Operation Finale

1960. Israeli agents get a tip-off that Adolph Eichmann, the architect of Hitler's Final Solution, is living in Argentina. They assemble a team to extract him and bring him to Israel to stand trial as a mass murderer.

Interesting true story. Shows how the Mossad investigated the possibility that Eichmann was living in Argentina, how they positively identified him and the planning and execution of getting him to Israel. While you know the result, if you know history, it still makes for very intriguing watching. This is especially as there was a large amount of danger involved in the operation - there was a large element of Nazis and Nazi sympathisers living in Argentina and they had significant influence over the government.

The historic element makes this quite edifying viewing too.

Great work by Ben Kingsley as Eichmann. Oscar Isaac puts in a solid performance as Peter Malkin, senior Mossad agent.

The only serious problem is the good intention in this case. The high ambition , too. Because the film has the right story and the right actors. But not the right director. The film is far to be bad and the music saves many errors or flaws. Ben Kingsley deserves the role of Eichman and the subject is fascinating. But it has not the chance to be the first film about the operation to find Adolf Eichman and the mistake of director remains to give a film who seems reduce the importance of Shoah and propose a love story who escapes to it . But , sure, it has the virtue to be the start point for viewer to discover the real story of the operation.

It's 1960 Buenos Aires, Argentina. Teenager Sylvia Hermann falls for Klaus Eichmann. He tells her that he is raised by his uncle after his SS father was killed. Unbeknownst to them, her father is secretly a German Jew. The uncle is suspected to be Adolph Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), the architect of the Holocaust. When it's reported back to the Mossad, Rafi Eitan (Nick Kroll) insists on pursuing the fugitive despite reservations. Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) is a team leader. Hanna Elian (Mélanie Laurent) is the doctor. It's a daring operation to kidnap the Nazi and transport him to Israel for trial.

At first, I expected a caper movie. I expected laying out the scheme and overcoming some unexpected hurdles. For the first half, that's the movie and it's not that new. The Argentinian Nazi gathering is very creepy and there is an interesting history lesson. It's pretty good and then it turns into something better at the safe house. It becomes a psychological chess match and that's the more interesting battle. It's a simple good cop, bad cop situation but Ben Kingsley heightens it with his excellence. He's a master of acting. This reminds me a bit of Munich but this is superior.

An intelligent, if lugubrious, account of how Adolf Eichmann was captured in Buenos Aires and returned to Israel to stand trial. About the best you can say of Chris Weitz's "Operation Finale" is that it's a decent history lesson but a poor film with a miscast Ben Kingsley as Eichmann, (at the time the film was set Eichmann was 54 while Kingsley is 76 and looks it). As one of the men who did the actual capturing and who, in this film at least, is seen to form a kind of bond with his prisoner, Oscar Isaac isn't at all bad but everyone else in the cast is just some kind of pawn. What's lacking is any sense of urgency. I hate to say it but the film might have been better if it were less tasteful; it's almost as if everyone connected with the film were afraid to get their hands dirty so it's all handled with kid gloves. Material like this deserves better.

Films about Nazis always freak me out, even ones like this where there's a layer of cinematic tint. Dramatic set pieces, overly acted dialogue, rousing score. It feels wrong to dress up Nazi atrocities. Yet despite its heist movie aesthetic, this is worth watching, Oscar Isaac is good, in his Golden Age of Hollywood way. Ben Kingsley though, has played some terrifying characters, but is portrayal of Adolf Eichmann is, well it's disarming. There are much better films that cover this subject, but I'll never decry any that highlights what happened during the Holocaust, the aftermath and present day deniers and anti-semites. Films like this have their place, many people struggle with the realities of what happened and if this makes the truth more accessible, then so be it.