Operation Finale focuses on the discovery of Adolf Eichmann. He is living in Buenos Aires in Argentina under the name of Ricardo Klement. After the end of the second World War, a number of high profile Nazis fled to Argentina. They went via the ratlines set up by the then President Juan Perón.
War criminals like Josef Mengele, Josef Schwammberger, Erich Priebke and Gerhard Bohne all took advantage of the ratlines and set up their new lives in South America. Adolf Eichmann was made responsible for the expulsion of the Jews from all German-occupied territories. That ultimately became known as the final solution. Close to the end of the war he was quoted as saying he would “leap laughing into the grave”. The feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be, for him, a source of extraordinary satisfaction. In fact the Nazi's had murdered more than six million Jews and over ten million enemies of the state in total.
In 1960 a number of Mossad agents, including Peter Malkin, carried out a secret operation. The aim was to capture Eichmann, sedate him and fly him out of Argentina to Israel. There, Eichmann faced trial on 15 counts of war crimes. It was also the first time that the world had seen televised accounts from the Holocaust survivors. He was hung in a prison in Ramla, Israel and cremated with the ashes scattered at sea so that he would have no final resting place.
The screenplay was written by Matthew Orton. It was inspired by the book written by Peter Malkin, one of the key operatives responsible for the capture of Adolf Eichmann. Chris Weitz directed the movie and did a great job with the extremely sensitive subject at hand. The end result is a tense thriller. It somehow deals with the Holocaust in a sensitive way but without shielding the audience from it's true horror. It raises significant questions on how easily hatred can be used as a political weapon to drive ambitious people to commit horrific acts.
Similar to 1917, the casting is incredible. Ben Kingsley has managed some chilling performances in his past and always displayed diverse acting skills throughout his career. But this is easily his career best, playing the part of Adolf Eichmann. Oscar Isaac is cast as Peter Malkin and in my opinion should be getting some award nominations for his performance. In fact, the whole cast is brilliant with everyone capturing the essence of their roles perfectly.
This is easily one of the best films I have seen in a long time. Watching a movie that tackles the horrors of the Holocaust in the centenary year of the armistice is powerful and thought-provoking. Operation Finale is a must watch and as a brand new release to Netflix you can watch it now.
