The Conspirator Page #6

Synopsis: In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son.
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Director(s): Robert Redford
Production: Roadside Attractions
  2 wins & 3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.9
Metacritic:
55
Rotten Tomatoes:
55%
PG-13
Year:
2010
122 min
$11,538,204
Website
675 Views


Left, right, left.

Company halt.

Mary, there's something

I need to ask you.

Um...

I've never seen you at a loss for words,

young man.

Heh.

Do you know where your son is hiding?

Johnny?

Of course not.

Government believes you do.

What do you believe?

Heh.

I believe you know more

than you're willing to tell me.

Uh, have you ever cared for something

greater than yourself?

I've spent these last four years

fighting for something

greater than myself,

so don't...

Then we are the same.

Mary, you have to tell us

where your son is.

Us?

I have to tell "us"?

Whose side are you on?

I'm trying to defend you.

By suggesting I trade

my son for myself?

You're trying to save you, Mr. Aiken.

I wish I could give you

what you need. I truly do.

But if you want out,

you'll have to find another way.

I'm gonna take a walk.

It's so nice out.

Do you care to walk with me?

So we're stuck

in these shallow trenches.

We're surrounded on all sides.

Nobody knows what to do.

Nobody knows what to say.

We're frozen,

completely petrified.

And then from somewhere

up on the hill,

we hear this loud

booming Southern voice.

It's the rebel general.

He yells, "Y'all boys

better say your prayers,

because there are 400 of us

and only 100 of you."

You can stop right there, Baker.

And so then this madman,

he stands up,

and he yells back to him,

and he says...

he says, "Hundred?

Heck, we've got less than that.

But we don't surrender,

so come and get us."

And with that,

he pulls down his pants

and bares his arse.

You didn't.

- I didn't.

- What?

It doesn't seem as though Fred

ever intends to surrender.

Ah, it appears he already has.

She's fair, fit and 40.

Is it true Mrs. Surratt is a Catholic,

wears black from head to toe?

I hear she spits in the faces

of every Union soldier she encounters.

Apparently she wears a necklace

made from the bone of a Union soldier.

Seriously, Fred, do you honestly

doubt she's guilty?

So, okay, who would like to dance?

- Yes.

- Yes. Good.

Mmm.

# Upon the field of Gettysburg #

# when morning shone again... #

Dance?

It's more like a wake.

I suppose I should have dressed

more like Mrs. Surratt.

Heh.

# In streams of fiery rain... #

Fred, what are you doing?

I'm enduring the pain

of having to listen to Baker.

You know what I mean.

If she's found guilty,

they'll say you weren't up to the task.

And God forbid you prevail.

They'll think you just as much

a traitor as she.

Baker, how 'bout something

a little happier?

# and un...

- Little happier?

- Yeah.

All right, Fred.

Happier, he wants.

Eh...

William's right, you know.

Either outcome, you cannot prevail.

Sarah.

What is it about Mary Surratt

you find so compelling?

These are criminal,

despicable people, Fred.

They're... they're

the same sort of people

you risked your life

fighting against,

and she helped kill

your commander in chief.

I don't know what she's guilty of.

May I ask you one more thing?

What is it, Sarah?

Does the captain

remember how to dance?

Of course.

Few people

will forget what side you fought on.

Trust me. It can be lonely.

I'm just upholding my oath

as an attorney

and doing my job.

It's what you ask ed.

It's what you told me to do.

This habit of quoting me back to me

could become most irritating.

You have your mother's convictions

and your father's annoying habits.

Well, "Mary Surratt is entitled

to a defense, Freddie,

so I shall defend her."

If they want John Surratt,

then you should serve him up

on a platter.

I... I don't mean, uh, physically.

I mean in spirit.

You have to prove to the Commission

that he is responsible, not her.

She's not gonna like that.

Mr. Lloyd, you are a tenant

of Mary Surratt, are you not?

Yes, sir.

I run a tavern some 10 miles

from the city

on a property she owns.

And on the afternoon

that President Lincoln was assassinated,

did Mary Surratt pay you a visit?

Yes, sir, in the company

of Louis Weichmann.

And she brought you a package,

did she not?

Yes, sir. That's correct, sir.

Small pack age

wrapped in newspaper.

Did she tell you where

the package came from?

Said it came from

John Wilkes Booth.

John Wilkes Booth!

And what exactly did she give you?

Objection.

There's no way the defendant

could have known what was inside.

He just testified the package

was wrapped.

Overruled.

Witness will answer the question.

Mr. Lloyd, what was inside the package?

Field glasses, sir.

Field glasses?

Field glasses like these?

Exactly.

With the initials "J.W. B."

inscribed on them.

Did she give you any instructions?

Sir?

Instructions, Mr. Lloyd?

Instructions which may affect this trial?

Oh. Yes, sir.

Ahem. She told me,

"Lloyd, get those

shootin' irons ready.

There will be parties here tonight

who will call for them."

You liar!

Order!

- He's a liar!

- Order!

- It's a lie.

- Order!

Control yourself, madam.

Such outbursts will only

prejudice your case.

Oh, Lord.

I just don't see how I could possibly

further prejudice this case, sir.

Counselor,

you will control your client.

General.

Shooting irons!

Shooting irons.

And to what was she referring?

Army rifles, sir,

hidden in the joist

above the dining room.

And what else did she tell you?

She said I was to get two bottles

of whiskey ready, too.

And were these things called for,

as per the defendant's instructions?

Yes, sir.

About midnight, sir,

the night of the assassination,

by two men on horses, one...

I'd seen before.

T'other was a stranger to me.

I brought the items, thinking these

were the parties Mrs. Surratt meant.

Two of 'em rode off so fast,

they could have outrun Creation

and give it two-mile a start.

Your witness.

I did not...

Mr. Lloyd.

Mr. Lloyd, you just testified

that Louis Weichmann accompanied

the defendant that afternoon.

Right.

So then I can correctly assume

that he would also testify

to having heard her instructions to you.

No.

She took me out by the woodpile

out of earshot.

So you're saying that nobody

heard this conversation,

just you and her.

Way it happened, sir.

Of course it is.

Of course it is.

When did you learn of President Lincoln's

assassination?

Well, who can forget when they heard?

The next morning,

a Captain Cottingham told me.

He was searching for the assassins.

No doubt, you were most upset.

Indeed.

I got myself right smart in liquor.

Yes, you're... you're right smart

in liquor most days,

- aren't you, Mr. Lloyd?

- Objection.

I fact, I hear that you're

your own best customer.

Objection.

Sustained.

This Captain Cottingham,

did he ask you anything in reference

to the assassins?

He asked if any parties

had passed through.

Naturally I told him

about the two I knew.

Actually, you did not.

According to this witness report,

you said nothing for two days.

I was frightened is all.

I feared the assassins

might come for me.

Perhaps, though, you were afraid

that the authorities

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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