Der Infiltrator

Good movie a saw when I was a teenager.

The sad reality.

This film was exciting and very suspenseful. It kept my interest throughout. If you like Nazi-related films, you will want to see this one. I found it thought-provoking also in how it portrayed human emotions and sensibilities. It was a worthwhile view. When I originally saw it scheduled on cable, I intended NOT to watch it; I ended up catching a glimpse of it as I was switching the channels and became mesmerized.

The topic of Neo-Naziism has been dealt with ad nauseum. I originally felt that this would be another predictable re-hash of the subject matter. A few things attracted me: 1) the acting was really good; 2) the graphic visual images left no room for debate; 3) it was very well written.

It's definitely worth an inspection.

after seeing the movie, I had a chance to read the book that the movie was based upon.

Of course no movie can reproduce a book perfectly; there just isn't time. But the basics of the film and the book match up-- the smoke screen magazine "The Right Way", the eager fake millionaire, the snuff film, Hitler's goblet, the rallies, befriending Nazi skinheads...

And while Oliver Platt doesn't look exactly like Yaron Svoray, he is as believable as an Aryan as Svoray.

the book, "In Hitler's Shadow" includes many photos of Svoray at Nazi rallies, hanging out with Skins, and has a picture of the "investor" with Hitler's valet.

So, unless the book itself is a complete fabrication of lies, the movie does a pretty good job of summing up the story.

This is absolutely unbelievable! This is the story of a Jewish journalist who's assigned to a story in east Germany, and then is arrested, and somehow tricks skinheads into believing that he's a sympathiser. So the skinheads take him out for a drink, and shoot the hey with him for a while. Of course, although he's a foreigner, and skinheads' attitudes towards foreigners aren't as open-armed as they are in this film, I'm surprised that Yuron didn't get his jaw busted open against a sidewalk shortly after.

Anyhow, the next day, Yuron goes on to meet up with a few skin heads that he met the night before. There, they take him to a snuff-film. Of course, this scene's completely unnecessary and gutwrenching. As if even a few loose-knit skinhead gangs are to trust some dude they've met out of the bloom with something that can buy them life in the can or the chair!

Then Yuron goes to the police-station, and meets up with the hot officer-ette who busted him the other night, and tries to file a report. He tells her of what he saw, and of course, for some reasons unexplained, she refuses to file the report, but sympathises with Yuron so much she goes on a crusade to put these thugs behind bars.

Then the next memorable thing, is where Yuron goes to meet the granddaddy of the organisation, who insanely shoves a gun into his face, before they remove it. Of course, not realising that their elder may have some good advice, they allow Yuron to go unchecked from there on out, until some guy Mark Webber's mentioned of hearing about him.

My advice is to not waste your time... Unless you're a masochist.

Now, I don't know about the guy Platt portrays in this film. I think it is based on a real life story, but I'm not sure all the facts. I do know that this movie makes you think a lot. There were points in the film where I was on the edge of crying. Platt plays this character wonderfully, and I think that he did an awesome job when it came to showing his horror as a jew when he would see disgusting acts by the nazis. In this movie, you're rooting for Platt's character all the way, and you find yourself asking the question...how can people be friends with this man, and then hate him because of his religious beliefs and ethnicity? It's a movie that makes you ask questions like these. It's one of the best movies of its kind in my opinion.