The Odessa File (1974)

In the 1960s the tabu subject of WWII was overcome, and major action war productions were set in motion. But in the 1970s, other subject arose: the underground conspiracies of old surviving Nazis, trying to get back into power, with a cold war and spy-movie background. "The Odessa File" tackles such a subject, from the german point of view, successfully almost until the end of the picture, who then bombs completely in a very lame plot twist. A german accented Jon Voight is a journalist who goes to cover the suicide of an old Jew in 1960s Germany. The jew left an old diary behind, telling of his days in the concentration camp, where horrible things happened at the hand of commander Eduard Roschmann (played to perfection in the flashbacks and in the last scene by the great Maximilian Schell). Voight becomes obsessed in finding Roschmann to bring him to justice, and what started as a somewhat political movie quickly plunges into one of investigating journalism, as Voight uncovers the plot of the Odessa Organization, which is basically made of old SS officials who changed their names and infiltrated every aspect of German society. AS he uncovers the plot, the movie takes another turn, to the spy movie, as Voight is trained by the Israeli underground army to infiltrate Odessa, posing as a Nazi, which will ultimately lead him to uncover the location and identity of Roschmann, in the final showdown. Therefore, the movie is full of tension (more so than really action, so things take their time to unwind), and has also a gripping story, as Voight uncovers bit by bit the conspiracy, and the Nazis are after him. There are two major problems. One, the transformation of Voight from a wimpy journalist to a secret agent is not very much believable. Ok, he got a lot of training, but even so... His hesitations in the final scene are more entwined with the character development at the beginning, than really his exploits in the middle of the film. Even so, he nails the part well, especially when he becomes focused in revenge. And second, the last plot twist, besides being stupid, is totally unnecessary, and spoils to a certain extent the mood created by the picture. Even so, director Ronald Neame (more well known for the writing and cinematography of David Lean's 40s films) created a nice little thriller which depicts well the conflicted emotions of the new german generation of the 60s, has a good story, and which, off course, shows everyone's favourite villain, the old nazi trying to rise to glory once more, complete with an I-shall-rule-the-world-again-speech. It may be a little unbalanced, and some performances are a little wooden (because they are playing germans perhaps?!), but it is entertaining and thrilling, albeit the last twist and some more lengthy scenes don't work out so well.