''Operation Finale'' is a 2018 American

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and sw ...

film directed by

Chris Weitz Christopher John Weitz (born November 30, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his work with his brother Paul on the comedy films '' American Pie'' and '' About a Boy''; the latter earned the Weitz ...

from a screenplay by Matthew Orton about a 1960 clandestine operation by Israeli commandos to capture former SS officer

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

for a 1961 trial on charges of crimes against humanity. The film stars

Oscar Isaac Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada (born March 9, 1979) is a Guatemalan-born American actor. Known for his versatility, he has been credited with breaking stereotypes about Latino characters in Hollywood. He was named the best actor of his gen ...

(who also produced) as the key

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

officer

Peter Malkin Peter Zvi Malkin ( he, פיטר צבי מלחין; pl, Cywka Małchin, May 27, 1927 – March 1, 2005) was a Polish-born Israeli secret agent and member of the Mossad intelligence agency. He was part of the team that captured Adolf Eichm ...

, and

Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...

as Eichmann. It Also stars Lior Raz,

Mélanie Laurent Mélanie Laurent (; born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, filmmaker, and singer. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she is an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Globally, she is best known for her rol ...

Nick Kroll Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central series ''Kroll Show'', ''The Oh, Hello Show'', the FX comedy series ''The Lea ...

, and

Haley Lu Richardson Haley Lu Richardson (born March 7, 1995) is an American actress. Following early television roles on the Disney Channel sitcom '' Shake It Up'' (2013) and the ABC Family supernatural drama '' Ravenswood'' (2013–2014), she acted in the coming-of ...

. Several source materials, including ''Eichmann in My Hands'', Peter Malkin, provided the basis for the story. The film was theatrically released in the United States on August 29, 2018 by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

through their joint venture with

Annapurna Pictures Annapurna Pictures is an independent American media company founded by Megan Ellison in 2011, that specializes in film production, live theatre production, television through its Annapurna Television division, and video game publishing throug ...

(now called

United Artists Releasing United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studio ...

) and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

After World War II ends,

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

perpetrator

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

take their own lives to avoid facing trials for war crimes. In 1954,

agent

mistakenly kills the wrong person while hunting a Nazi war criminal in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...

, damaging his reputation. In

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South Am ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, in 1960, Sylvia Hermann begins courting the son of Adolf Eichmann, Klaus. At dinner with her

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

father, Lothar, Klaus openly speaks negatively about

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and claims his father died in the war. Lothar grows suspicious and passes his name along to Mossad in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Field agent Zvi Aharoni is dispatched in Buenos Aires to begin

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmishers ...

. Klaus takes Sylvia to a meeting, which turns out to be a Nazi revival led by Carlos Fuldner, which Eichmann also attends. Sylvia abruptly leaves after the guests erupt in a ''

Sieg Heil The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...

'' chant. Now working in coordination with Mossad, Sylvia meets the Eichmann family at their home under the guise of reconciling with Klaus. An argument between her and Klaus causes Eichmann (living under the name Ricardo Klement and claiming to be Klaus's uncle) to intervene; Klaus accidentally refers to him as his father and Eichmann is subsequently photographed by a Mossad agent. Eichmann notices the operative taking his photo and sketches him. The Mossad team uses the evidence from the meeting to confirm Eichmann's identity and plan his capture - they intend to disguise themselves as an

El Al El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (, he, אל על נתיבי אויר לישראל בע״מ), trading as El Al (Hebrew: , "Upwards", "To the Skies" or "Skywards", stylized as ELAL; ar, إل-عال), is the flag carrier of Israel. Since its inaugural ...

air crew and fly him out while he is sedated. Peter and his ex-girlfriend Hanna, a doctor, are brought on to the team with her role to keep Eichmann sedated during their travels. The team coordinates and captures Eichmann outside of his home. While his family and friends try to discern if his disappearance is due to someone discovering his true identity, Eichmann admits his identity to his captors. Meanwhile, the agents learn their return flight has been delayed by ten days. Furthermore, they are informed the airline will not agree to transport Eichmann unless he signs an

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a statemen ...

