IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review
Jerusalem Post (A. Spiro) article
Haaretz.com background / coverage
Operation Finale [2018] (directed by Chris Weitz, screenplay by Matthew Orton) is a historical drama that tries to tell the story of Israel's intelligence service Mossad's 1960 capture and then transporting of Adolf Eichmann [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by Ben Kingsley) from literally "off the street" to a safe house and eventually to Israel for trial.
It's a spectacular story, arguably one of Mossad's finest hours. A full length historical drama such as this released across the world will reach countless people that "a good book" or even "a excellent documentary" would not. So there's certainly a great deal of value in the project. It's just the "good book" / "sober, just the facts, documentary" would probably do _this story_ more justice than a drama always in danger of falling into "Hollywood cliché."
And at least on two counts, IMHO this film does fall into cliché:
(1) After capturing Eichmann literally "off the street" at the outskirts of Buenas Aires, literally half the film is spent on the somewhat absurd _device_ of getting Eichmann (tied up there in a safe house) "to sign." Sign what? Literally a paper saying that he was going from Argentina of his own free will to Israel for trial.
According to the film, apparently, Israel's STATE OPERATED airline El Al, was insistent on this technicality fearing repercussions for involving itself otherwise with an abduction. STILL ... (!%!&) ... THEY HAD EICHMANN the Architect of the Holocaust perhaps the highest ranking Nazi to have eluded death or capture after the War. And now MOSSAD (the Israelis) HAD HIM. It just seems absurd to believe that ANYONE in Israel's shoes WOULD HAVE GIVEN A DAMN about this ridiculous triviality. THEY HAD THE GUY WHO MURDERED SIX MILLION FELLOW JEWS. And whether "he signed" or not, there's no freaking way that MOSSAD was going to leave him in Argentina after going through the huge trouble of capturing him.
(2) The decision then to spend so much of the film's time on the (at the end of the day rather trivial) plot point of "getting Eichmann to sign" reduced the film to essentially Ben Kingsley playing Adolf Eichmann as Hannibal Lector of The Silence of the Lambs [1991]. Yes, the real-life Adolf Eichmann was EASILY as creepy and EVIL as the fictional Hannibal Lector, but ...
That said, if this film gets people to go to the library or to Amazon to buy a good book on Mossad's capture of Eichmann or to watch a good documentary on it, then this would be great and the film would have fulfilled its purpose.
So while this film doesn't score particularly high in "technical merit" -- I honestly wish that the writers of the Bourne films and/or the last several Mission Impossible films had been chosen to work this story up -- I still have to give the story high marks for the subject itself. I think it's incredibly important that the world know that Justice was done here. Mossad here, really did "get its man."
As such, not a bad film all around, still could have been a lot better.
< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here? If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation. To donate just CLICK HERE. Thank you! :-) >>
No comments:
Post a Comment