Operation Finale: The horrifyingly human side of monsters

Operation Finale tells the story of the victorious capture of Adolf Eichmann by the country of Jerusalem.  The film also marks another brilliant performance by the always incredible Ben Kingsley.

The subject matter of the Holocaust is a difficult subject to make entertaining. The tragic events are anything but easy to watch on-screen. Sadly, the subject of Nazis is one that continues to be a problem within our society– and just like Blackkklansman, the film Operation Finale is another unfortunate reminder of why we as a culture need to always remember these people are monsters.

Part of what makes this film so powerful is its historical significance. The Holocaust is undoubtedly one of the most infamous days in all of history and Adolf Eichmann is one of its foremost engineers. He was the man behind the scenes, and consciously orchestrated the mass murder of millions of people who were deemed unfit. And yet, he had a family, he had friends, he had charisma.

Operation Finale and the team the film is based on did the unthinkable. They took the face of evil and made it human, which forces the viewer to take a rather terrifying look into what society is today because of what happened then.

The film centers on a group of secret agents from Jerusalem who are tasked with hunting down the Nazi who was the leader behind the transportation of millions to their deaths in the Jewish community. Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac) was one of the several heroes behind the operation as well as the capture of Adolf Eichmann (Ben Kingsley). While most of the film spends a lot of time depicting the mission itself, where the film ultimately succeeds is depicting the mental combat between Malkin and the charismatic monster that is Eichmann.

There are two things that make this film extremely unsettling. The first is the time frame of these events. For those who are unaware, the historical timeline of Operation Finale lands right in the 1960s.

Why is this unsettling? Well, most of us still are old enough to know people from this generation that were born or are still living. Heck, my father was born in the 50s. The film conveys how the Nazi regime was still alive and breathing in plain sight even then. A priest is shown giving the Nazi salute in a private meeting among these psychopaths.  It’s a cautious wake-up call that this problem did not just go away. Evil always lurks.

More from Movies

• The story of a French emperor: Here’s where Napoleon will stream after theaters
• The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes honors its origins and far surpasses them
• Thanksgiving movie death toll: Why [SPOILER] is still alive
• No, Thanksgiving is not streaming yet (But here’s where it’ll land)
• Trolls Band Together soundtrack guide: Which songs play in the movie?

The second unsettling aspect of this film is the realistic way it shows how some of these people are just like us. It’s easy to take the idea of a Nazi and label them as this demonic supernatural societal presence. I think of Se7en when Morgan Freeman says to Brad Pitt, “It’s dismissive to call him a lunatic.” These evil people were still men that had the capacity to think for themselves logically, and they chose to do terrible things.

Which brings me to the stellar performance of Adolf Eichmann by Ben Kingsley. The middle section of Operation Finale is where the film possesses the most flavor. Once Eichmann is captured it becomes a mental battle between Malkin and Eichmann. No one is better suited for such dialogue-driven moments than Kingsley himself.

In the film, he makes Eichmann someone you constantly have to question. At times, when speaking to Malkin, it’s hard to know whether he is purposely being vulnerable or if it’s a game of mental chess. Kingsley, however, sells it extremely well making the viewer actually feel something for this horrible human being–albeit briefly.

The only tedious part of the film is once it moves beyond the mental game of warfare between these two characters, it’s hard to feel any suspense for what comes next. We know the rest of the story and without even knowing the real-life events, most viewers will predict the way things shake out– so most of the “how will they overcome this” suspense is absent. Still, it does not make the importance of these events any less compelling. It’s a fascinating story that people should still take the time to know about.

Operation Finale is not as hard-hitting as most films involving the Holocaust but it contains another brilliant performance from Ben Kingsley. It’s a film that shows the horrifying human side of monsters and the consequences of their choices. While most of the film might be predictable, the entire middle section of Operation Finale is like a fine steak. It contains all the vulnerability and flavor that make it all worth savoring.

Operation Finale is in theaters now.