THE EICHMANN SHOW

UK, 2015, 90 minutes, Colour.
Martin Freeman, Anthony La Paglia.
Directed by Paul David Williams.

It is hard to realise the difficulties facing the producers in 1961 with the proposition that they film the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Many people remember the trial for Hannah Arendt’s comment about the banality of evil rather than the trial itself, although there was a vivid film version of the stage production of The Man in the Glass Booth with Maximilian Schell as Eichmann.

Martin Freeman is cast as the producer of the show, Milton, planning it in Jerusalem, facing opposition from Jewish authorities, the judiciary, but working out ways in which the trial could be filmed unobtrusively. In fact, footage of the trial is included in this film. Anthony La Paglia plays Leo, the director, blacklisted in the United States but given an opportunity to make his reputation again. He also experiences difficulties with the stances of his wife and the response of his son.

The film is interesting in showing the logistics, the cameras and their placement, the camera work, the role of the director, choosing which cameras to film – and the danger, as happened, of missing a key witness response. At first, other journalists are sceptical and do not show interest – but, once the witnesses take the stand, they are compelled to watch, as does the television audience.

Is also surprising to find the ignorance about the Holocaust at the time, in the United States, and the response in Israel, especially to the Final Solution of the role of Eichmann, the hostility towards him.

An actor plays Eichmann in some sequence and, at other times, there is use of actual footage.

Significant in the world’s dealing with the Holocaust – as well as in the development of documentary television.


1. The title, the tone, an episode, the televising of Eichmann’s trial – as a television show but a breakthrough in television documentary?

2. Audiences, knowledge of the Holocaust, appreciation of the Holocaust, the concentration camps, the Final Solution? The information given in the film, recapturing the past, the distressing visuals and the impact, the verbal comment, the narration of the stories of concentration camp experience? In 1961, for the world to see and hear – despite the other events like Gagarin and the Russians in space, Cuba and the Bay of Pigs and the prominence of these news items on television?

3. Israel, Jerusalem 1961, atmosphere, the court setting up of the studios, the cameras? The accommodation for the visitors? Leo and the landlady in their conversations? Media offices? The musical score?

4. Milton, Martin Freeman’s performance, as a producer, persuading the network, the nature of the risks, the need for success, the financial outlay? The threats to his life, to his wife? The Nazi coming into the studio and attacking? The need for security?

5. Audience knowledge of Adolf Eichmann, his history, his role in the Nazi regime, his proposing of the Final Solution? The consequences? His overseeing the transport of Jews to the concentration camps? The search for 15 years, finding him in Argentina, capturing him, bringing him back to Israel, imprisonment, in the court, the glass booth?

6. The footage from the television program at the time? Also relying on actors as well as the real characters in the footage? Eichmann, sitting, scarcely showing any emotion? Leo and his focusing on Eichmann, on his eyes, wanting some kind of response and admission, nothing coming, the touch of the TV? Eichmann in his own testimony, his blaming underlings, his final admission?

7. Milton, his idea, hiring Leo, reputation and the blacklist, his hopes? Anthony La Paglia as Leo? The issue of the judge’s decision about filming, the idea to hide the cameras, the demonstration for the judges? Leo, his wife and her support? Visit, bringing the son? The tension in the filming, Leo and his expertise, arranging the cameras, his demands, Milton upset at missing the witness fainting? The confrontation between the two, the argument? Leo thinking of leaving? Milton and thanking him? The upset about the audience, watching space and Cuba, people leaving the journalists’ room, but the return when the witnesses spoke? The bored couple and Milton’s angry reaction, their changing?

8. Leo, the experience of being blacklisted, his family, his personality, experience and skill, but the accommodation, his discussion with the landlady, her talk? The members of the crew, their characters, blacklisting the Communist? Yaakov and his memories, emotionally overcome, the tears, his collapse? The invitation to the crew being upset and permission to leave the studio?

9. The effect of the trial, the long introduction by the prosecutor, losing the audience? The witnesses, the actors and the footage, the testimonies, people’s attention, the cumulative effect?

10. Leo, the obsession with Eichmann’s eyes, missing the collapse, the clash with Milton, his wife and son, his wife taking the son to Greece because of the effect being
overpowering and the long days?

11. The landlady, Czech background, a number for the camp, working in the resistance? Israel as her home? Her being the vehicle to explain to the audience the history of the Holocaust victims not being believed, that they were exaggerating, that they were to go quietly – and the trial opening up the admission of the truth, the ghastly listings of the truth, liberating the victims?

12. The achievement as the first television documentary, the consequences?

13. Information about Milton and Leo and their further successful careers?

14. The 20th century and a 21st-century perspective on looking back at the Holocaust and Eichmann’s trial?