User reviews

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.

This is the second or third film I've seen that dramatizes the events leading to the capture of Adolph Eichmann. However, this one focuses less on how they discovered this evil man hiding in Argentina and more on what happened after he was captured and before he was spirited off to Israel to face a trial for crimes against humanity.

Of course, such a film isn't going to be fun viewing but the film is not as intense and filled with much footage of the actions of this monster or the SS. As a result, it's probably a good film to show your older kids or teens...of course, provided you watch it with them and help explain the context for the real life drama.

Overall, very well made and worth seeing....and quite interesting.

Sometimes it is not just about finding someone, or just catching them. It is about how to handle the whole situation. And with "war criminals" from the past, some may even argue: is it worth the time and money to catch and old man? What will it bring/achieve overall? Then again, shouldn't they still be held accountable? There are many moral questions attached to this, though the fact that you still have right wingers going crazy and trying to blame foreigners (Jews in this particular instance) is abhorrent.

Having said all that, you have a great cast assembled here. Sir Ben Kingsley at the helm but many others "supporting" him. It is a tough subject matter especially because it is true. Maybe some things have been heightened (didn't read up on everything that went down), but overall this is quite draining and seems like a logical account of things. So while it may seem slow at times, the tension is still quite high.

The story is too straightforward and streamlined. Too much of the film is trying to build tension over the success of the mission but the twists and set back all feel too slight and easily overcome. There are more dramatically interesting ways to tell this story and I think trying to fit it into a thriller mode was a mistake. Maybe a courtroom drama would have been a better fit but the plot keeps butting in when the film seems to be going in an interesting direction, i.e. the interplay between Peter and Adolf. The story isn't bad but it could have been so much more.

Fortunately, Kingsley and Isaac turn in some moving understated performances. Kingsley is especially chilling as Adolf and there is weird intertextual irony given his previous role in Schindler's List. Kingsley embodies the banality of evil and it utterly works. Isaac was a good choice to carry the movie.

This film was disappointing. It could have been so much more.

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.

It's good to see this subject being revived. But as for the movie, I'd recommend reading Neal Bascomb's book and calling it good. 1) The movie creates out of whole cloth a female doctor/love-interest for Peter Malkin. The mission's real doctor was a man, not so tied to Malkin in the story line. Also, Malkin deserves a lot props, but pro'ly not all the props. 2) The movie portrays Argentine Nazi expats as caricatures like Henry Gibson's tribe in "The Blues Brothers." Bascomb seems to indicate the underground Nazis in Argentina were ambivalent at best about Eichmann. That ambivalence really highlights how far the wretch had fallen when they finally grabbed him, and makes his case far more interesting as study of evil. But the movie didn't even try catch that angle of the story.

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.

Straightforward film thad had been previously adapted in similar style , dealing with the famous kidnap and trial of the notorious Nazi officer. After WWII , a lot of essential figures in Hitler's command escaped Germany and were rumored to be living in South America as the nicknamed the Angel of Death : Joseph Mengele . And Adolph Eichmann wanted in connection with milions of deaths is suspected to be living incognito in Argentina and being main responsible of the "Death Trains" . Although in the movie Adolph Eichmann is nicknamed the Architect of the Final Solution, the real mastermind was Reinhard Heydrich who was the true promoter of the Conference of Wanshee where was dedided the Jews extermination and there Eichmann was actually an underling.

This is a tense and thrilling reenactment of the capture of Eichmann , posing as Richard Klement . The best scenes are when happen the twisted interrogation to Eichmann very well performed by Ben Kingsley . Main and support cast are frankly fine. Oscar Isaac is pretty good, giving a nice acting as the head of the team , determinated to bring the monster to the Israeli Justice . At the same time it deals with the Mossad : Israel Secret Intelligence Organitation under secret orders of Ben Gurion that will stop at nothing and at whatever cost to detain Adolph Eichman and bring him to Israeli justice.

This one has been adapted too : The House on Garibaldi Street 1979 by Peter Collinson with Martin Balsam , Nick Mancuso, Charles Gray , Leo McKern .The Man who captured to Eichmann 1996 by William A Graham with Robert Duvall , Arliss Howard , Jeffrey Tambor . Eichmann 2007 by Robert Young with Thomas Kretschmann , Troy Garity , Franca Potente , Stephen Fry .

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.

"The banality of evil" ... Hannah Arendt The abduction of Adolph Eichmann in May 1960 Argentina is the stuff of thrillers, in the spirit of true-inspired films like Munich and Inglorious Basterds. What makes Operation Finale unique and watchable is the acting of Oscar Isaac as the primary captor, Peter Malkin, and Ben Kingsley as "the architect of the Holocaust." When the two are together, the screen heats up with truth and passion in a muted, underplayed power.

In an expert summer thriller directed by Chris Weitz and written by Matthew Orton, Isaac portrays a Nazi hunter along with Mossad operatives charged to perform the abduction; he carries a burden of memory for his sister lost with millions of other captured Jews. His portrayal is humane, sympathetic, and vengeful. Kingsley portrays a charming monster capable of civility and reason as he spars with Isaac about responsibility when like so many other Nazis he claims to have been taking orders.

