Adolf Eichmann (2007)

Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel as he accounts to Captain Avner Less, a young Israeli police officer, of his past as the architect of ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Young

Writer:

Snoo Wilson (screenplay)

Stars:

Avner W. Less, Thomas Kretschmann, Troy Garity

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Avner W. Less	...	Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Thomas Kretschmann	...	Adolf Eichmann
Troy Garity	...	Avner Less
Franka Potente	...	Vera Less
Stephen Fry	...	Minister Tormer
Delaine Yates	...	Miriam Fröhlich
Tereza Srbova	...	Baroness Ingrid von Ihama (as Tereza Srbová)
Judit Viktor	...	Ann Marie
Stephen Greif	...	Hans Lipmann
Dénes Bernáth	...	Benjamin
Bernadett Kis	...	Sarah
Tilly O'Neil	...	Hannah (as Tilly Golding)
László Bereczki	...	David
Alexis Latham	...	Dubois
Scott Alexander Young	...	Robert Servatius

Storyline

Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel as he accounts to Captain Avner Less, a young Israeli police officer, of his past as the architect of Hitler's plan for the fFnal Solution. Captured by intelligence operatives in Argentina, 15 years after World War II, Eichmann (Kretschmann), the world's most wanted man, must be broken down and the truth unveiled. As the world waits, 2 men must confront each other in a battle of wills- the result of which will change a nation forever.

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Plot Keywords:

adolf eichmann character | character name as title | surname as title | execution | israeli | 

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Taglines:

He helped conceive the ultimate horror.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | War

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Hungary UK

Language:

English German Hebrew Spanish

Release Date:

October 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Solução Final

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$573, 31 October 2010

Gross USA:

$2,706

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,706

Company Credits

Production Co:

Entertainment Motion Pictures (E-MOTION), uFilm, Thema Production

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White (archive footage)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to a British reporter on location, fellow cast members Troy Garity and Thomas Kretschmann were so upset with script revisions of the baby-in-office scene that Kretschmann promptly threw them in the trash, explaining, 'I'll just file this here for safekeeping.' The revisions were later dropped.

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Goofs

(at around 1 min) In the scene where the minister leaves the room after telling Avner that his father had been sent to Auschwitz by Eichmann, a large contemporary map of Europe is visible on the wall. The maps contains the re-unified Germany, the successor states of the Soviet Union, the broken up former Yugoslavia, and the split Czech and Slovak Republics - which is the late 1990s status and not 1960/61.

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Quotes

Adolf Eichmann: [''Eichmann and the Baroness are making out. Eichmann boasts about the number of Jews he has ordered to their deaths throughout Europe as "sex talk"''] Your ancestor would have approved my modern victory against the Orients. In six months I cleansed Vienna of every Jew.
Baroness Ingrid von Ihama: You don't go far enough... while you can.
Adolf Eichmann: I don't go far enough?
Baroness Ingrid von Ihama: Out of 900,000 Hungarian Jews you have killed only half a million. You're careless. You let them slip through your fingers.
Adolf Eichmann: Poland - three million Jews. Today none ...
[...]

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Soundtracks

Waltz in C Sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2
Music composed by Frédéric Chopin (as Fryderyk Chopin)
Performed by Michiko Otaki
Arranged by Paul Reeves

User Reviews

Not nearly as good as it could have been!

This version of EICHMANN (as a biography, biographical, or as any of the several excellent documentaries about his trails) apparently has a dream cast and technical crew to make the "definite" EICHMANN "fictionalized" film. Was Thomas Kretschmann born to play the perfect Nazi of our nightmares and dreams, or what?

Well, here his "Naziness",in total contrast to his brief but impactive appearance in Polanski's THE PIANIST, and in DER UNTERGANG (as Hitler's brother-in-law)is a waste. It's a waste because the script of the film is horrible. His stereotype Nazi features would have been better spent in the USA 1960's sitcom HOGAN'S HEROES.

