The Man Who Captured Eichmann

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.

Sorry for my English...

For a while, I've been reading all the books available that talks about Eichmann. I wanted to know more about the man after the war and before his trial. I've read the book 'Eichmann in my hands (by Peter Malkin)' and 'Capturer Eichmann (Capture Eichmann)' in french. I was so surprise when I saw the movie. It was exactly (well 95%) the same as the book. When I saw Robert Duvall play Eichmann, my god, he looks like him. A very good actor. The same accent, moves, nervous ways, everything like Eichmann (if you saw the movie 'The specialist' the trial of Eichmann. The man who play Peter Malkin is very good too. Very committed. The way he looks at Eichmann, like he wants to kill him, but he don't, his eyes are expressive. When the actors are together in the bedroom, talking each order, there's no cameras. Well, see that movie, and read the book after or the best is to read the book before and watch the movie after. It's almost the same, very respectful to the book.

Most people will not care about the man who captured Adolph Eichmann; what they will care about is the fascinating and clever way the Mossad were able to whisk Eichmann out of Argentina, despite the best efforts of the local Nazi sympathizers to find him and keep him in the country. The role of Eichmann is a tour-de-force by Robert Duvall, an Academy-Award winning actor who richly deserved an Emmy for this television production role. Most of the other roles in the film are played by relatively unknown actors, and the production values are limited. However, the direction and dialogue is very sharp, and the film will keep you attention from beginning to end. Eichmann tried to justify his action to his captors, but I am sure no one was buying his sad story about his father forcing him to join the SS and the Nazi party. Duvall plays the role in a careful, understated manner, which captures the actual real-life personality of Eichmann to a tee. It was interesting to see how this action unfolded several decades after it actually took place when I was in school as a Freshman at Emerson High School in Union City. We saw the trial on TV, but we had no idea at the time what it took to get him to this trial.

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.

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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