This movie is good to see for it's historical significance. It was done well enough, I guess, but still seemed to lag in some places. I appreciated the attempted artistic flare. It helped a little with trying to put the audience in the shoes of the victims, but this is a topic where that could seldom be possible. Nonetheless, if you really try and if you honestly consider the plight then it is quite harrowing in many respects. What is most striking to me are all the arguments in this movie that justify what Eichmann did. They are the same arguments of modern day relativism - which may be most frighting of all.
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.
I think the storyline is very interesting. My problem is that it's not executed well. The film goes through extended periods where it just lags. This definitely could've been done a lot better. Oh well.
I rate the movie 6 of 10, the film is too easy to watch, taking in mind the historic background.
Important history as it is one of not many to show Argentina’s role after the war in housing these war criminals but plays more as a focudrama and,less cinematic feature.
The real story about Eichmann is something truly unbelievable: a high nazi escaped to Argentina and a team of secret agents has to get him back. But don't expect a big chase, apparently it's hard to mix all things up in a compelling movie. It has parts which are quite boring to be honest.
All around a good movie, good acting, good cinematography, good screen play. If you are a fan of Israels search for the architects of the final solution then you will enjoy this movie. 8 out of 10
Ben Kingsley is a good actor. However movie lost itself between being documentary and drama film and nothing good come from it.
I mean, I'm a fan of historical films, big time, I think if you can accurately portray a point of history and grip me from start to finish, it's an out of this world film. Schindler's List, The Pianist, Defiance, Life is Beautiful; all Holocaust films that engaged me and never halted to a grinding slug. The characters are given enough stock and feel like real human beings. The story doesn't feel like a retelling of events for the sake of historical accuracy, but rather a complete narrative arc. In Life is Beautiful, the boy wins the tank and finds his mother. In Schindler's List, the war ends and Oskar sets free all the Jews he was harboring. Unfortunately, Operation Finale fails to reach a cinematic aesthetic, so it ends up feeling like made for television. Scenes kind of just happen for the sake of keeping events accurate, without much regard for asking, "You know, will this being entertaining for the audience?" Oscar Isaac is fine, I guess-- he kind of just says his lines. The only sequence the film got more engrossing is when he's acting opposite Kingsley. Adolf believes he should be able to tell his side of what happened during his time as head of the camps. Watching the two bounce back and forth perked me up a little bit, as I had started to fall asleep within the first twenty minutes; quite an accomplishment. They try to also "explore" the hive mind phenomenon that brought impressionable teenagers to the Nazi regime, but it's glossed over with no finishing arc, it could've been cut out of the movie. Watch Swing Kids if you're eager to see that on screen. The televisual cinematography leaves a lot to the imagination. They couldn't find any other creative ways to shoot these scenes? The framing is so flat and the editing is like an assembly line chop, you can count the cuts. Even during the alluring conversations with Isaac and Kingsley, the laborious presentation kept it back from being better. I don't remember any of the characters' names; just don't bother; the most average a film can get.
You have no interest in what I have to say. Unless it confirms what you think you already know.
When describing Adolph Eichmann, one of the architects of Hitler’s Final Solution and who organized the transportation of millions of Jews to concentration camps, historian Hannah Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil.” Eichmann was one of two high-profile Nazis who managed to escape Germany before the Nuremberg trials (Josef Mengele was the other). This film is about the efforts of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and their efforts to capture Eichmann who had fled to Argentina and bring him to trial in Jerusalem.
Kingsley plays Eichmann with as a man of iron wrapped in a cardigan sweater. He is hunted by a team dispatched by Mossad chief Isser Harel (Raz) and led by Rafi Eltan (Kroll) with operatives including interrogator Peter Mendel (Isaac) and physician Hanna Elian (Laurent). Mendel is particularly haunted by the deaths of his sister and her family at the hands of the Nazis.
Told in the style of a spy thriller but lacking the twists and turns of a good one, Weitz manages to keep the dramatic tension at a decent level (although not an extraordinary one) and benefits from powerful performances from Kingsley, from whom we have come to expect them, and Isaac who is rapidly becoming a big star in his own right.
The movie flew under the radar when it was released in the dog days of August back in 2018 which is a bit of a shame; it deserved a better fate. That can be rectified however as you have the opportunity to catch this via a variety of streaming platforms, listed below. It is worth your while to do so.
Operation Finale is a rather mediocre true life drama that’s not very engaging. When former Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann, the man behind Hitler’s Final Solution, is discovered living in Argentina the Mossad launch a covert mission to extradite him to Israel to stand trial. Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley lead the cast and give fairly decent performances. However, the script doesn’t do a very good job at developing the characters or at showing why the mission was so important to them. Also, there’s not a lot of tension or suspense; it a pretty straight forward abduction that doesn’t live up to the importance of the event. Yet despite the poor execution, Operation Finale is an interesting story about one of the most significant war crimes prosecutions of the 20th century.
Long drawn out drama about capturing the last Nazi without proof that he actually did what they say. Typical Hollywood over stating the 'danger' and suspense of how it probably really went down. Those that win the war get to write the history books. Yawn.
The story is amazing, the acting was phenominal... and this film was just ok. I was a little disappointed to read that while most of the story is authentic some characters were made up (why the love story?) and the mission was somewhat exaggerated (I am going by quotes of those that participated). That said... we must never forget what happened.
A reasonably compelling film, and yet another sobering reminder of the Nazi atrocity. I didn't know a lot about Eichmann's arrest, and assuming the version of events is played out accurately here, it is quite a gripping story. I want to say 'may the likes of Eichmann never be seen again,' but as we all know, our world is still filled with these despots, committing evil for the sake of misplaced ideology.
I can't think of a single thing that really stood out in this movie.
This felt like a drama, pretending to be a spy movie. I thought most the actors did a good job in their roles, and no one felt super out of place.
Through out the movie I kept expecting there to be something more to it, but it never really came. Of the moments in the movie that felt tense, I recall at least 3 turning out to be super manufactured, and a complete let down, and at most 1 feeling genuine. This really hurt the movie, as I think it showed they wanted it to be something more than they made it.
In the end, I'd probably recommend skipping this one.
It's a decent spy movie with not enough action. The movie kinda drags at parts. This is mostly just talking and not a ton of action. Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley are both good and seeing Nick Kroll in a serious role is weird but I would like to see more. There were some cool shots, mostly of Oscar Isaac looking off in the distance menacingly, but for the most part I thought the it was just an average movie.
Shout by FinFanBlockedParent2018-10-09T19:08:16Z
Although the real history behind the story of this movie is horrendous I can not say that this is a good movie.
It is slow, there is little to none tension and only towards the end when the pictures of the real trial are shown you get a sense of what really happened. When they talk about the family they all have lost, or even when Eichmann talks about what he did or did not do. It´s all just drifting on the surface.
And one thing I wonder how did Peter get out of Argentina ? If it was so easy that they didn't even bother showing than there was no real sacrifice on his part now, was there ? If it happened that way than that is how it is but for a dramatic climax in a movie it was a waste.