| | |
Features: DVD, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Mono Audio, English, Spanish, Subtitled
The year is 1963. The place: Hamburg, Germany. An elderly Jewish man commits suicide, leaving a diary which falls into the hands of a freelance newspaper man, Peter Miller (Jon Voight). The diary documents the unspeakable crimes of cruelty, torture and mass murder perpetrated by SS Captain Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell), commandant of the notorious wartime deathcamp at Riga, Latvia. Miller launches a personal manhunt to track down Roschmann, an investigation that leads him into the very heart of ODESSA, a powerful secret organization formed by the SS to protect and re-establish its fugitive members throughout the world. When Miller finds Roschmann, he learns that the former Nazi is now the leader of a weaponry complex of international, strategic consequence.
"...a rewarding experience. " The Motion Picture Guide
Editor's Note
The gripping true story of a journalist whose search for a Nazi murderer leads him to the discovery of a secret Nazi organization file named "Odessa." Based on the novel by Frederick Forsythe.
Plot Summary
Set in 1963 Germany, right after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a young German freelance journalist finds himself in possession of a journal left by a concentration camp survivor who has committed suicide. From the diary the journalist realizes that former Nazi SS officers are still living in Germany protected by the government and furnished with money and whatever else they need by an underground society called "Odessa." His attempt to track down one particular notorious officer leads him to discover the truth about something that happened in the past.
| Features | Anaconda Trailer | | U-Turn Trailer | | Talent Files | | Spanish Subtitles | | English Mono | | The Odessa File Trailer | | Standard Version | | Widescreen Version | | English Subtitles |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 12/21/2004 |
| Running Time: 130 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1974 | | Catalog ID: 03299 | | UPC: 00043396032996 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 2.35:1/4:3 |
| Cast & Crew | Maria Schell | | Mary Tamm | | Maximilian Schell | | Jon Voight | | Frederick Forsyth - Based on Novel By | | Oswald Morris - Cinematographer | | Monika Bauert - Costume Designer | | Ronald Neame - Director | | Ralph Kemplen - Editor | | Andrew Lloyd Webber - Musical Score | | John R. Sloan - Producer | | Rolf Zehetbauer - Production Designer | | Kenneth Ross, et al. - Screenplay |
|
| | Professional Reviews | The Motion Picture Guide 8 of 10
...if one concentrates on the subtleties, it's a rewarding experience. Voight is the son of a German soldier in Deutschland and currently a reporter attempting to track down the whereabouts of some of the sadistic SS men who mysteriously vanished after the war. The time is December, 1963. John F. Kennedy has been assassinated and the temper of the time sis angry. Voight reads the diary of a suicide, a person who had been one of the death camp survivors. It is this chilling document that causes him to search for Maximillian Schell, a Nazi who has gone into hiding... There is a terrifying scene in the shop of Jacobi, a printer, that is a marvel of suspenseful restraint. Voight finally gets to Schell, and in what must be the most frightening scene in the film, the Nazi casually explains why he did what he did and why he feels he was right. He delivers his rationale with total sincerity and no guilt about what he's done and we must believe that people like this still exist, a shuddering possibility. There is a plot twist at the end that defies synopsizing because to reveal it would be to do the film disservice. Stick around for it, though, and be prepared for a sharp intake of breath. Maria Schell, as Voight's mother, does a small cameo and proves again that the amount of time a performer gets on screen makes no difference: The impact is what counts.
|
| |
|
|
|