stating he will willingly go to Israel; he refuses to sign because he does not believe he will get a fair trial. The team's interrogator is not able to get through to Eichmann and tensions rise among the team; some wish to outright kill Eichmann. Peter eventually obtains the signature after sharing his personal story of the loss of his sister Fruma and her three young children to the Holocaust and listening to Eichmann's story about being ignorant of the actual killing of the Jews, claiming his job was focused exclusively on logistics and he was just "following orders". During the plane's delay and while they await Eichmann's capitulation, Klaus and the police increasingly investigate Eichmann's disappearance, distributing the sketch of the operative to the public. After using

US dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

instead of

Argentine peso The peso (established as the ''peso convertible'') is the currency of Argentina, identified by the symbol $ preceding the amount in the same way as many countries using peso or dollar currencies. It is subdivided into 100 ''centavos''. Its ISO 42 ...

s, one of the Mossad's local contacts is captured and tortured until she reveals the location of the safehouse. As the Mossad team prepare to leave, Eichmann drops his polite façade and tells Peter a horrific story of watching 5,000 Jews murdered in a pit by the ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

'', cruelly wondering aloud if one of them (a woman who had begged Eichmann to save her infant) was Peter's sister. With the Nazis and police bearing down on them, the rest of the team is forced to drastically alter their escape plan, resulting in two operatives having to be left behind. The police also confiscate the plane's landing permits, grounding it. Peter hand-delivers a copy of the permit to air traffic control and, seeing the police closing in, orders the plane to take off without him. In Israel, all the operatives reunite at Eichmann's trial which was televised globally. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Eichmann is found guilty and

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

in 1962. Testimony in the trial from survivors of the Nazi death machine was the first time the world heard directly from them. Peter has a successful career and long life, dying in 2005.

Cast

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

Lior Raz as

Isser Harel Isser Harel ( he, איסר הראל, 1912 – 18 February 2003) was spymaster of the intelligence and the security services of Israel and the Director of the Mossad (1952–1963). In his capacity as Mossad director he oversaw the capture and cove ...

as Dr. Hanna Elian (based on Yonah Elian) *

Rafi Eitan Rafael Eitan ( he, רפי איתן; 23 November 1926 – 23 March 2019) was an Israeli politician and intelligence officer. He also led Gil and served as Minister of Senior Citizens. He was in charge of the Mossad operation that led to the arre ...

Joe Alwyn Joseph Matthew Alwyn (born 21 February 1991) is an English actor. He made his feature film debut as the titular character in Ang Lee's 2016 war drama, '' Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk,'' and has since played supporting roles in films such a ...

as Klaus Eichmann *

as Sylvia Hermann *

Michael Aronov Michael Aronov (born May 4, 1976) is an American actor who has worked in film, television and theatre. In 2017, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Uri Savir in the Broadway play ''Oslo''. He is also known for ...

as Zvi Aharoni *

Peter Strauss Peter Lawrence Strauss (born February 20, 1947) is an American television and film actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s. He is five-time Golden Globe Awards nominee. Early life Strauss was born in C ...

as Lothar Hermann *

Ohad Knoller Ohad Knoller ( he, אוהד קנולר; born 28 September 1976) is an Israelis, Israeli actor. He had roles in the Eytan Fox films ''Yossi & Jagger'' and ''The Bubble (2006 film), The Bubble'', and the Steven Spielberg film ''Munich (2005 film), M ...

as Ephraim Ilani * Greg Hill as Moshe Tabor * Torben Liebrecht as Yaakov Gat * Michael Benjamin Hernandez as Dani Sharlon *

Greta Scacchi Greta Scacchi, OMRI (; born 18 February 1960) is an Italian-Australian actress. She holds dual Italian and Australian citizenship. She is best known for her roles in the films '' White Mischief'' (1987), '' Presumed Innocent'' (1990), '' The Pla ...

as Vera Eichmann *

Allan Corduner Allan Corduner (; born 2 April 1950) is a British actor. Born in Stockholm to a German mother and a Russo-Finnish father, Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in London. After earning a BA (Hons) in English and Drama at Bristol Universit ...

Gideon Hausner Gideon Hausner ( he, גדעון האוזנר, 26 September 1915 – 15 November 1990) was an Israeli jurist and politician. Between 1960 and 1963, he served as Attorney General and was later elected to the Knesset and served in the cabinet. Hau ...

