A VERY LONG REVIEW
Any spoilers to the movie are pretty much known already to anybody who’s read so much as the wiki on Mary Surratt, so I won’t box them.
It was well acted all around. It also looked good save for some scenes that were a bit too hazy. I would guess that 2010 Savannah is a lot greener than 1865 Washington D.C. but still a decent substitute and actual houses look better than a set (save for a couple that are so well known to anybody who’s spent any time in Savannah).
The issue of her guilt was handled very well. It does not whitewash her and while she herself swears her innocence on a Bible (which means a lot as she’s a very religious woman) to the knowledge of the triple murder plot she admits she knew about the kidnapping plan and that she’d say just about anything to save her son. It implies without actually stating that witnesses against her perjured themselves to be more incriminating and because of the threats against their own freedom and lives, which is generally believed by most biographers. Most historians and biographers portray her as a woman who probably could have gotten Booth and her son and the other conspirators imprisoned or hanged if she had told all she knew before April 14, 1865 but who did not know all the details and almost certainly wasn’t involved in planning them, and this pretty much follows suit. OTOH, all of the flashbacks to the time before her arrest are told from her perspective so if you want to believe she was guilty as sin it’s easily workable and if you want to believe she was a total patsy it’s possible.
I’ll admit I didn’t like the preachiness about the U.S. government and due process. I detest Bush-Cheney’s disregard for due process and one of my great disappointments in Obama is that he hasn’t done more to repair it, I don’t see as strong a parallel as Redford apparently did with the Surratt trial; to say there were injustices and railroading in both doesn’t mean they really fit that well in a CRUCIBLE like retelling. OTOH, while this supplied a couple of money shots of the movie (the role of the U.S. Secretary of Defense is now being played by Kevin Kline as the U.S. Secretary of War).
Casting was great except for Toby Kebbell as Booth- he wasn’t bad just miscast- actually Jonathan Groff, who played Lew Weichman, would have been better- he’s pale and pretty and the right age- though Booth was actually a smaller role than the one he had.
Lots of familiar faces: John Cullum from Northern Exposure is always great to see on screen, Kline of couse, Rachel Evan Wood was good as Anna Surratt. While it sounds trivial to say I’ll say it anyway (cause I never said I wasn’t trivial): some actors are hurt a tad by typecasting. Justin Long did fine in his role but he’s just so typecast in light comedy it’s hard to really not notice; ditto Stephen Root as the man who leased Surratt’s Tavern- he did an excellent job as an unrepentant rebel but obviously terrified witness, but he’s become so associated with so many quirky roles (Milton Waddams, Jimmy James, “My that was some mighty fine pickin’ and a sangin’”) that you tend to notice it a bit. Most obscure perhaps was Jon Voldstad, the actor best known as blonde Daryl from “I’m Larry, this is my brother Daryl and this is my other brother Daryl” as a Union general- lots of screen time but little dialogue- which made me think “Daryl again” whenever he was on screen which of course set some of my A.D.D.led mind into rewriting it as a Newhart episode. ("Prosecution calls Dick Loudon.’ “Bu…but…but I wasn’t even born until almost 70 years later.” “So you did NOT fight for the Union is what you’re saying.”)
I rarely notice goofs and continuity errors so I’m almost glad I finally got to catch one: in the hanging scene Mary is holding a rosary from the time she mounts the scaffold til the time the noose is fitted until her hands are tied behind her back. Just for a second there’s a cutaway after her hands are tied and you see her at a distance from her daughter’s perspective looking out the prison window and you see her hand in front of her for just a very few frames probably holding the rosary in front. Didn’t take me out of the movie but a noticeable flub.
Historically from what I know of the characters (and I knew nothing of Frederick Aiken) it seemed genuinely alright save for Stanton, who Kline acted well as written but I think should have had a bit more rage. From what I’ve read I think that Stanton was shoving her to the gallows less for political or national security reasons than the fact he genuinely wanted to see the people who killed Lincoln swing on a rope- similar to the rage against the Taliban most felt after 9-11 but even though the parallels drawn can be obvious as mentioned I think Redford left out the element of genuine desire for payback in addition to any political advantage of “enemy caught and ours”. (Stanton was not all wheels and gears like he was written in the movie- in fact he was a man of intense emotions, both anger and depression, and had a horrible time with death of those he was close to; not mentioned in the movie but in real life he kept the dead body of his infant daughter (in a coffin, not out in view) in his bedroom for several weeks and had been similarly crazed over the death of his first wife [flipped out when he saw her in her coffin the first time and demanded they take off the black dress she had on and put her wedding dress on her so that she would spend eternity as his bride, and then slept in a room with her coffin for several days, and almost killed himself when his brother committed suicide- while this would be a bit much for a movie about the conspiracy trial, they need to show the powerful if not altogether sane emotions at play here, and in fact he and Lincoln largely bonded over shared grief as the fathers of dead children.)
Sorry- off on a tangent- but- Stanton was portrayed wrong in my opinion.
My biggest irritation for historical accuracy was the hanging scene, and this had nothing to do with the goof. The irritation thing was that they proceeded with great accuracy up to a point: the gallows, the umbrella, the open graves they had to pass by, the stacked coffins, all good, but Mary Surratt was far too calm. Historically she was a basket case who had to be half-carried up the gallows stairs (not from fighting but because she could barely walk from terror). Also in reality when the nooses were being fitted it is recorded that Lewis Powell said "“Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn’t deserve to die with the rest of us”; that’s pretty moving considering he wasn’t protesting his own death or those of the men on the scaffold with him, and he chose to use his last words to speak while he had vision to beg for her life. (After the hood was placed on his head he said “I thank you, good bye”, so they weren’t quite his last words, but they were his last statement.)
Mary Surratt- and this I could have told you in 5th grade when I was nearly expelled for my book report on her (well, the project that accomanied it), were “Please don’t let me fall!” and then “Tell Anna I love her”. Neither was said. She went to her death in the movie with reluctance but stoic grace. I have no idea why they changed it.
Anyway, all in all I recommend it for the character study, the “feel” of the time, the fact there are so few movies made about this era, and some good acting. Robin Wright will absolutely be nominated this time next year, though probably for Best Supporting Actress as opposed to Best Actress. I doubt it will garner any nominations for Best Motion Picture as it’s early in the year and it wasn’t all that. Watch it with some caveats though as to its accuracy, and unless you’re a major history buff about this period it probably won’t hurt anything by watching it on DVD. I hope it does well enough at the box office to encourage more Civil War era movies, but I don’t have great expectations.
