Mark Reviews Movies: OPERATION FINALE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 29, 2018

There is an undeniable, morbid appeal to staring evil in the face. Whether we're trying to understand what could cause a human being to do terrible things or simply reminding ourselves that such people are indeed human, we feel the need to look at and listen to such people—perhaps only for a moment or until the person and the words become too repulsive to endure. Operation Finale, a dramatization of the secret Mossad mission to capture Adolph Eichmann, dares to look at the architect of the Holocaust, to listen to his rationale, and to portray him as an ordinary human being.

He's only terrifying because his reputation precedes him. In reality—or, at least, within the reality that he has created for himself after escaping to Buenos Aires to evade prosecution for war crimes—he's a working man, the loving head of an adoring family, and a person who blends into his surroundings in such a way that no one would give him a second glance. We know better than to fall for the ruse, but there's no denying that it's an effective one. That's because, in Eichmann's mind, it's not a ruse.

The Holocaust was orchestrated and performed by people such as Eichmann, who had a long list of excuses, justifications, and explanations for what they did. They were following orders. They were doing what they believed must be done in order to serve and save their country. "There's a line," one of the members of the Mossad team, sent to Argentina to apprehend Eichmann and bring him to Israel to stand trial, says to the former head of "Jewish affairs" within the SS. Eichmann didn't see that line.

There's something a bit off in this depiction of the mission to bring Eichmann to justice. It has nothing to do with the portrayal of the Nazi, who's played by Ben Kingsley with a frightening degree of normalcy. We have to see people such as Eichmann for what they were—humans, not monsters. To dismiss them as anything but human is to dismiss the human capacity for such cruelty and such carnage. If we think of them as anything more or less than human, we might miss the next time such cruelty and carnage could happen.

Matthew Orton's screenplay respects that reality. This is, of course, completely different from saying that it respects Eichmann, whom the movie presents as a desperate man, knowing that he is more than likely on a direct path toward facing the consequences for what he has done. In that desperation, he relies on the only tool he has left: his humanity. In the days that he spends in captivity in a safe house with the Mossad agents, his goal seems to be to exploit the agents' basic decency and goodness. It surely won't convince them to free him, but it might buy him enough time for his allies in Argentina to rescue him.

The agents, on the other hand, aren't afforded characterizations anywhere near as deep as their prisoner. The primary protagonist is Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), a rebellious smart-mouth within the intelligence service who, like all of his fellow agents, has personal experience with the genocidal machinations that Eichmann managed. He's haunted by nightmares of his elder sister, who was killed during the war.

The team is sent to Buenos Aires in 1960, after Eichmann's son Klaus (Joe Alwyn) starts dating Sylvia (Haley Lu Richardson), a Jewish German living in the city. After attending a meeting for local Nazis with her new boyfriend, Sylvia tells her father, who contacts the Israeli government.

Director Chris Weitz does an admirable job of detailing the investigation, the planning, and Eichmann's capture, while putting it into the context of contemporary Israeli politics, which is uncertain of going after an old threat to the Jewish people at first, and showing how the politics of Eichmann's old party have spread even to this South American nation. There's some tension in the execution of the plan, which is done within sight of Eichmann's home, and among the agents—some of whom believe Eichmann should be killed without a trial.

The real tension, though, comes in the scenes between Peter, who believes he can exploit his prisoner's ego in order to obtain a signature on a document that says he's willingly going to Israel, and Eichmann. Here, we see how influential and potentially dangerous the human side of a man like Eichmann can be. There's an unexpected dramatic question presented within these scenes, as it appears that Eichmann's rationales, justifications, and appeals to his own humanity might be affecting Peter's judgment. The Nazi is not what the Mossad agent expected, especially when he seems to genuinely sympathize with the death of Peter's sister.

These scenes provide a frightening look at the insidious ways of such men, who want to brag about their deeds but stopping short of admitting guilt. The material surrounding those scenes, though, doesn't have as much to offer, particularly in giving as strong a voice to the Mossad agents and others who suffered because of Eichmann's work (The trial, a vital moment in the general public's understanding of the Holocaust, is left for a brief coda). Operation Finale might be too fascinated by its depiction of Eichmann. It's certainly less interested in the people who brought him to justice.

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