tucci plays Heynrich's right-hand man, Adolf Eichmann, as a cold, hyperorganized, and imposing figure. Only a lieutenant-colonel at the time, Eichmann's competence and obvious closeness to his boss lend him an authority far beyond his rank. There are a number of excellent performances in this movie, but these two guys deserve their above-the-title billing. They're absolutely fascinating, and absolutely terrifying, and the movie does an oustanding job of showing us how, together, they maneuver and manipulate the balky group of men around the table into assistance with one of history's greatest crimes.

As history, as case study, or as art, CONSPIRACY is time well spent.