During the early 1940’s Germany had at least two Nazi madmen…
Hitler was its Fuhrer while Adolf Eichmann became the architect and mastermind of the so-called “final solution.”
He’s the one who organized the slaughter.
OPERATION FINALE is MGM’s new historical-thriller set 15 years after the war in 1960 when most of the war criminals had already stood trial—or committed suicide.
But Eichmann got away!
He was living in Argentina under an assumed name, pursuing a regular life with his family.
What he didn’t count on was the never give up drive of Mossad agents who against incredible odds set out on a mission to hunt, capture and extradite Eichmann to Israel to stand trial.
“For the first time we will judge our executioner.”
It was a high-stakes operation that sounded easier to achieve than it turned out to be.
Basically there are two acts to this film.
The first would be the planning and capture side of the clandestine operation which turned out surprisingly well under stressful circumstances.
“We got him. But how do we get him out?”
That was the major problem. Once captured and transporting Eichmann out of Buenos Aires became an almost impossible mission.
The extraction from the country turned into a nearly no-win situation with local authorities blocking them every step along the way.
Furthermore El Al Airlines wasn’t about to allow a captured prisoner on their aircraft for the purpose of extradition without his signed approval.
And Eichmann sure knew how to play the game.
There is of course much more to this thriller than I want to get into here.
Suffice it to say this movie will grip you for its entire two hour running time.
Good solid performances all around including that of Ben Kingsley as Eichmann and Oscar Isaac in the role of the lead Mossad agent.
And while it is based on true events OPERATION FINALE does take a fair amount of liberties in its story telling—and fully admits that in the credits.
My biggest beef though is not with the film but with its distributor who placed it at the very end of the summer movie season when the bottom (usually) drops out of the box office.
This is much more of an adult film for grownup audiences which generally plays better in the fall and in my opinion would have deserved a better opening slot than this weekend.
So if you’re into historic thrillers along the lines of THE ODESSA FILE than give the ensemble-driven OPERATION FINALE a chance. It delivers.
My grade: B-
Jack Goes To The Movies Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News at 9:50 a.m. on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.
Acktung. Nazi puppet sex.
Is Malissa McCarthy in it too???????
Hey Jack, have you seen “Puzzle?” I was pleasantly surprised.
I don’t believe Sony Picture Classics screened the film for critics locally—or I just missed it.
But I’ve heard that it’s pretty good.
Ok, Jack, I saw on Demand, “A Quiet Place”.
I think you gave it a good review and actually, I liked the movie.
Couple things.
During the whole movie, you see 3 or 4 times, the White Board, where the guy is listing ideas to fight the Aliens (?) with. On the bottom, in big letters, it says – “WEAKNESSES”.
I kept thinking, HEY!!!!! THEY ARE FUCKIN BLIND, SHOOT ‘EM!!!!!
At the end, sure enough, the chick whips out a shotgun and kills one in the basement.
So, then, I am thinkin…, well…, if they are from outer space and have great technology, where is the ordnance? I mean WTF? Or maybe as they got off of the space ship, one of the aliens, we will call him Jeff, asks the other aliens, “Hey, Ralph, you remembered to bring the guns didn’t ya? Cause we didn’t fuckin land in New Zealand, we are in America, and there are around 500,000,000 guns here…, just sayin…
Couple holes in the story line, but, fun movie.
Wow Chuck, you read more into the script than I did.
Obviously the film company liked it too—they’ve green-lighted the sequel.