The Man Who Captured Eichmann

Adolf Eichmann, wanted in connection with millions of deaths, is suspected to be living incognito in Argentina. Mossad, Israel's secret intelligence organization is determined to bring Eichmann to justice . As Eichmann (Robert Duvall , also producer) was captured by a team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents led by Peter Markin (Arliss Howard) in San Fernando, Buenos Aires, an industrial community 20 km north of the center of Buenos Aires on May 11, 1960. The Mossad agents had arrived in Buenos Aires in April 1960 after Eichmann's identity was confirmed. After observing the suspect's routine for many days, they determined that he usually arrived home by bus from his work as foreman at a Mercedes-Benz factory around the same time every evening and planned to seize him when he was walking beside an open field from the bus stop to his house at 14 Garibaldi . As Eichmann got off a bus , a Mossad agent engaged him, asking him in Spanish if he had a moment ; Eichmann was frightened and attempted to leave, but while blinded by Mossad headlights two Mossad men seized him and wrestled him to the ground. After a struggle, he was brought to the car and hidden down on the floor. Eichmann told his captors later that as soon as they told him to keep quiet or they would shoot him, he knew he had been captured by Israelis. Eichmann was brought to a Mossad safe house, Tira, where he was kept for nine days, during which time his identity was double checked and confirmed .

This is a tense and thrilling reenactment of the capture of Eichmann, posing as Ricardo Klement , though contains excessive dialogs and little action . Being rightly based on a book written by Peter Markin as some years later , Peter Malkin, the member of the kidnapping team actually assigned to seize the suspect, wrote ¨Eichmann in My Hands¨, which describes the preparation for and details of the capture, while exploring Eichmann's character and motivations . The picture deals with the Israeli effort to kidnap Eichmann, as seen from the perspective of the leading agent Peter Markin who executed the mission along with an ample focus to Eichmann's own explanations as to the holocaust he committed . These deeds were previously adapted in ¨The House on Garibaldi Strret¨(1969) by Peter Collinson with Topol , Janet Suzman and Martin Landau . The motion picture was professionally realized by William A Graham who displays enough off-beat touches to keep things interesting , it was nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys and another 1 win & 5 nominations . William A Graham has directed various TV series and episodes as ¨The fugitive¨, ¨The Virginian¨, ¨Breaking point¨ and occasionally for cinema as ¨Return to the Blue Lagoon¨, Waterhole¨ , ¨Guyana tragedy ¨ and film-making several Western as ¨Montana¨ (90) ¨Billy the Kid¨ (89) , ¨Last days of Frank and Jesse James¨ (86) and ¨Harry Tracy , the last of the Wild Bunch¨.

The picture was well based on real events , these are the followings : Israel's official intelligence agency, Mossad, had as one of its principal assigned tasks the pursuit and capture of accused Nazi war criminals. Throughout the 1950s, many Jews and other victims of the Holocaust also dedicated themselves to finding Eichmann and other notorious Nazis. Among them was the Jewish Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. In 1954, Wiesenthal saw a letter received by an Austrian Baron from an associate living in Buenos Aires, saying Eichmann was in Argentina. He was captured by Mossad operatives in Argentina and taken to Israel to face trial in an Israeli court . Eichmann was drugged to appear drunk by an Israeli doctor included in the Mossad team and dressed as a flight attendant. He was smuggled out of Argentina on board a plane which a few days before had transported an Israeli delegation to the 150th anniversary celebration of Argentina's independence from Spain. For some time the Israeli government denied involvement in Eichmann's capture, claiming that he had been taken by Jewish volunteers who eagerly turned him over to Israeli authorities. Negotiations followed between Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Argentine president , while the abduction was met from radical right sectors in Argentina with a violent wave of antisemitism, carried on the streets and including assaults, torture and bombings . In Israel Eichman faced trial in a court on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962. He is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court

Most people will not care about the man who captured Adolph Eichmann; what they will care about is the fascinating and clever way the Mossad were able to whisk Eichmann out of Argentina, despite the best efforts of the local Nazi sympathizers to find him and keep him in the country. The role of Eichmann is a tour-de-force by Robert Duvall, an Academy-Award winning actor who richly deserved an Emmy for this television production role. Most of the other roles in the film are played by relatively unknown actors, and the production values are limited. However, the direction and dialogue is very sharp, and the film will keep you attention from beginning to end. Eichmann tried to justify his action to his captors, but I am sure no one was buying his sad story about his father forcing him to join the SS and the Nazi party. Duvall plays the role in a careful, understated manner, which captures the actual real-life personality of Eichmann to a tee. It was interesting to see how this action unfolded several decades after it actually took place when I was in school as a Freshman at Emerson High School in Union City. We saw the trial on TV, but we had no idea at the time what it took to get him to this trial.

***S{POILERS*** Long suppressed - for security reasons-story about the capture of Nazi war criminal SS man Lt-Col. Adolph Eichmann, Robert Duvall, one of the major ,after his boss Col. Rehinheart "Hangman" Hydrick, architects of the notorious Nazi "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" in Nazi occupied Europe. Having escaped captured for fifteen years Eichmann was finally run down and caught outside his house at 14 Garibaldi Street in the slum section of Buenos Aries Argentina in May 1960. The Israeli Mossad who had been staking out Eichmann's, using the name Ricardo "Ricky" Clement, movements for the past two months grabbed him as he left the bus from his job as a mechanic at a local Mercedes Benz plant. Eichmann was then held hostage in a safe house until the Mossad could fly him out of the country to stand trial for crimes against humanity and the Jewish people in Jerusalem Israel.

While in Isaeli captivity Eichmann's what can best be best called Mossad baby sitter Peter Malkin,Arliss Howard, tried to get him to sign a statement- as if he really needed it-for him to volunteer to his capture and agree to be tried in the Jewish state which under the circumstances, in being kidnapped and held against his will by the Mossad, would be thrown out on any court on earth. Still Malkin constantly beggared Eichmann to sign it until he finally agreed when he was told that there's no death penalty in Israel.

It took a lot of ingenuity to get Eichmann out of Argentina by using the excuse of an EL-AL airline with a troupe of Israeli politicians and entertainers to sneak him, while high on drugs, aboard. This was done while Eichmann's fellow on the lamb Nazis as well as his sons did everything to prevent the plane from taking off. The final results of all this was that Eichmann was tried and convicted for the crimes that he committed and despite Mossad Agent Peter Malkin assurances not to he eventually was sentenced to death and hanged. P.S Despite Israel having no death penalty as things turned out in Adolph Eichmann's case it made him an exception and no one bothered, except his fellow on the run Nazi war criminals, to make a case out of it.

Excellent T.V movie that chronicles events leading up to and the capturing (by crack mossad agents) of the elusive Adolf Eichmann. Robert Duval (as Eichmann) is one of the finest actors in cinema history and shows such a range of diversity in the characters he portrays. Is certainly worth watching as a companion to other movies of the same (or similar) subject matter.

I knew a movie with Robert Duvall in the lead would have to have a pretty plausible explanation for going straight to video ,and of course,this is a made for TV film which just goes to show how far Duvall's amazing acting potential stands.

It was quite well told,and was of course,brilliantly acted by all the leads involved.Eichmann's story was interesting and factual.We see him waver between his past and present worlds as a one time savage war crimanal,responsible for unspeakable acts of human atrocity,to his present state as a feeble,helpless old man who evokes genuine human sympathy.

A quite impressive made for TV movie.Well worth seeing.