Movie review: 'I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Wiesenthal'

2 1/2 stars (out of four)

Produced by Moriah Films, an arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation in Los Angeles, this documentary look at the legendary Nazi hunter, who died in 2005, is educational and often moving but puts hagiography ahead of history. It’s a shame, because with a story such as Wiesenthal’s—already told in an HBO version of his autobiography “Murderers Among Us” and adapted in fiction such as “The Odessa File” and “The Boys from Brazil”—a filmmaker doesn’t need to stack the deck to get an audience on its subject’s side. “I Have Never Forgotten You” is a good place to start for those unaware of his pursuit of war criminals such Adolf Eichmann and his devotion to all those lost in the Holocaust, which for Wiesenthal included 89 family members. But when an elderly Wiesenthal explains that he told his wife, who longed to leave an often-dangerous Vienna, that she was “not just married to one man but to millions of dead people,” I could only think that there was more to this driven man than the saintly figure of the film (he seems to have few faults besides workaholism and a minor penchant for off-color jokes). More objective filmmakers might have delved a little deeper and produced something more real.

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