Robert Redford's "The Conspirator" was worth a look. But there are a few problems I would point out. Poor Justin Long, in the opening scene when James McAvoy tells his joke I expected Long to sit up and say "I'm a Mac" and McAvoy to retort "and I'm a PC" for the punchline. Long will probably be most remember for the rest of his life for those ads. But it touches on a problem that Hollywood has when they do historical films: famous actors take you out of the story. Well maybe except for Robin Wright who can change her looks enough and get into the part enough you forget who she is. There are a few actors like like that but often it's "hey, that's so and so playing so and so."
Problem two: despite his work with Sundance Redford still seems to be stuck in old production ways. I'm probably a bit sensitive here but the dialog scenes between two actors in the film seemed a little stilted. Why? Because undoubtedly Redford used only one camera to shoot them. These days directors like to take advantage of technology and use two cameras: an A and B camera to shoot dialog scenes. It's more natural, efficient as the actors play out the scene at the same time. Redford seems to like film and film is too expensive to do that. Problem three: despite the nice depiction of the era it seemed a little dusty to me. More like I was visiting a museum of that era which I have, many times taking relatives to visit the museum near my hometown. It should have looked a little more like "Deadwood" which didn't look so dusty. Back then that stuff would have looked shiny and new though dated by our standards. The story is important though because it is about the prosecution of Mary Surratt which though she was a civilian was done by a military tribunal. A few years later the Supreme Court declared that in war civilians still should have a jury trial. The Bluray is loaded with extras and much more than I could watch in an evening. However the 67 minute documentary kept beating me over the head that the Civil War was about "slavery" when it was more to do with state's rights (and of course at issue was slavery and states rights). It also doesn't touch at all about the British supporting the South. It was still to much of a whitewash grade school approach instead of a Howard Zinn one. I would also recommend Scorcese's "Gangs of New York" to get a better sense of the era and particularly listen to his commentary. Also on the disc was an interesting trailer for "Margin Call", a thriller that revolves around the key people at a investment bank over a 24-hour period during the early stages of the financial crisis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DqFRsPrns Looks like it "might" be good.
