The Man Who Captured Eichmann

***S{POILERS*** Long suppressed - for security reasons-story about the capture of Nazi war criminal SS man Lt-Col. Adolph Eichmann, Robert Duvall, one of the major ,after his boss Col. Rehinheart "Hangman" Hydrick, architects of the notorious Nazi "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" in Nazi occupied Europe. Having escaped captured for fifteen years Eichmann was finally run down and caught outside his house at 14 Garibaldi Street in the slum section of Buenos Aries Argentina in May 1960. The Israeli Mossad who had been staking out Eichmann's, using the name Ricardo "Ricky" Clement, movements for the past two months grabbed him as he left the bus from his job as a mechanic at a local Mercedes Benz plant. Eichmann was then held hostage in a safe house until the Mossad could fly him out of the country to stand trial for crimes against humanity and the Jewish people in Jerusalem Israel.

While in Isaeli captivity Eichmann's what can best be best called Mossad baby sitter Peter Malkin,Arliss Howard, tried to get him to sign a statement- as if he really needed it-for him to volunteer to his capture and agree to be tried in the Jewish state which under the circumstances, in being kidnapped and held against his will by the Mossad, would be thrown out on any court on earth. Still Malkin constantly beggared Eichmann to sign it until he finally agreed when he was told that there's no death penalty in Israel.

It took a lot of ingenuity to get Eichmann out of Argentina by using the excuse of an EL-AL airline with a troupe of Israeli politicians and entertainers to sneak him, while high on drugs, aboard. This was done while Eichmann's fellow on the lamb Nazis as well as his sons did everything to prevent the plane from taking off. The final results of all this was that Eichmann was tried and convicted for the crimes that he committed and despite Mossad Agent Peter Malkin assurances not to he eventually was sentenced to death and hanged. P.S Despite Israel having no death penalty as things turned out in Adolph Eichmann's case it made him an exception and no one bothered, except his fellow on the run Nazi war criminals, to make a case out of it.

Weird movie. I read somewhere that Robert Duvall wanted to do this story. So he wanted to play Adolph Eichmann. Why? I have no idea.

The movie is quite dull. And the acting is dull too. Probably strong emotions were going around. But not in this calm, slow, uninteresting script. And the actors do some weird accents. Was it supposed to be funny? It is not a funny story.

Maybe a fascist would like it. After all, the poor Eichmann was tricked into signing the paper. And don't forget he was kidnapped. But everything gets toned down. The Hannah Arendt account presents Eichmann as a simple bureaucrat. And probably that is what this movie is trying to show in the cheap disguise of a B movie.

Finally I see this movie as an attempt to whitewash a murderer. The script conveniently is not interested in the life and deeds of Eichmann. There is not a hint of how German and US intelligence services knew his whereabouts and said nothing. There is nothing about the nazi community of Argentina apart from the sort of Eichmann's lawyer. And less than 10 years later Bettina Stangneth would publish a book that would show Eichmann in a very different light than a pawn in Hannah Arendt's play on sociology.

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Excellent T.V movie that chronicles events leading up to and the capturing (by crack mossad agents) of the elusive Adolf Eichmann. Robert Duval (as Eichmann) is one of the finest actors in cinema history and shows such a range of diversity in the characters he portrays. Is certainly worth watching as a companion to other movies of the same (or similar) subject matter.

Brilliant portrayal of how Eichmann living under a fake identity in Argentina was considered an innocent kidnap victim by local authorities unaware of his true identity yet the Nazi hunters managed to sneak him and themselves out of the country by dressing in airline personnel uniforms when boarding that plane destined for Israel.

I knew a movie with Robert Duvall in the lead would have to have a pretty plausible explanation for going straight to video ,and of course,this is a made for TV film which just goes to show how far Duvall's amazing acting potential stands.

It was quite well told,and was of course,brilliantly acted by all the leads involved.Eichmann's story was interesting and factual.We see him waver between his past and present worlds as a one time savage war crimanal,responsible for unspeakable acts of human atrocity,to his present state as a feeble,helpless old man who evokes genuine human sympathy.

A quite impressive made for TV movie.Well worth seeing.