The Eichmann Show (2015)

Dramatisation of the team hoping to televise the trial of Adolf Eichmann, an infamous Nazi responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews. It focuses on Leo Hurwitz, a documentary film-maker and Milton Fruchtman, a producer.

Director:

Paul Andrew Williams

Writer:

Simon Block

Stars:

Martin Freeman, Anthony LaPaglia, Rebecca Front

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Martin Freeman	...	Milton Fruchtman
Anthony LaPaglia	...	Leo Hurwitz
Rebecca Front	...	Mrs. Landau
Andy Nyman	...	David Landor
Nicholas Woodeson	...	Yaakov Jonilowicz
Ben Addis	...	Ron Huntsman
Caroline Bartleet	...	Judy Gold
Ed Birch	...	Millek Knebel
Dylan Edwards	...	Roy Sedwell
Nathaniel Gleed	...	Tommy Hurwitz
Ben Lloyd-Hughes	...	Alan Rosenthal
Vaidotas Martinaitis	...	Adolf Eichmann
Zora Bishop	...	Eva Fruchtman
Nell Mooney	...	Female Journalist
Solomon Mousley	...	Perry Rudolph

Storyline

In 1961 former Nazi Adolf Eichmann is captured by Jewish agents and put on trial. American television producer Milton Fruchtman fervently believes that the trial with its witness accounts of Nazi atrocities should be televised to show the world the evils of the Holocaust and to combat any resurgence of Nazism and joins forces with black-listed director Leo Hurwitz. Despite death threats, reluctance to cooperate from several networks and even resistance from the Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion, who fears a 'show trial', the pair persist and move their cameras into the court-room. Edited daily and shown in some three dozen countries the 'Eichmann Show' becomes the first ever global television documentary.

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Plot Keywords:

trial | adolf eichmann | court room | genocide | shoah | 

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Genres:

Drama | History

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC Listing Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 January 2015 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Eichmann Show

Filming Locations:

Lithuania

Company Credits

Production Co:

Feelgood Fiction,British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),Vistaar Religare Film Fund

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

Unites two actors who played dangerous henchmen from John Grisham's film adaptations: Anthony LaPaglia in The Client (1994) and Nicholas Woodeson in The Pelican Brief (1993).

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Goofs

The movie begins by showing scenes from the Battle of Berlin, and a voice notes "September the Second, 1945, the war is over . . . " That's the date of the surrender of Japan. Germany surrendered effective May 8, 1945, and the search for Nazi war criminals began then.

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Quotes

Milton Fruchtman: Only in proportion as publicity has place can any of the checks applicable to judicial justice operate. Where there is no publicity, there is no justice... Publicity is the very soul of justice... It keeps the judge himself while trying under trial. The security of securities is publicity.

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Connections

Features Eichmann Trial (1961)

User Reviews

They Listen ... Because Of You

Ostensibly, this film is a recounting of the television broadcast of the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann - the Nazi who was one of the major figures of the Holocaust and who was kidnapped by the Mossad in Argentina 15 years after the end of World War II and returned to Israel to face trial. And while we do learn a lot about the trial and about the Holocaust through actual footage of the trial, which included films of what went on at the concentration camps (and be forewarned - the footage is more than sobering; it is a horrific depiction of the depths to which humanity can plunge) I really found this to be more about the internal struggles of the director of the television broadcast - Leo Hurwitz. Hurwitz was a well regarded Jewish director who had been blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee - and so, frankly, he was familiar with the tactics of fascism. Given the opportunity for redemption in a sense by producer William Fruchtman's (also Jewish) offer to produce the coverage of the trial, we find Hurwitz often more interested in satisfying his own obsession with needing to understand Eichmann - not just what he did but why he did it, as he explained. Fruchtman is not unsympathetic to Hurwitz, and he understands the importance of the coverage of the trial, but as a producer he's also distracted by the need to maintain ratings, and by threats being made against he and his family for even being involved with the project. The two often butt heads as their competing roles and personal agendas collide over and over again.

I don't want to say that I enjoyed this movie. This is not a movie to be "enjoyed." It's a very dark film at times and includes footage that is - as I said above - quite horrific in nature, and it deals with what is certainly the prime example of how inhumane humanity can actually be. With Hurwitz's background (having been blacklisted) it also makes the point that in some ways fascism lies not very deep beneath the soil - a point very relevant to this day and age, when the tactics of fascism are being used increasingly openly by many politicians in the Western world. So there's a powerful (if somewhat understated) lesson here; a plea to be vigilant, to protect the rights of those who are often cast as the enemy and therefore treated as less than human. But if it isn't a movie to be "enjoyed" I would say that it's an admirable movie in many ways. Some of the backroom scenes, as Hurwitz has his camera operators change shots, etc. are somewhat dry - but add, I suppose, to the inherent tension in the movie played out between Hurwitz and Fruchtman - is this just a television show, or is it a search for understanding?

I thought the performances from Martin Freeman as Fruchtman and Anthony LaPaglia as Hurwitz were very good. No more than that - and I mean that not as a criticism. It's just that, like Hurwitz, I became as interested in the archival footage of Eichmann's unemotional demeanour and expression as he was confronted with the ugly truths of the Holocaust as I was with the stories of Hurwitz and Fruchtman.

One non-footage scene that really stood out for me was a conversation between Hurwitz and Mrs. Landau (Rebecca Front) - who owned the small hotel in Jerusalem where Hurwitz stayed during the trial. Mrs. Landau was a Holocaust survivor, and one night at dinner she and Hurwitz spoke. She recounted that once the war was over no one - even in Israel - wanted to hear the stories of the Holocaust. But then she told him that now she heard people speaking about it - because they had been watching the trial. "They listened ... because of you." Hurwitz had thought he had failed because he hadn't "explained" Eichmann. That conversation (near the end of the movie) seemed to change his perspective and make him realize the importance of what he was doing.

This may not be an "enjoyable" movie. But it is a fine and admirable film. (8/10)