Eichmann

Released Oct 29, 2010

1h 40m

Drama

History

List

38%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

26%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Capt. Avner Less interrogates Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann.

Read More

Read Less

Mike Hale

New York Times

Mr. Kretschmann holds your attention through each whining complaint and bland denial. His character may be banal, but his portrayal is the only thing that keeps you watching.

Rated: 2.5/5

Nov 12, 2010

Full Review

Ella Taylor

Village Voice

Robert Young's well-intentioned dramatic re-enactment is burdened by sepia-period accessorizing, laborious flashbacks, spurious comparisons, and the downright bizarre casting of Franka Potente and Stephen Fry.

Nov 9, 2010

Full Review

Robert Koehler

Variety

Dry, detached and mechanical.

Nov 1, 2010

Full Review

Doris Toumarkine

Film Journal International

Sincere, handsomely produced rendition of real-life encounter...amounts to an engaging drama seasoned by a dollop of soft-core titillation. History buffs, especially, among the upscale art-house crowd won't be disappointed.

Nov 1, 2010

Full Review

Mark Keizer

Boxoffice Magazine

Feels the burden of history so heavily that it's effectively smothered by it.

Rated: 1.5/5

Oct 29, 2010

Full Review

Andrew L. Urban

Urban Cinefile

A subject that will never be forgotten: the Holocaust. Eichmann, its chief organiser, is the closest we can get to Hitler himself in this, and the sordid details of his army days have enormous relevance

Oct 9, 2010

Full Review

Read all reviews

Liam D

It is far from the best holocaust movie but it is helped out by a commanding performance by Thomas Kretschmann (Hitman: Agent 47, Hostel: Part III)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

09/25/22

Full Review

andy p

pre-trial interrogation

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I felt sympathy for Adolf Eichmann who was doing his job for his Führer and his Fatherland. From the beginning of the movie I hated the Jews. All those Star of David flags flying around reminded me of Turkish flags flying around everywhere, the barbarian Turks who took over Greek Byzantine lands in cold blood. Israel was bought and paid for in cold blood and illegally. The Jews declared war on Germany in 1933!!!!! And the Jews forced Britain to declare war on Germany in September 1939 after invading Poland. THE JEWS DESTROYED GERMANY IN BOTH WWI AND WWII. JEWS ARE SWINDLERS, CROOKS AND CHEATERS.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

08/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

What can you say? This film had potential...a lot. Here you have a chance to make a modern-day classic. A courtroom drama on the level of Judgment at Nuremburg (1961, Stanley Kramer) or a more personal drama like The Verdict (1982, Sidney Lument) could have been the result of a more focused script. Alas, we have a mediocre film with a running time of about 100 minutes; not enough time to do justice to the film's potential. Although, there are glimpses of what might have been and these make the film worth watching: (1) The actual subject of Adolf Eichmann's trial isn't discussed very frequently nowadays and it is refreshing to see it in a public light; (2) the acting is good, but Thomas Kretschmann as Eichmann is great; Kretschmann alone is reason enough to view the film; and (3) a clear theme emerges throughout the film despite the script's lack of focus, which is the "banality of evil" as personified by Eichmann; it is not a new theme as Hannah Ardent proposed it as her thesis in the classic book: Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963). The theme is as timely today as it was then and makes a great topic for research. Despite these glimpses of potential greatness, the film skews into questionable historical waters and goes for the splinter approach of trying balance the Avner Less home story, workplace politics, historical and familial flashbacks, and the Holocaust as an event and a memory. It is just too much for the time frame and the film suffers as a result. If only, if only...

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This film is a prime example of missing the point. Adolf Eichmann was responsible for organizing and running the Holocaust. He was a heartless bastrd and his subordinates had pretty well sold him up the river as soon as they got the chance. Everyone knew he was guilty as sin. Which makes the whole dramatic theme of the movie insane: that they needed to get him to admit to the murders or set him free. Eichmann admits from the start that he was in charge, but argues that he was just following orders, a defense already tried by dozens of deceased war criminals at the Nuremberg Trials. But apparently it's not enough to have just organized the largest genocide in human history. No, he has to have done it for evil reasons or he's a free man. Because apparently the crime of murdering millions of people is somehow less than the crime of being an anti-semite. In trying to turn him into more of a comic book supervillain they miss the entire point of Eichmann. He WAS just following orders. He was a dull petty-minded bureaucrat who was content to leave the moral decisions to his superiors. It's one of the scariest things about him. Crazy raving Hitler is easy to understand. But having the man in charge of so much murder kill not through a bottomless well of malice but through sheer indifferenceâ¦ well that's a harder thing to come to terms with. But instead they need to make him malicious, because simplifying villainy is the easiest way to not have to come to terms with the evil in all of us. To say that the final revelation that, gosh, maybe he wasn't so fond of the Jews after all, is a major anticlimax is understating the case. It should never have been an issue.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

While The Portrayal Of Eichmann Was Riveting, The Story Lacked Pacing And Consistency. Hard To Keep Focus Throughout.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Robert Young

Director

Thomas Kretschmann

Adolf Eichmann

Troy Garity

Avner Less

Franka Potente

Vera Less

Stephen Fry

Minister Tormer

Dénes Bernáth

Benjamin

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

34%

32%

Good

67%

84%

Before the Fall

18%

70%

My Best Enemy

87%

88%

Sophie Scholl: The Final Days

43%

49%

Berlin 36

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Frozen River, The Wackness Lead 2008 Sundance Winners

View more photos

Synopsis

Capt. Avner Less interrogates Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann.

Director: Robert Young
Producer: Jeremy Burdek, Jimmy de Brabant, Michael Dounaev, Ken Duken
Screenwriter: Snoo Wilson
Distributor: Regent Releasing
Production Co: E-motion Film, Thema Production, uFilm
Genre: Drama, History
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 29, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 4, 2017
Runtime: 1h 40m