Fascism and Nazism take root in the United States in the new trailer for HBO’s upcoming adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel The Plot Against America.
Roth’s 2004 alternate-history story is based around a reimagining of the 1940 election, in which the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt and aligns the U.S. with Nazi Germany. While Lindbergh never actually ran for president, he had an avowed penchant for Nazi Germany, was a spokesperson for the anti-war/nativist America First Movement, and had a tendency to spout some casual anti-Semitism.
In The Plot Against America, Lindbergh’s political rise is documented through the lens of a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, with Morgan Spector and Zoe Kazan playing Herman and Elizabeth Levin, and Azhy Robertson and Caleb Malis playing their sons, Philip and Sandy. As Lindbergh’s rhetoric fuels a rise in anti-Semitic attacks, the family finds itself even more conflicted when Elizabeth’s sister, Evelyn (Winona Ryder), marries the conservative Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf (John Turturro), who begins to stump for Lindbergh.
David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire) helmed the adaptation of The Plot Against America, which will premiere March 16th at 9 p.m. on HBO.
