The Infiltrator (1995) (TV)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

John Mackenzie

Writers (WGA):

Yaron Svoray (book) and
Nick Taylor (book) ...

Release Date:

24 June 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Yaron Svoray is a Jewish freelance reporter who goes to Germany to write an article about neonazism...

Plot Keywords:

Skinhead | Journalism | Deceit | Neo Nazism | Based On True Story

Cast

Oliver Platt	...	Yaron
Arliss Howard	...	Eaton
Tony Haygarth	...	Gunther
Michael Byrne	...	Creutz
Julian Glover	...	Bielert
George Jackos	...	Kadir
Alex Kingston	...	Anna
Jonathan Phillips	...	Mahlich
Peter Riegert	...	Rabbi Cooper
Alan King	...	Rabbi Hier
Colin Stinton	...	Breitbart
Anne Reid	...	Ingrid
Christian Redl	...	Rheindorf
Werner Dissel	...	Otto
Bernd Michael Lade	...	Max

MPAA:

Rated R for brutal racially-motivated violence, and for language and some sexuality.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Germany:18 | Singapore:M18 | Finland:K-16 (video premiere) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | Canada:R (Ontario) | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:PA (Manitoba)

Filming Locations:

Hamburg, Germany

Company:

Carnival Films

Quotes:

Mahlich: [as skinhead, with malice] I am one of thousands, millions.
Yaron: [as Jew, with pride] Me too.

Passionate true account of journalist turned Nazi-Hunter.

Based on the true story of Yaron Svoray, an Israeli freelance reporter living in the US. "The Infiltrator" recounts Svoray's infiltration of Nazi-sympathizers in Germany and beyond.

Oliver Platt plays Svoray, and does a good job in a very serious role. But Svoray's self-imposed mission, with the cooperation and support of the Wiesenthal Center is a Bunyonesques task, and, he is somewhat ill-equipped. If the film initially is to show us how direct exposure to the atrocities of Nazism might fuel unbridled fire within a person, Jewish or otherwise, then it fails in act one.

It's exposition regarding the state of Nazism today, is important, somewhat startling, and much more dramatic. That a Jewish reporter could infiltrate this infra-structure is somewhat unbelievable, but it serves to validate Svoray's passion.

All in all, the film struggles in no-man's land between documentary and thriller, battling to fill time between real life events. Curiously, actor Arliss Howard takes a major role as an Israeli agent-he will go on to play Mossad operative Peter Malkin in the bio-pic 'The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996)".

Svoray's story is compelling, sadly the film gives us a less than satisfying conclusion. A worthwhile watch, nonetheless.