The Hunt for Adolf Eichman
Directors: Dan Setton
Writer: Ron Frank
Editor: Ron Frank and Dan Setton
1994, USA, 91 minutes, Hebrew
About the Film
An firsthand account by the Mossad agents who planned and implemented the covert "Operation Eichmann." Shot on location in Austria, Germany, Italy, Argentina, England and Israel, the film uses a mixture of documentary techniques and dramatic reenactments to retrace Eichmann's escape route from Germany after World War II. The former head of Israel's secret service recounts how his agency captured the Nazi fugitive and brought him to trial in Jerusalem.
By LAURENCE VITTES
Airing on A&E’s “Time Machine” series, “The Hunt for Adolph Eichmann” is an absorbing documentary by Ron Frank and Dan Setton on the life and death of the infamous Nazi war criminal known as the “architect of the final solution.”
Nearly 35 years after Eichmann was located, hunted down and smuggled out of Buenos Aires, top-secret details are revealed “for the first time,” including how Eichmann escaped from postwar Germany with the help of both the American Army and the Vatican, who the players in the smuggling operation were and excerpts from the initial interrogation transcripts in Argentina. Surprisingly, giventhe Oscar-winning success of“Schindler’s List,” the program arrives with little fanfare. But viewers who turn it on will likely be riveted. The pace is breathless, the interviews are good, Gregory Peck’s narration is hypnotic, the music is brilliantly selected and the shifting (and beautiful) use of black and white and color is a study in how to make the past come alive.
Additionally, the information content is generous and the delivery clear, so that those intrigued by the exciting story will pick up a straightforward primer on the Holocaust (even if, as is usual for such documentaries, the damage Hitler did to Germans and the German nation is downplayed).
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In so doing, “Hunt” transforms the tragedy from a cosmic to a local one, showing how the caprture and trial of Eichmann was intended to help Jews realize that they finally had the ability to control their own destiny and could realistically expect to free themselves from the Nazi nightmare.