Although passably well done professionally, "The Conspiracy" fails at the honesty proof. It' set in 1945, when the communists were taking over Romania, under the direct command of Stalin. The Romanian National Peasant Party, the National Liberal Party, the Iron Guard members returned from the German refugee camps, and other patriotic forces, were valiantly trying to organize the resistance, only to be ruthlessly crushed. The movie tells about such an episode: an attempt to blow to pieces the Parliament, that the communists had taken over by a massive elections fraud (turning upside down their 90% failure, into an equal victory). Since it was done in 1974, in full communist tyranny, it obviously shows the heroes as murderers and bandits, and the Securitate traitors as valiant fighters for a just cause. The saddest aspects are the parts played by Fory Etterle and Victor Rebengiuc, two of the best Romanian actors ever, AND honest people, but here forced to accept the Satanic pact: Etterle composes a grotesque caricature of a Peasant Party leader, while Rebengiuc compromises his talent by creating a really credible and freaky villain out of Horia Baniciu (inspired by the Legionnaire hero Horatiu Comaniciu). At the same time, the Securitate Colonel Mihai Roman, already known from the Sergiu Nicolaescu movies "Cu mîinile curate" (1972) and "Ultimul cartus" (1973), a disgusting scelerate of the kind that executed the worst abuses and crimes, was portrayed as a noble and charismatic hero. A pity...
And the things went from bad to worse in the two sequels: "Departe de Tipperary" (1975) and "Capcana" (1976).
