The Conspirator Objective Narrative

With this context in place, this film prolonged the execution scene of four conspirators. The footage of the scene lasted for 4 minutes and 43 seconds, while focusing on the forest surrounding the gallows. The audience desperately waits for John's appearance until the moment Mary Surratt is hung by a noose, which reinforces the notion of the audience that Mary should not have been hung in her son's place. The Conspirator is also portrayed in an objective narrative, which misleads the audience about the identity of the true villain against Mary Surratt and drastically transforms the closing of the film. Viewers see the Secretary of War deciding Mary's fate. Therefore, when Aiken desperately searches for an answer, the audience believes that …show more content…
Aiken has delivered the writ of habeas corpus, and believes that he has saved his client from the quickly approaching gallows. Through the duration of this film, Aiken believes that he has a chance. Although witnesses and testimonies have been coerced, Aiken has done all that he can to defend his client. Bordwell and Thompson report that the "most crucial information [comes] at the final turning point of the plot", and the last piece of information that Aiken must discover is only delivered moments after he discloses his client's safety (85). The film reveals that, although the War Department has taken the blame for the unconstitutional trial, the newly inaugurated president has been controlling the outcome of the trial. The president overturned the writ of habeas corpus, and transformed Mary Surratt's life sentence into a death sentence (1:44:30). Aiken has not been defending his client against a court of law, but against the executive power of the country. Aiken is immediately told "inter arma enim silent leges", "during times of war, the law falls silent" (1:45:50). The last remaining chance for preserving Mary Surratt's life is extinguished under the title of martial …show more content…
In doing so, the film draws parallels between the witch-hunt of the possibly innocent in the past and the present. After Lincoln's assassination, the accused conspirators were hanged. The release date of The Conspirators directs attention to the fact that punishing some for the actions of others was not exclusively in the past. This film was released ten years after the events of September 11th, 2001. Ever since this attack, Muslims have been persecuted because of their commonality with the Muslims who enacted the attack on New York. In addition, hundreds of thousands of civilian Iraqis and Afghans died in the subsequent war against terror. It is important to remember the story of Mary Surratt because the past has repeated itself, and the director presents a story that would make the audience feel just as outraged at their own generations of contemporary Americans as they are with the Americans of