The Specialist - Portrait of a Modern Criminal

The Specialist - Portrait of a Modern Criminal
by Eyal Sivan

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Movie Reviews of The Specialist - Portrait of a Modern Criminal

Movie Review: Compelling AV evidence supporting Arendt's thesis, BUT...
Summary: 5 Stars

It isn't the film I have a quarrel with, but Arendt. She -- and by extension the filmmakers -- buy into Eichmann's defense (even if not to the point of absolving him of criminal responsibility), which was carefully honed during 15 years of hiding as a fugitive from the Allies' war crimes indictment. Eichmann has, by the time of his capture by Israeli intelligence agents, refined his script beyond that of the Nuremberg defendants ("I was only following orders"), to include the "cog in the machine" theme: "I only organized the transports; I did not do the killing upon arrival of the transports at the camps!" Of course, Eichmann downplays several salient facts, namely that he knew all along what the fate of his "cargo" would be, and that he never expressed publicly or privately any misgivings with the Nazis' extermination plans (of which he was a vital element). Indeed, the testimony of his closest associates conclusively establishes that Eichmann was, contrary to Arendt's thesis, a willing and entusiastic participant in the genocide -- among other details, there is his boast near the end of the war that he did not fear capture by the Allies, but would instead "jump happily into [his] grave, with the knowledge that [he] was responsible for exterminating 5 million jews!" Doesn't sound so banal & detached to me.

In the end, it doesn't much matter how you view Arendt's thesis -- either Eichmann is a chillingly amoral man who willingly played a major role in facilitating the Holocaust, or he is an inconceivably evil monster who happily did his most to bring about the extermination of European Jewry -- and then crafted a defense (possibly as a self-defense to allow him to live with the knowledge of his crimes) good enough to fool one of the 20th century's most brilliant philosophers. Either way, this film is an invaluable window into a thoroughly terrible -- though hauntingly "normal"-appearing -- individual.