Dossier Odessa

Good and exciting film plenty of tension , action and entertainment . This intelligent picture is packed with historic events , tension , hectic intrigue and the suspense is maintained throughout . The deeds of the movie start in Hamburg, 1963 . An elderly Jewish commits suicide , leaving a newspaper that falls into the hands of an attractive and intrepid journalist named Peter Miller (John Voight). The German Peter goes to a Nazi convention celebrating the ¨Division Siegfried¨ where is detained. After that, he discovers a secret organization named Odessa that may expose some former Nazis and the unthinkable crimes of cruelty , torture and mass murder carried out by the captain of the SS Eduard Roschmann , commandant of the notorious extermination camp in Riga (Latvia). It seems that Roschmann (Maximiliam Schell) survived the defeat of the Nazis, and that lives in some place of South America under a fake identity . Miller starts then a relentless pursuit , decided to meet him . The journalist isn't alone, as he collaborates with the famous Nazis hunter Simon Wiesenthal ; in addition to receive precious aid by the Secret Service agents (Peter Jeffreys) of Israel , the Mossad , that try to avoid some rockets full of biological virus to be taken by Nasser , President of Egypt .

Excellent film based on one the first successes of famous novelist Frederick Forsyth , a bestselling author . This stirring picture is full of suspense , tension , thrills and is very entertaining . The film's intrigue snowballs toward an exciting final. Extraordinary casting , all of whom give admirable acting as starring Jon Voight ("Midnight Cowboy") who plays perfectly as dynamic journalist ; brilliant the British Derek Jacobi , the German Klaus Lowitsch , and of course the Maximilian Schell's interpretation who steals the show as haughty Nazi.

We see this sensational film not only by its action and intrigue but also by the historical deeds that are well depicted and related to Simon Wiesenthal and concentration camps as Riga and Flossenburg where was executed Admiral Canaris . Even only for that reason the film worthwhile seeing . Spectacular musical score fitting to action by nowadays very famous Andrew Lloyd Weber , including a lively and jolly Christmas song at the main and ending titles . Furthermore , colorful and atmospheric cinematography by classic cameraman Oswald Morris .

The motion picture is compellingly directed by Ronald Neame . Ronald's smoothly persuasive direction attracted reception by the public and was a success at the box office . Neame was one of Britain's best cameraman in the 1930s and 40s, working for David Lean, later he turned to direction in 1947 with 'Take my life'. His biggest hits was undoubtedly 'The Poseidon adventure' , 'Scrooge' , Gambit' , 'The prime of Miss Jean Brodie' , and 'Odessa file' . Rating: Splendid and excellent, above average .

From the skillful and adroit hand of master novelist Frederick Forsythe comes this suspenseful story which begins in the wet streets of Berlin and traces itself to a WW II concentration camp called Riga. The movie is called " The Odessa File " and is based on the secret organization which helps ex-Nazis escape justice. Jon Voight plays Peter Miller a young German journalist who is intrigued by the diary of a survivor of the Riga death camp and left a journal identifying the 'Butcher' of Riga. With that diary, Miller decides to investigate if in fact Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell) is still at large. Endangering his life and that of his girlfriend, Miller learns that Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence arm is also trying to locate the source of a electrical missile guidance system threatening Israel. With the help of Simon Wiesenthal (Shmuel Rodensky) and Mossad, Miller infiltrates the Oddessa organization and soon discovers Klaus Wenzer (Derek Jacobi) the man behind the false identifications given to escaping Nazis. However, Oddessa agents also discover who Miller really is and send their own men to dispose of him. The film is filled with intrigue, dark drama and tingling suspense and with Voight at the helm, this movie will soon join only the best which have all become Classics. ****

This thriller should go down as a classic. It has a convincing story a rare thing in movies that try to blend historical fact and fiction. It's tense from beginning to end and doesn't have annoying red herrings or plot twists.

The casting is perfect. Maximillian Schell is ideal as the Nazi war criminal. Jon Voight is surprisingly convincing as a German accent and all. Good use of European supporting cast to avoid a fake feel.

Good on location feel to it. Liked the evocative score too.

It's one of the best thrillers about WWII subject matter even though it is set after the war.

Sometime between 1979 and today, filmmakers have lost the ability to tell a suspenseful story, to flesh out characters, so that today we see more style than substance, more gore and mayhem than plot development.

The Day of the Jackal, Marathon Man, Eye of the Needle, The Boys From Brazil and others will be labeled boring by many here because they must wait for something to happen. A typical example from Odessa is the reunion scene. Voight infiltrates the meeting of old German soldiers, make that old devoted Nazis, gathering in a beer hall. He snaps a photo of the speaker, shouting what sounds like the words of the pre-war Deutschland uber Alles. One man comes and begins his eviction from the hall. In the next scene we see him nursing his wounds, which are far more serious than the pushes we see. Tell me that today we would not witness a brutal beating punch by punch, kick by kick.

Films then used violence to advance the plot, such as the "Is it safe?" interrogation in Marathon Man. Seventies films are no shorter than today's masterpieces, but so much more intricate plot is compressed into their time frame.

Three Days of the Jackal is a perfect telling of a Forsyth book; we never become involved with the characters but watch in fascination. Here we follow Miller (Voight) giving us a horse in the race. I have reservations about the final confrontation with Schell and Miller's motivations but I have none about the story in general.

Only in the score does Odessa fall short; the music sounds almost if it was added as an afterthought and does nothing to enhance moods or foreshadow scenes. Worse, the score seems the beginning of a pattern that continues to this day where in some scenes the music is the main character. Only the bier-hall singing of the old Nazis sounds appropriate.

I rated the film 8 of 10.

Jon Voight does an excellent job in this intriguing film about a reporter searching for a war criminal who escaped Germany after World War II with the help of an organization called Odessa. His investigation leads him to Simon Wiesenthal and to a group of Israelis who train him to infiltrate Odessa. The historical setting is 1963 Germany, at the time of the Kennedy assassination This is a very suspenseful film with wonderful performances from the supporting cast as well: Mary Tamm, Maximillian Schell, Maria Schell, and Derek Jacoby.

For me, The Odessa File has always had an old-fashioned feeling to it -it was made in 1974, set in 1963, and almost seems like it could have been made in the '40s. Truly an excellent film.

As a bit of trivia no doubt already mentioned, Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the music for the film, which I frankly found rather intrusive.