The Oxford Dictionary defines Despot as âA ruler or other person who holds absolute power, typically one who exercises it in a cruel or oppressive way.â Adolph Hitler was such a person, and he spawned a number of others, including Adolph Eichmann, the mastermind of the holocaust, which was referred to by the Naziâs, as âthe final solution.â The horrors they unleashed on the world, the extermination of 6 million Jews, and after joining forces with the Japanese, sixty million war victims worldwide, will never be fully reconciled, until the end of time.
There are many organizations devoted to fighting people of this ilk, and none any better at it than the Israeli secret service Mossad. Their feats are legendary and this movie is about one of those exploits, the capture of Adolph Eichmann, who along with thousands of other Nazis disappeared after the war. The whole free world wanted these fugitives held accountable, and Israel was successful in capturing many of them, but the one âbig fishâ eluding them was Eichmann.
Operation Finale
Entertainment Rating: ★★
Rating: PG-13: scattered profanity, glimpses of Nazi atrocities
Possible Oscar Nominations: None
It wasnât until 1961, sixteen years after the end of the war, that the first appreciable lead about Eichmann reached the Israeli high command. There was a possible sighting in Argentina, and after much debate a team was assembled and dispatched, their mission to capture and return him to Israel for trial. An undercover operation in a foreign land, thousands of miles away is never an easy task, this one complicated by the anti-Jewish sentiment which existed in Argentina at that time, and the countless number of those in that country still waving the Swastika.
Once the team arrived and settled in, they had a laundry list of problems and issues to overcome. The first obstacle was to locate, isolate and capture him. Not an easy task. But that was the easy part. Getting him out of the country proved to be their biggest challenge. Their main hurdle was the Argentinian government who was in no mood to allow one of their citizens to be abducted and removed. It took weeks to execute, ultimately leading to a spine tingling finish.
This is an incredible true story and deserves to be told. It moves slowly at times and the film editing could have been better in my opinion. Early in the story, we jump from one place to another, and itâs sometimes difficult to understand just exactly what is going on. As the story progresses things begin to fall into place, but that took over forty five minutes.
There are a number of âflashbacksâ during the Naziâs heyday, depicting the treatment of the Jewish prisoners. Ben Kingsley plays Eichmann, and does a masterful job, especially when he is strutting around in his German uniform. Itâs difficult to imagine any human being committing crimes of this nature and magnitude. While there is no earthly resolution to these wrongdoings, we can take some consolation knowing that the perpetrators are themselves now under the control of the biggest despot of all, the Prince of Darkness who is no doubt unleashing Godâs wrath on all of them.
If you decide to see this wait for the credits to roll at the end, there are a number of historical photos regarding Eichmann and his trial which flash across the screen. Very sobering.