I live in Brazil and have spent a good part of my life here, in Argentina and in Germany, though I'm American and grew up in the 60s when WWII was still as fresh as the collapse of the USSR is now. So, any well-rounded movie fan from this area (or news junkie) would have as a compulsory experience, followed on radio and TV (no cable back then) the before & post-war antics of these Eichamnns, Klaus Barbies and their cohorts.

Now, I sat through a 5 or 6 hour film in Berlin in 1998 or 1999 (or was it two 4 hour sittings)of the COMPLETE Eichmann trial in Israel. The documentary was a "big release" as Documentaries go. It was playing in several art cinemas in Berlin, one near the Memorial Church, another in Kreuzberg,and in the Oranienburgerstrasse "art film multiplex" where I saw it.

If anyone knows which film I'm talking about, please submit as anew title or e-mail me. It is not any of the options this site gives: (Displaying 8 Results) 1.The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996) (TV) 2."Adolf Eichmann 2003) (TV) aka I Met Adolf Eichmann" - UK 3."L'Hidato Shel Adolf Eichmann" (1994) 4.Operation Eichmann (1961) 5. Eichmann Trial (1961) (TV) 6. "Eichmann and the Third Reich" (1961) 7. The Trial of Adolf Eichmann(1997) (TV) 8. Witnesses to the Holocaust-the Trial of Adolf Eichmann(1987)(TV).

I thought it was Number 7 (the 1997 TV version), but it's too short and has a moderator, which the long film I saw lacked). Anyway, with that film as DEFINITE, REAL and irrefutable genuine human emotion, tragedies, and wrecked lives revealed, WHY make a feature film?

Well, as the list of seven above show, there was no shortage of "Eichmann films" when this film was shot, and released. And it has been released. In the Rio Festival, EICHMANN had 4 screenings in the main large cinemas, and was held over for a third week of "Last Chance For the Best of Rio" which ended last week. And the copy had burned subtitles in French, with electronic Portuguese subtitles below the screen. So, it has been somewhat shown around the world.

As this looks like a probable straight to DVD release. I had never even read about the filming of this feature, which also (mis) casted the German (but dark and with a star power name) Franka Potente as the Israeli's prosecutor's wife in one of the boring and pointless subplots. Potente, like everyone else including Eichmann, only spoke English, though she and her Prosecutor husband had met in France, and supposedly spoke French with each other.

But not a word of German, Yiddish, French or Hebrew is heard.

FINE. English is the international language. But this being a criminal court case movie, with loads of depositions, at least one of the victims could have spoken in the 4 major languages related to the case. Just for effect, like Arien Brody's attempts at German in the PIANIST, for some authenticity, with English, though not one of the four languages related to the case, as the main language, but not as-the language spoken 100% of the time!

Anyway, there is a "real film" with authentic testimony from the actual victims in their mother tongues, plus a couple of hours in Austrian-accented German deposition Eichmann gave. That documentary was basically in Hebrew, but both sides staunchly used their national identity languages. Eichmann spoke only German, and the Israeli prosecutor, judges, and victims did too - but chose to ask in Hebrew (so the crowd could understand apparently). Thus the translations to French, English, Russian & Yiddish, which I'm counting here as German added to an already long documentary, in black & white, with no visual power film of it all, two sets of subtitles running all the time. It was difficult to watch, but authentic, and a real treasure, something this EICHMANN is not.

Again, the hours of the real trial is what you should look for. The Israeli Prosecutor was not a gorgeous and elegant leading man, nor was Eichmann nearly as attractive and "Nazi-like" (as defined by the Hollywood stereotype).

This film gives NO new insight on Eichmann. The screenplay is shamefully bad, and the scenery is SO not-Israel. It screams MALTA (where it was shot),though NO southern Mediterranean island would have given us something that looks like Tel Aviv. These islands are ancient, and Tel Aviv started to become a city in the late 1920s and 30s (not in the 15th century).

My suggestion: if you are die-hard Thomas Kretschmann and Franka Potente fans, go. But just to see them. You won't find any substance or anything new in this movie - such a terrible waste of time, money, story, and great (and beautiful) German actors!