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COUNTERPUNCH, SEPTEMBER 7, 2018
Having seen both a documentary and narrative film about Hannah Arendt
that focused on her famous (and to some, infamous) reporting on the
Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker magazine, I was
curious to see what “Operation Finale” had to say. Directed by Paul
Weitz, who is best known for commercial work like “American Pie” and
“The Twilight Saga”, it chronicles the kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann in
May 1960 by a team of Mossad agents led by Peter Malkin, who is played
by Oscar Isaac. Ben Kingsley co-stars as Eichmann and makes a trip to
your local movie theater worthwhile. Matthew Orton’s screenplay develops
the Eichmann character close enough to Arendt’s “banality of evil” to
have provoked the Times of Israel to fulminate:
Having barely outlined Eichmann’s role in the genocide, the film
proceeds to humanize him with the assistance of the Mossad team.
Eichmann is spoon-fed like a bird, toasts a L’Chaim with Malkin, and
performs calisthenics. There’s also a scene with Eichmann on the toilet
bowl, during which he makes the Mossad agents laugh by telling Nazi jokes.
I doubt any actor could have done a better job than Kingsley who steals
every scene, something not hard to do in a film that has not much to
work with dramatically. Making a film about the abduction of Eichmann is
hardly the stuff that would draw Mission Impossible fans to a theater.
Even if “Operation Finale” devotes an inordinate amount of time in
fleshing out the technical details in an elaborate plot to evade
Argentina’s police, there is no suspense in a film that has a
preordained conclusion.
full: https://louisproyect.org/2018/09/07/operation-finale/
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