susanjhirad This is a powerful movie that raises important moral issues, not just about the Holocaust, but about how many people "go along" with atrocities without thinking, thereby giving up their humanity. Strangely, just after we watched it on Netflix streaming, I turned to CNN's "The 70's" which was showing Sergeant Calley and his platoon mindlessly killing a whole Vietnamese village, including innocent men, women and children. He too claimed he was just "following orders." In the same episode on the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger is shown after he has ordered the massive bombing of civilians in Vietnam. He comments casually, "It's sad, but we had to do it." An excellent movie that shows how hard it is to speak out when it offends the popular sensibilities, in this case when Arendt sees Eichmann, not as "the devil" (which is far too easy for the rest of us)but as part of machine that had given up its right to humanity by not thinking about the consequences of his actions.

Al Rodbell There are momentous events that shape our world, with individuals, Hitler, Napoleon, Marx -- who take the stuff of their birth world and shape it into something different. Those who capture forces and marshal them for revolutions, are both hated and loved, saviors and monsters -- and the winners write the history.True Philosophers transcend this. They remove themselves from those who hate and admire such transforming figures, and by doing so risk becoming alienated from their own group. Thus is the case of Hannah Arendt in the period of this film. As a student she had a love affair with Heidegger, one of the great philosophers of the early 20th century - who as a human being joined the Nazis.Arendt, being a Jew, in a covering the trial of Adolf Eichman, became the thinker, the philosopher, while those survivors of the Holocaust were in pain over their loss, and in no mood to intellectualize the perpetrators.Although I lived only miles from Arendt at the time of this film, I was far removed from the academic culture described, and now more than a half century later, look back with a top of nostalgia and remorse. I knew some who survived the death camps, and certainly could identify with those who reviled Arendt for not loathing Eichman.Yet these are the challenges of today. We have child terrorists such as one who just killed nine people in a black church our of the same inculcated hatred as the Nazis towards Jews. Arendt's thinking is valuable, and needed since the disease of hatred of outsiders does not seem to be fading, but rather is a constant recurrence of humanity.

karmaswimswami With a new director, new producer, new cinematographer, new editor, new script and new lead actress, this might be a fine movie. I fear the world is filled with those who vaunt this dreary film because they espouse what Arendt had to say. This is a movie, and needs to be meritorious on things one likes movies for...such as being well-directed, well-acted, with a sense of ensemble, a good script, non-formulaic execution of the story. Oh, and please no Dogma lighting! Jews will wrongly find common cause with me for hating this movie because they despised Arendt. If you want to understand Arendt, read "The Banality of Evil." Nothing is to be learned or felt from this dreary procession of a hamfisted film. More's the pity as there is a story worth telling.

jm10701 Like Vision (the previous movie by Margarethe von Trotta starring Barbara Sukowa) this is a fantastic movie with a serious flaw. But in both cases, the flaws have nothing to do with Sukowa, whom I had never heard of before Vision but who I now see is one of the world's greatest actors. She is perfect in both roles, in both movies. Since she dominates both movies, she is so good that she earns the movies eight stars from me despite the serious flaws.The flaw in this movie is that many of the supporting roles are filled by terrible actors, and they're so bad that they can't be ignored - when they're on screen they completely derail the movie, and it doesn't recover until Sukowa returns and they leave. The very worst of those incompetent performances are by actors (Megan Gay, Harvey Friedman and Janet McTeer) who have been thoroughly competent in other movies, so the problem must be with von Trotta's direction of them.The fact that all three characters are Americans (only one of the actors - Friedman - is) probably isn't a coincidence. Von Trotta evidently doesn't have much sense of how Americans tick, or even talk, so she doesn't quite know how to create credible American characters in a movie. Germans - of any era - she does great; Americans: no.A secondary but related flaw is that she should have hired an American production designer. I understand why she filmed all the New York interior scenes (which means practically the whole movie) in Germany, but, unfortunately, they all LOOK like German interiors, not at all like real New York interiors, even in the early 1960s.Although I'm very glad she made this movie, if she plans to continue filming American stories she really needs to get help from people who know how to create a believable America and believable Americans on film. She's a great director, but she needs help if she intends to keep making movies about America.