Let me first say I have a close personal connection to The Conspirator, the new movie (out in theaters April 15) that tells the little-known story about the conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The movie’s screenwriter, James Solomon, is an old friend of mine. He uncovered the story and first wrote the script 18 years ago, and he’s tirelessly worked ever since to see it become a movie. He could never have dreamed that not only would the movie get made, but also that Academy Award winner Robert Redford would direct it.
But this post is not to gush too much about my dear friend. It’s about why this movie will resonate with any mom out there.
History often seems so remote -- names, faces and moments from times long ago that we learn about in school and know are important but don’t often seem to connect to our lives. However, when we hear the little-known personal stories surrounding those key moments, they are as relatable as if they happened today.
That is the case in The Conspirator. Mary Surratt, played beautifully by Robin Wright, is on trial, accused of plotting to kill the president. She faces a decision: She can save her life by turning in her son, who is on the run and believed to have conspired with the president’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Her other option is to face death. It is the ultimate sacrifice a mother could make, and one I think most of us who have little ones who call us mom or dad would make too.
At the same time, there is another mother-son dynamic at play in this movie, between Mary and the defense attorney who reluctantly takes on her case, Frederick Aiken, played by James McAvoy. The fact that Aiken might give up everything in his own life to save Mary is a true definition of what a son might do for his mother.
I was curious. Why did the screenwriter focus so much on these relationships when telling this historical story? Here’s my Q&A with The Conspirator's scribe, James Solomon.
The Lincoln assassination is known but you came upon the story of the conspiracy, which most people have never heard before. You focused on the relationship between Aiken and Mary. What led you to that decision?
The Conspirator is a story few know wrapped inside a story everyone knows. Everyone thinks they know the story of the Lincoln assassination. Turns out most of us don't. When I began writing The Conspirator 18 years ago, I thought the Lincoln assassination was Booth shoots Lincoln in Ford's Theatre ... end of story. I didn't know there were multiple attacks that night. That the secretary of state was stabbed repeatedly and nearly killed. That someone was at the residence of the vice president to kill him. That hundreds were rounded up. That eight civilians were tried by a military commission. That one of them was a woman, Mary Surratt, who ran a boardinghouse. And that she was likely on trial for crimes committed by her son.
At the center of The Conspirator is an extraordinary human story about a mother abandoned by her son, and the surrogate son who risks everything to save her life. The latter is Frederick Aiken, a Union officer now lawyer, who defends Mary Surratt, a Southern woman, accused of conspiring to murder his commander-in-chief.
I think it is one of the great American stories -- hardly known.
What about that relationship was so powerful to you?
I thought it was a powerful story about loyalties and allegiances. Just about every character in The Conspirator has conflicted loyalties. Aiken must choose between his career and his conscience, the Union he nearly died for and his Confederate client. Mary is forced to choose whether to save her son or herself, with enormous consequences for her daughter, Anna (played by Evan Rachel Wood). Anna has to choose whether to save her brother, John (played by Johnny Simmons), or her mother. John has chosen the Confederate “cause” over his mother’s life. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
When I started writing The Conspirator, I was exactly Frederick Aiken's age -- 27. I saw this story through his eyes, through a son’s eyes. It’s taken me so long to get this movie made I’m now roughly the same age as Mary Surratt, in my 40s, with two children, a six year old daughter, Mena, and a 4-year-old son named Lincoln.
I now see the world through the eyes of a parent, and how far we’re willing to go to protect our children. Truth be told, had I started writing this now, I might very well have told it from Mary Surratt’s perspective, from a parent’s perspective and not the son’s.
How much did you see that relationship as a mother-son dynamic?
In the movie, Aiken’s mentor, Sen. Reverdy Johnson (played by Tom Wilkinson) says to Aiken: "She's not your mother, Fred. If John Surratt won’t sacrifice himself for her (Mary), then neither should you." That is Aiken’s dilemma in a nutshell.
As you were writing the film, how important was it to communicate Mary's love for her son and that conflict between saving her own life and protecting her son's?
It was of paramount importance. Towards the end of the movie, Aiken visits Mary Surratt in her cell after he's given his closing argument. Mary asks Aiken if there's been "any word?" Aiken assumes she's referring to the verdict. He informs Mary the military commission is still deliberating. But that's not what Mary is after. She wants to know if her son, John, has stepped forward to save her. On the one hand, she’ll do anything to protect him including giving up her own life. She knows if he were to come forward he’d never receive a fair trial. But on the other hand, deep inside, a part of her wishes that her son’s love for her would compel him to come forward.
As you wrote the screenplay, did you feel that bringing out these relationships -- especially between Mary and her son -- would be a way to make these great historical lessons more real and relatable?
History isn't a progression of events. It is people -- mothers, sons, daughters, elected officials -- caught up in moments, at times beyond our control, and the choices we make. These moments and choices are often very similar to what we confront today.
The Lincoln assassination is what first drew me to this subject matter. But what sustained my interest during these past 18 years is this remarkable “mother-son” relationship. And I think it is what makes this historical drama set in 1865 resonate with audiences in 2011. A mother’s love for her child is timeless.
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