Kingsley's Eichmann has minor mannerisms revealing a fastidious killer who can evidence love for his family although he eliminated millions with the nod of his head. His joke about Goebbels, Goring, and Hitler humanizes him, no doubt to the chagrin to more than a few in the audience.

Ever controlled, he converses with Peter as a caring neighbor might under better circumstances. Kingsley exudes the confidence and malignity necessary to be the architect.

Although I suspect the barely escaping plane at the end is as contrived as the airport race at the end of Munich, the heart of this true story is the dilemma all principals face when bringing justice to a wretch who deserves a bullet between the eyes before the long trial begins. Peter struggles with that demon as anyone would do.

Operation Finale, perhaps too seriously traditional, is another of the docudramas that draw us in even as we know the outcome. That's entertaining story telling about grim history. "The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed." Stephen Ambrose

This true story about Adolf Eichmann was well done with great acting. The only thing I would have liked to see in the movie is more of how they found out that Eichmann was residing in Argentina. I didn't think there was much suspense leading to the special agents capturing him and bringing him back to their safehouse before getting his signature to go back to Israel for trial. The movie started off with it being known he was living in Argentina - I think the beginning could have been a little bit different in this sense.

However - pretty good movie with a telling story followed by facts about the trial at the end credits. As I stated, the beginning could have been better, but overall it told the story in a good fashion.

I'm always fascinated by the reviews on IMDB. Here are some of the headlines for this movie: "Great historic accuracy", "HISTORICALLY SUPER WRONG", "Historically Accurate", "historicly incorrect". It seems like a joke... I am always a defender of historical accuracy in your historical movies and many times I simply cannot understand the creative licenses some movies take to make them more appealing. This is a hard movie to judge on that front because the whole operation is pretty accurate on how it happened, they only changed some details that, as you can see, make some people very angry. Does changing the sex of the doctor to make for some romantic tension better the movie? I don't think so, to be honest, but I also think that most of the important decisions for the story are correct so, in this case, I can forgive these slight inaccuracies. But had they been cut maybe it would have helped the biggest issue I had with the movie which was the running time and some of the rhythm. On a technical level nothing to say, as everything is well done and the acting is very good as expected from the talent involved. All in all I think I can recommend this movie.

Very good film. Very touching and displays the pain felt by those touched by the Holocaust.

Operation Finale is about a group of people are trying to make sure the Nazi's don't start up again after WWII.

Operation Finale is a fun movie. It is intense and happy at the same time. The acting was great. Nick Kroll and Oscar Isaac both did a great job. Topping all the actor in this movie was probably Ben Kingsley. He did a great job. He made you feel symphony for his dark character. The stage work could have been better. It looked like is was some kids making a movie on that side. The flash backs were done great. They were sometimes hard to watch or listen to but that made you feel symphony for this spectacular character.

Operation Finale was a great movie to watch. It was an enjoyable film also.

I see a lot of people hating on this movie for its slow pace, but clearly this generation is to hyper active to appreciate something like this. Me being a religious Jew and an Israeli/American really thought this movie showed the difference between the animals the nazis are and the way we treat the enemies who hope to destroy us. This movie was fantastic. Thank you!

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

At the end of World War 2, Hitler, the chief of the atrocities, and Himmler, his second in command, both escaped justice by committing suicide. However, one man's fate was not recorded, that of Adolph Eichmann (Ben Kingsley), the chief architect of the Holocaust. In 1960, in Buenos Aires, a positive sighting of the man appears to have been made, and it falls on Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), the leader of a Mossad unit who lost a sister in the Holocaust, to spearhead a mission to capture him and bring him to trial. However, after his capture, Eichmann engages him in a psychological battle that tests him to the limit.

The capture of Adolph Eichmann, one of the rare instances when Holocaust survivors were granted some kind of justice and closure, is a true life tale ripe with potential and power, and yet it's never gotten any big screen attention (and probably won't in this watered down, attention deficit age.) However, it has had a notable small screen exploration already, with the 1996 TV drama The Man Who Captured Eichmann, with Robert Duvall, an actor with similar stature to Kingsley, as Eichmann. That such big name actors would be willing to lend their names to such a role speaks volumes about its appeal, but while this has a style all of its own, it doesn't emerge as the superior film.

Considering the dark subject matter, the film has too much of a surprisingly upbeat, bouncy tone to it, which puts it at odds with the heavy drama it's trying to convey. Performances wise, Kingsley is as reliably commanding as you'd expect, and has fine support from Isaac as his captor, along with the likes of Melanie Laurent and Lior Raz. But despite some intense dramatic moments, the film never really wraps you up in its drama in the most effective way.

Still, it gets everything aesthetically right, and is another inspiring go at bringing such a fascinating story to light. ***

The story of Eichmann does not need dramatic elements added. The movie distorts history to make it more exciting. People will learn much less from watching it than they could have and should have.