There are a couple of ways of looking at Eichmann's capture, conviction, and execution -- and they lead to different conclusions.Morally, of course, the guy was responsible for the brutalization and deaths of more than six million innocent people. "More" than six million because nobody really knows how many, and the homosexuals, mentally retarded, political undesirables, gypsies, and the rest are often forgotten. It was morally right for Eichmann to be hanged.Psychologically, I'm not so sure. We all need enemies. They serve as bad examples for the rest of us. They hold us together. When they've escaped justice, they animate our existence. We can see the dynamic at work today in America. The air is full of hatred. With the execution of Eichmann, part of our reason for being disappeared. It's like achieving any other grand goal to which you've dedicated years. What follows the initial celebration is an emotional let down. I wonder how many of us slumped when we learned that Josef Mengele was confirmed to have been long dead, deep down, underneath the gratitude paid to Fortune.Sociologically, the results are mixed. Religious offenses are carried across generations. Anyone of Jewish background is less likely to forgive and forget. Not a family went unscathed. Germany will always be the villain for all of us, although every German who participated in any way in the Nazi genocidal program is now dead. The Shi'ites and Sunni have been at each others' throats, on and off, for more than a thousand years.The film is told mostly from Eichmann's point of view when he was a captive being interrogated. A fine performance from Thomas Kretschmann, whether as the young SS officer or the self-justifying prisoner. And from Franke Potente as the interrogator's wife, Vera, although she's dubbed. Troy Garity, as Avner Less, the interrogator, is particularly weak. There are times when it seems that he's never acted before.The flashbacks begin when Eichmann is already a colonel in the SS, and he's a heartless and treacherous bastard. He may love his children -- it sounds like it -- but he's an adulterer and manipulator. In Budapest, he takes up with a succulent baroness, Tereza Srbová, with whom, under other circumstances, any normally depraved man would willingly take up.Some of it is literally hard to believe. The baroness gets Eichmann all hot and glandular by having him recite the number of Jews he's killed from different countries while sitting naked on his lap. Later, she brings him a cheerful baby in a basket, tells Eichmann that the baby's blood is tainted, and orders him to kill the baby on the spot. And don't worry. The flesh will be fed to the dogs and the tiny bones ground up for fertilizer. "I've always heard the cabbages from Budapest are the best." Eichmann hesitates, then shoots the babe with his pistol. Murdering the toddler, yes. He murdered a million toddlers. But shooting it in its cradle in front of his anti-Semitic girl friend? It's easier to believe that the Chief Interrogator drove a Volkswagon in 1963 Jerusalem, which he does.At least we're spared the horrors of the concentration camp films, and Eichmann isn't presented as a slavering monster. The narrative is really a duel between the solemn Jewish interrogator and the suave Eichmann. Most flashbacks are brief. We listen to a list of Eichmann's many sins and watch him smoothly deny them. "Die Wannseekonferenz" captures the younger Eichmann as little more than a secretary when the Nazis were trying to unravel the numerous knots of the "final solution." It's a more informative film than this because it tells us things we didn't already know.Or DO we know about Eichmann and the Nazi genocide? A survey of 1,000 secondary school pupils aged 11-16 revealed that 15% were not sure what Auschwitz was. 10% thought the infamous Nazi camp was a country bordering Germany and 2% thought it was a brand of beer. A further 2% identified Auschwitz as a religious festival, while a worrying 1% believed it was a type of bread. The poll also found that 60% did not know what the Final Solution was, with a 20% thinking it was the name given to the peace talks which ended the Second World War. (sky.com)

They say is based upon the israeli documents. But would be correctly to say we can see a typically classic nazi portrait, based upon newspapers with great fantasy. This is recognizable principally in his privat life. The real Eichmann had an autrian mistress, named Maria Masenbucher in Doppel. The filmmakers changed her story to a Jewish mistress's, furthermore created a fictitious name to her, although even her exist is not really fact.And the other mistress Ingrid. However she existed but her acts and portray is also fiction. She was not a hungarian noble descendant, her name is after her husband. Eichmann started an affair with her in 1944 and before the end of the year brought her over to Austria. Avner Less has never mentioned her, but Eichmann only in one sentence, that she was lived with her mother in Hungary and had a factory, and called her Ihne (not Ihama). Well, this baby story is from a newspaper, in what a guard (not she) brought a baby into Eichmann office in Poland and not in Hungary. So in accordance with this cheat, they changed the smart and dashing real hungarian mistress to a crazed and gruesome fictitious blonde, and created a new affair for them in two scenes. While he's sitting in uniform she's arriving naked, statistics about deportation in bedroom, a baby in office? Rather in a nazi-blonde parody, please not in a documentary-drama. I'm sorry, the creators have bungled the movie with these fakes. It is a thing that he was, who deported the jews to the camps, but why need to take this into his privat life and change his affairs, furthermore to make a pretence his entire life was about the jews?

I have to agree with everything lexo said about this drama; and I say drama because I was never wholly convinced I was witnessing history.When I bought this title I was expecting a detailed examination of "the architect of Hitler's plan"; no matter the bias. All I received in return was a turgid family drama set against a few pointless conversations between the police captain Less and Eichmann. Once sensationalised by dubious episodes in the man's Nazi career all that remained were constant accusations and denials by Less and Eichmann. Admittedly this man may not have been exciting or even entertaining within the Nazi regime, but one thing he most certainly was, was life-changing.There is an interested audience for films that seek to examine the minds of the "architects of Hitler's plan", as Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Downfall" has shown. Studying German history I was more concerned with the Socialists than the National Socialists, but the Nazi motivation and objectives are still a fascinating aspect of 20th Century History. "Eichmann" however does nothing to advance the understanding of the Nazis, nor the Eichmann that oiled the wheels of the Holocaust, and seems more like Jewish apologia for interrogating Eichmann by a man who suffered personal tragedy in the Holocaust, convicted him on mere supposition and rumour, and murdered him because of intense social and political pressure.

I went out yesterday for mother's day with my mom to the LA Jewish Film Festival where this movie was showing and can't disagree enough with a couple of the comments that I read on here. We both really enjoyed it (had my mom in tears)! I thought it was a eye-opening insight into what happened before Eichmann went to trial, about his interrogation and most importantly giving recognition to the little known police captain Avner Less. It isn't true that other languages are not spoken- I heard German and Hebrew spoken. I think the comments made were by people who wanted to see a remake of the story of the trial which as they point out has been done many times- where this is telling the untold, and more interesting story and background to the trail and examines what Eichmann was actually responsible for. I've also have to disagree with scenery not looking Israel enough having been there many times I thought it very real. Amazing performance by Thomas Kretchmann, with an OK one by Troy Garity supported well by Franka Potente. A really important movie for Jewish people!