Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

HotToastyRag Even though The Wilby Conspiracy starred Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier, two of my favorites, I wasn't really expecting to like it. I thought it would be another boring movie about a small, futile rebellion against apartheid in South Africa. It turned out to be an exciting thriller, one that was extremely entertaining from start to finish! Sidney Poitier plays a newly freed prisoner, but on his ride back home from the courthouse with his lawyer, Prunella Gee, and her boyfriend, Michael Caine, they're accosted by the police. They fight back in self-defense, but knowing that will not hold too much water as an excuse, they flee the scene. As the three try to leave the country, they get involved in a political scheme with Saeed Jaffrey, all the while hounded ruthlessly by police chief Nicol Williamson.While both normally handsome leading men are a little bit grungy in this film, it's still very much fun to watch. Rod Amateau's and Harold Nebenzal's script ties together so many great elements: politics, romance, racial tension, underground rebellion, action, and a touch of humor. They don't include silly comic reliefs that would cheapen the film; instead, it's a sophisticated sarcasm that makes the characters more human. Keep in mind, though, that the film does include the word "conspiracy" in the title, so there will be some unexpected twists and turns, as well as some potentially upsetting violence. Other than that, rent this for an exciting movie night!

JasparLamarCrabb Certainly any film set against the backdrop of South Africa's apartheid policy is grave, but this thriller is a bit too pat to really be recommended. Sidney Poitier is a recently released political prisoner who involves his lawyer (Prunella Gee) and her disinterested boyfriend (Michael Caine) in a plot to smuggle diamonds out of South Africa (to someone named Wilby). All three principles are terrific, but the script they're saddled with is at times too convoluted and at other times full of holes. It takes an inordinate of time to understand what's going on so the viewer ends up confused rather than intrigued. There are gaps in logic, both minor (how does Caine, without even looking for it, know the location of the side entrance to a building he's never been to?) and major (how does a dead man end up in Caine's trunk?) With Kenya subbing for South Africa the movies has some stunning photography and a great score by Stanley Myers. The supporting cast includes a young Rutger Hauer, Persis Khambatta and producer Helmut Dantine as a shifty prosecutor. Best of all is scenery chewer Nicol Williamson as the crafty cop trailing Poitier and Caine. Directed, blandly, by Ralph Nelson, whose wildly inconsistent output included the great LILIES OF THE FIELD, REQUIEM OF A HEAVEYWEIGHT and CHARLY as well as such oddities as EMBRYO and THE WRATH OF GOD.

Captain History The Wilby Conspiracy is an old movie, and so it is less dramatic and has less action than a modern action movie. The Wilby Conspiracy was pretty entertaining. There were good chasing scenes and and some of it was very funny. The actors were really good. The movie was useful for learning about history because it showed an activist and how they were victimised by the racist police. It also shows some white south africans who are normally not in apartheid movies (where the black characters are the heroes). Many whites in south Africa were against the system of apartheid, especially whites with an English background. It is good that this movie shows this, with a British Engineer helping the black criminal. As viewers we must be critical of the way the history of Apartheid was presented. Mainly, this movie didn't have heaps of information about Apartheid - it never really explains why the activist was in gaol and what was his motivation. That would have made it more believable. It is possible that the film-maker wanted the audience to not know so that he was just another black activist being victimised by the government. It would have been a more historically useful movie if the characters had talked about what their political beliefs were and why. The characters of the police were also a bit too simple - they were more like 'badies' than actual people. To be more useful for someone learning about history it could have been fairer to the whites who were police, who were not evil badies, just ignorant people who were part of the system everyone else was. This was an enjoyable film, which had some good action and suspense parts. But for a way to learn about the history of apartheid it is not ideal, there are some large gaps in what it tells you - and it is more concerned with excitement and action than politics and history. -Brad, Evren, Henry, Miles (9H1).

SipteaHighTea I wish they extend the time period by another 5 to 10 minutes on the love scene that occur between Sidney Poitier and Persis Khambatta with more intimate lovemaking action. They did that with Kevin Costner in the movies Dances with Wolves and Bull Durham and Eric Roberts and Pamela Gidley in the movie Freefall. They also did that in the TV show NYPD where David Caruso made love with his cop girlfriend. I think they should have made the love scene in the attic instead of the closet. The attic look like it had a lot more room and enough space to place a small boxspring and bed mattress and some bed sheets so the characters could make more intense, detailed love scenes. It seems to me that there should be a firm rule that films like the Wilby Conspiracy should be at the minimum 2 hours long whether it is shown at the theater, on VHS, DVD or CD.