* Tatiana Rodriguez as Annie Werner * Pêpê Rapazote as Carlos Fuldner *

Simon Russell Beale Sir Simon Russell Beale (born 12 January 1961) is an English actor. He is known for his appearances in film, television and theatre, and work on radio, on audiobooks and as a narrator. For his services to drama, he was knighted by Queen Elizabe ...

David Ben-Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...

* Rocío Muñoz as Graciela

Production

On November 16, 2015, it was announced that

had bought an untitled spec script from Matthew Orton, about the team who found and captured

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

was reported as being in talks to direct the film. A deal was struck in March 2017 that saw

co-produce and star in the film, taking on the role of

was set as director. In June,

was cast as

Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann ( ,"Eichmann"
''

Lior Raz joined the production, and in September,

, and

were cast, with filming to begin in

on October 1. The cast was rounded out on October 12, and filming was underway in

also joined the cast, on November 30. A clip from the 1959

Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left fo ...

film '' Imitation of Life'' featuring actress

Susan Kohner Susanna "Susan" Kohner (born November 11, 1936) is an American retired actress who worked in film and television. She played Sarah Jane in '' Imitation of Life'' (1959), for which she was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe award. A ...

is featured near the beginning of this film. Kohner is the mother of this film’s director Chris Weitz.

Release

''Operation Finale'' was originally scheduled to be released on September 14, 2018. However, in July 2018, the film was moved up to August 29, 2018, in the U.S., due to high test screening scores, and to avoid the crowded September field. The film was released outside of the United States on October 3, 2018, by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a film ...

and later added to Netflix US in February 2021. The film was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of stori ...

and Digital HD on December 4, 2018 by

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (formerly Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Universal Studios Home Video, MCA/Universal Home Video, MCA Home Video, MCA Videodisc and MCA Videocassette, Inc.) is the home video distribution division of Am ...

Reception

Box office

In the United States, ''Operation Finale'' was projected to gross $8–10 million from 1,810 theaters during its four-day Labor Day opening weekend./ The film made $1 million on its first day and $725,891 on its second. It went on to gross $6 million over Friday to Sunday, for a four-day weekend total of $7.8 million, and a six-day total of $9.5 million, finishing fifth at the box office. In its second weekend, the film dropped 50% to $3 million, finishing eighth.

Critical response

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' A. O. Scott gave the film a positive review, "It’s a story very worth telling, told pretty well, with self-evident virtues and obvious limitations. Viewers who see it out of a sense of duty will find some pleasure in the bargain. Call it the banality of good." CNN's Thane Rosenbaum calls it "finely directed" and "no ordinary spy thriller", noting that the Israeli operation surely influenced espionage films during the cold war, and considers it surprising that it has received such "scant cinematic attention .. until now". Rosenbaum notes that by giving a humanized rather than a monstrous portrayal of Eichmann, the film adopts Hannah Arendt's premise of the Banality of Evil. In his review for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'', John DeFore called the film "a lively historical thriller" and wrote, "Though not likely to enter the pantheon as either a true-life caper (''

Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...

''s people-smuggling was more exciting; ''

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

''s tale of vengeance more affecting) or as a showcase for face-the-past mind games, the drama benefits from a strong cast and can easily replace 1996's '' The Man Who Captured Eichmann'' as the go-to dramatization of this episode." On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''Operation Finale'' is well-intentioned, well-acted, and overall entertaining, even if the depth and complexity of the real-life events depicted can get a little lost in their dramatization." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc D ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a film ...

reported filmgoers gave it an 86% positive score and a 65% "definite recommend".

References

External links

Official website
*
Excerpt from ''Eichmann in My Hands'' by Peter Malkin at The Archive
{{Chris Weitz 2018 films 2010s historical drama films American courtroom films American historical drama films Annapurna Pictures films Cultural depictions of Adolf Eichmann Cultural depictions of David Ben-Gurion Drama films based on actual events Films about the capture of Adolf Eichmann Films about Nazi hunters Films directed by Chris Weitz Films scored by Alexandre Desplat Films set in 1944 Films set in 1954 Films set in 1960 Films set in 1962 Films set in Buenos Aires Films set in Israel Films shot in Argentina Films shot in Buenos Aires Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 2018 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films

Plot

Cast

Production

Release

Reception

Box office

Critical response

See also

References

External links