Operation Finale

This movie is a rather low-key political thriller based on a true story.  In this compelling tale, set in 1960, the Mossad, Israel’s nascent intelligence agency, has gotten information that the notorious Adolph Eichmann, the architect of the “Final Solution,” is alive and living under an assumed name in Argentina along with his wife and sons.  Many Nazi’s escaped Germany at the end of World War II, but Eichmann was one of the higher level SS escapees avoiding justice, and one that had an especially central role in the adminstrative machinery of the Holocaust.  Oscar winner Ben Kingsley plays Eichmann in a stellar performance, showing the facets of a man who sought to escape the responsibility for what he’d done, but was still haughty and arrogant while maintaining a familial gentility with his own people.  The philosopher Hannah Arendt  coined the term “the banality of evil” referring to Eichmann, and Sir Ben’s performance demonstrates how apt the characterization is.  Oscar Isaac ably performs the role of Peter Malkin, one of the Israeli agents tasked with bringing him in, with subdued passion and intensity.  After the Israeli government decides to kidnap Eichmann and take him to Israel to stand trial for his extensive war crimes, a tense cat and mouse game ensues between the Mossad agents and the ex-patriate Nazis and their sympathizers among the Argentinian politicians trying to find them and end their mission.  Why they must do this and how it is accomplished makes for an engaging movie.  If you are interested in WWII history and how this Nazi war criminal was brought to justice, you will definitely enjoy this film.