Despite all the evidence, millions around the world continue to blame the Jews for 9/11. This belief is a modern-day incarnation of the infamous "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the century-old forgery that some people claimed to be the Jews’ master plan to rule the world. Filmmaker Marc Levin sets out to understand why "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" has been revived, and to challenge one of the most persistent, insidious conspiracy theories of all time. In the course of his explosive journey, Levin finds himself delving into the heart of hate, facing those who would traffic in bigotry, all in the name of God.
On January 20, 1942, with the tide of war turning in favor of the Allies, a small group of SS officers, government ministers, and Nazi officials met near Berlin to decide the fate of Europe's Jews. Based on the only surviving record of that meeting, Conspiracy is a powerful combination of historical reconstruction and speculation that attempts to offer new insights into a pivotal moment in history. The cast does a marvelous job of fleshing out the documentary evidence to create convincing characters. Kenneth Branagh is especially chilling as SS Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich, who uses a combination of charm and ruthless power-mongering to gain support for his plans. Colin Firth is fascinating as Wilhelm Stuckart, a lawyer who sees the brutal tactics of the SS as a threat to his own intellectualized anti-Semitism, and Stanley Tucci gives a wonderfully understated performance as Adolf Eichmann. Conspiracy is a carefully crafted, completely unsensational film that offers ample proof of the banality of evil. There are no histrionics and no comic-book Nazi villains, just a small group of politicians and war-weary soldiers arguing about the meaning of words and the logistics of extermination, calmly preparing to unleash an unimaginable horror on the world.
