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Eichmann
Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel, of his role in Hitler's plan for the final solution.
Release : | 2007 |
Rating : | 5.9 |
Studio : | uFilm, Entertainment Motion Pictures, uMedia, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Thomas Kretschmann Troy Garity Franka Potente Stephen Fry Delaine Yates |
Genre : | Drama History |
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the audience applauded
Absolutely the worst movie.
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
There's an irony of the worst criminals in history , those ruling the regime of Nazi Germany 1933-45 were so unremarkable , so much so that the phrase " The banality of evil " was coined for them . This film directed by Robert Young chronicles the interrogation of the most banal man of the Nazi regime Adolph Eichmann who was kidnapped by Mossad while he was living in Argentina and put on trial in Israel in 1961 . If Young has heard of the phrase banality of evil then he's taken it a little too literally because this is a rather banal movie There are some good points such as the opening that has Muslim immans calling the faithful to prayer via loudhailers . Forget all the nonsense you've heard about Israel being an apartheid state because 15% of the Israeli population is Arab who are citizens of the country and are awarded the same rights as the Jewish population . On the subject of democracy the end credits has a voice over from Avner Less who describes the system that saw Eichmann commit his crimes would never happen in a democracy and that democracy is the only political system worth fighting for . The film also has impressive cinematography where the scenes set in 1960s Israel has a brownish sepia tone . It makes a nice change to see a film where the primary colours aren't prominent since films nowadays have an indistinguishable look Nothing else about EICHMANN is distinguished and is a rather dull movie as we shown countless scenes of Less interrogating Eichmann as to his crimes . History has it that Eichmann was bullied at school because his peers thought he was Jewish and I would have liked to have seen the possibility that so many high ranking Nazis might have been of Jewish descent themselves . Instead we get something along he lines of a sleazy soap opera where Eichmann meets several hot high class women for sex including a Hungarian Countess . At any moment you're expecting Joan Collins to come swanning in to a scene where THE COLBYS meets SCHINDLERS LIST And that's the problem . SCHINDLERS LIST has a monopoly on holocaust films . If you're doing a movie featuring the real life crimes of Nazi Germany then you have to bring something new and remarkable to the table and this bland banal drama doesn't
When a film's starting sentence is 'based on a true story' or if you know that the story behind the film actually took place, you expect at least the facts to be close to reality. I'll put aside the embarrassing mistakes in Hebrew (didn't you have Israeli actors on the set?), what troubles me more is the inaccuracies in historical facts, and the actual 'creation' of allegedly legal documentations that never existed. Furthermore, the addition of plot lines that portray Eichmann as a brutal murderer, and as a 'valentino', are not correct, add nothing to the plot (apart from the female nudity, which is entirely not required in this movie), and miss the horrible fact that Eichmann, like many many officers in the German Reich was a gray man, who just filed documents that sent millions to their death. This movie is a shame for the viewers' intelligence. Ignoring the historical errors and the made up plot lines, the movie itself is not interesting, the characters are superficial and empty, and if there's an intention to create a 'duel' between Eichmann and Less, it is artificial and is futile.
This acceptable biopic deals basically with the pretrial interrogation of Adolf Eichmann after he was captured in Argentina and brought to Israel. In the interrogation, he insists his role in the Holocaust was minor, just a sort of transport commissioner who has to make sure the different prisoners arrive on time at each concentration camp. This is contrasted with flashbacks from Eichmann during World War II, showing him directly in charge of the extermination of Jews. His main interrogator is a police captain, and the movie shows some of his background, how his role affects his family life, etc. German actor Thomas Kretschmann, who has made a career of playing Nazi officers (in Downfall, Stalingrad and Valkyrie, for instance) is very good as the Nazi criminal. So is Troy Garity playing the Israeli detective. Maybe the movie would have benefited from a larger scope – it includes nothing of Eichmann during the trial itself, very few about his life in Argentina, his capture is dealt in just one quick scene. And there were a few scenes that sounded false to me. For example, Eichmann is seen making love to a Hungarian mistress during the war and to get her hot he tells her the amounts of people he ordered killed. Or in another scene the same lady dares Eichmann to kill a baby. Maybe it really happened but the way it is portrayed in the movie sounded downright false and tasteless to me. These few objections aside, this is not a bad film.
I've seen this film and I thought it was very good. It reminds me of some of the movies made in the 70's which though essentially B movies rose to the status of great art. Films like "Charley Varrick" and "The Driver".It has a great gutsy approach to storytelling in the mold of someone like Fuller, bold, teetering on cliché, but with an intimacy and great power.The central performances are both compelling. Kretschmann is brilliant. Troy Garity provides a performance best in his blossoming career.The films greatest power is in the detail. It unswervingly faces the sometimes overwhelming amount of information and puts it on the screen. Its the detail (in the script) and the refusal to avoid this in the dialogue that makes the film so hypnotic.