Among the countless feature films that touch on the theme of World War II and the Holocaust, very few are willing to shift the focus of their story to a more modern one. The Eichmann Show, which is important to understand before watching, does not tell us about Adolf Eichmann. This image here acts as a catalyst for other events, human relationships, changes in people’s worldview. Therefore, the viewer will not be immersed in the history of one of the most sinister figures of Nazi Germany, but will give preference to the events of 1960-1962 in Israel. An important task was to revive the world-famous black and white newsreel. The creators preferred accurate interpretation rather than effects in the spirit of “Forrest Gump”.
The trial in Jerusalem not only served as the main cult documentary of Hannah Arendt, but also became an important event in historiography, bringing public understanding of the horrors of the Holocaust to a new level. The process became a milestone in the development of television, due to the complexity of the preparation of the material and its distribution to dozens of countries. That’s what The Eichmann Show is all about – about the people who worked on the court’s coverage for the global public. Therefore, we are not a detective, based on the investigation of the genocide of Jews, not a judicial drama, which would seem obvious. Before us is a social, sometimes even everyday story about extraordinary people in special circumstances.
Most of the film unfolds in the redistributions of only a few rooms, so the forced chamberiness, one way or another, narrows the subject of discussion. At the center of the story are two men, a producer and a director, who must overcome not only external trials and opposition, but also their own differences between themselves. In general, the time period of the early 1960s was quite competently recreated, as was the atmosphere of Israel (in some places it felt as if he had returned to Jerusalem again). Events develop very slowly and, if you do not care about the topic of history and the Second World War, the film will pass by you. In the rest, quite decent film format is not for the mass audience.
7 out of 10