The Odessa File (1974)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

I have read all the criticisms of 'The Odessa File' but they make no difference to my opinion of the film. I have watched it time and time again, and it never fails to grip me in many different ways. It was one of the first intelligent films made about the young Germans' struggle to understand and come to terms with what was done in their own country. The tension carries through the whole film without any sensational violence to the final scene when the surprise unfolds. Ronald Neame certainly deserved his BAFTA and Frederic Forsyth wrote a cracking story. Makes you proud to be British. The critics can carry on nit picking about a character's age and 'unrealistic' fight scenes, but I will continue to watch the film when it appears again and again.

It's 1963. Israel knows that the Egytians are trying to perfect their biochemical rockets with a guidance system being built in Germany. Peter Miller (Jon Voight) is a reporter who becomes interested in the suicide of a Jewish Holocaust survivor. He leaves behind a diary detailing the crimes of the camp SS commander Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell). Peter discovers an underground network of sympathizers called Odessa hiding SS men. He is soon hunted by the organization while Israeli agents recruit him to infiltrate Odessa.Initially, this is a fascinating thriller. It has Nazis. It has international intrigue. It does drag a little in the middle since most of the information is already laid out. It makes the movie rather straight forward. There is a great reveal at the end. It may be worthwhile to add more along that line earlier in the movie. The movie needs something to spice up the middle.

The book was a suspenseful investigation by journalist Peter Miller, and its specific pace was a real challenge to adapt into a 2-hour movie.The biggest challenge of all lied with the basis of the investigation: the diary of a Jewish inmate describing SS Captain Eduard Roschmann's war crimes in Riga. The extended version of it in the book sets a powerful back-story that fleshes up the investigation right from the start. However, despite the detailed horror, you can guess Miller's true motive in the book. In the movie the diary is roughly edited into a quick flashback, a caricature of what was supposed to be a powerful testimony. B&W images of Nazis and Jews in Riga are too sharp and clean, the prisoners themselves are clean and never seem to be starving, the horror, the true agony of men and women (no children on screen) treated as unworthy cattle is missing from every frame.Thus the adaptation misses the point of the book: an investigation building up from the diary. The director rushes a lot in the flashback and the next few steps, as a result suspense does not have time to settle in since we're thrown into a conspiracy action shuffling pace. The investigation looks like an easy game, only bumping into the ubiquitous SS manpower.So the two big flaws that make The Odessa File a mediocre movie are:a poor adaptation missing the point of suspense building up as the investigation gains momentum;the shortcuts in the seminal flashback and in the ODESSA premise summed up as a gigantic SS conspiracy pulling the strings behind every German administration (in 1963).One good point though, the disturbing clumsiness of Peter Miller as his investigation gets more and more dangerous, in the book, has been properly dealt with. But as in the book Peter Miller is a rather bland character. His stubbornness doesn't help to make him interesting as he does his job.

THE ODESSA FILE is filmed in authentic European locations which give the story an added touch of realism, the kind needed in this sort of espionage thriller. JON VOIGHT does an excellent job of portraying a journalist who comes across a journal vividly describing what happened at a Nazi internment camp during the last days of WWII. He decides to go on a personal hunt for the much hated man he believes caused the death of some 80,000 Jews (MAXIMILIAN SCHELL). In doing so, he also reveals another purpose that will come as a surprise at the story's conclusion.But first he searches for "The Odessa File," full of documents on a band of former SS German soldiers who are now operating a secret society of former war criminals who still hold firmly to their former beliefs. The plot thickens once he begins to tackle the assignment, pitted against members who want him out of the way lest their true identities be revealed.Not quite as brilliant as THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, it's a Frederick Forsyth thriller that deserves the attention of anyone looking for an intelligent, well-paced thriller that benefits from excellent cinematography and a good background score with some music courtesy of Andrew Lloyd Webber long before his big show biz fame. The action scenes are handled for maximum effect and the final confrontation between Voigt and Schell makes for a satisfying climax.