MovieChat Forums > The ODESSA File (1974) Discussion > Compelling story, weak execution

Compelling story, weak execution

posted 17 years ago by Star_Red
9 replies | jump to latest

I was really looking forward to this film, knowing that this organization did really exist, but unfortunately ended up being quite disappointed.
Maybe it was just me, but the overall look of this film had a pale, cheap, made-for-TV feel.
I didn't like the acting either. Most of the German (TV-)actors speaking school class English and, most of all, Jon Voight's forced, wooden acting were annoying and made the movie come across as unauthentic. It took me several minutes in the beginning to figure out that Voight's character was supposed to be German. I thought he was an American journalist working in Germany.
With the right actors, original language with subtitles, better director and musical score, it could have been a great, gripping, and suspenseful film! Such a great, missed opportunity.

[–] srjow 17 years ago

I saw the DvD of this last night having remembered it as a good film that my teenaged sons might be interested in (a sort of postscript to Downfall).

The one that stayed awake thought it was OK (a variety of Good) but I got bored in places. It hasn't stood the test of time for me and is actually a movie I would recommend for a remake, adverse as I am to such things normally.

Some of Voight's outbursts look contrived and the fight scene in the printers was just too much. If anyone was going to fall through some glass and get a spike through his chest it was that Odessa assassin.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" Carl Sagan

[–] MikeyC_1979 17 years ago

It was a good film from 1974. It did not choose to glamourise either side of good or evil.

However, I see what your saying. Cast your mind back to the black & white scenes of riga concentration camp. The detail in these parts far out weigh the rest of the film, so much so in fact, I presumed they were lifted from another production. Did anyone else feel the same?

[–] Elmatador 17 years ago

I was a bit dissapointed too about this movie. Schell was good in terms of acting, but really this film lacked something. Have you read the book? Its different than the movie, and I think the book is better.

[–] danielmartin-3 17 years ago

I've read the book many times in the last 20 years and every time I read it I find something else to like about it.
I think the movie - watched it again on TCM last night - falls short of what one would expect of an adaptation of the book to the big screen. It sure needs a remake that is more faithful to the book.

[–] agape3636 16 years ago

My husband and I saw The Odessa File when it was released in 1974, and we've watched it many, many times over the years. Obviously we really like it.

It started a string of capture the Nazi movies in the 1970's: next The Marathon Man (now there's a movie that is only a pale shadow of the book, to say nothing of gratuitous violence) and The Boys from Brazil. I think The Odessa File is the best of that genre.

As far as a remake goes, well, I can't think of one single remake that's better than the original. Perhaps there are some, but I doubt it. With the junk that Hollywood is grinding out now, I seriously doubt that a remake could even come close.

And I thought Jon Voigt did an excellent job.

[–] Xcalat3 16 years ago

it was good, not weak at all

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] rtaggart-1 16 years ago

I have to disagree. It was a nail - biting movie, quite authentic, really giving the feel of early sixties Germany still ashamed to come to terms with its past. I remember being there at that time. The old Prussian style German stereotype as depicted in the film has long since died out, but they did exist in those days.Present day Germany ,as far as I am concerned, is a leading light in tolerance and democracy, and could show an example to a few European countries.Also, I didn't perceive a made -for -TV aspect -when viewed on the big screen. In the early days, the film was impressive when shown at the cinema.
Jon Voight has always struck me as an excellent and gifted actor. In "Deliverance" he was a family man,decent but slightly dull, a real hillbilly. Funnily, even though Odessa was made two years later, he comes across as younger, which he is supposed to be, also idealistic,educated, slightly harrassed, and ultimately horrified at the sins of the older generation.
And just to be more awkward, I liked the musical score!

[–] franklinlj 15 years ago

I thought it was gritty and realistic too - which means that is is a good adaptation od a forsyth book.

I like to see more subplot from the book in a movie adaptation too, but that is life.

My main regret is that the direction was adequate, rather that inspired. The scene where Voight creeps into Roschmann's house could have been a real nail biter in the hands of someone who understood cross-cutting, and all the ways to make the camera tell a story. As it was, I found it a little tedious.

Oh well, so we need more genius in the film world, what else is new?

[–] ontheweb 14 years ago

I agree totally. Very wooden but the plot helps it.

Al