Plan A Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Plan A Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 11, 2023

There's a frequent if inherently provocative query aimed at Jews who survived the Holocaust, mentioning the relative imbalance between the number of prisoners in camps and their captors, with the supposedly "obvious" question being, "Why didn't you revolt?" That question is actually overtly asked, kind of amazingly by one Jew to another, in Plan A, a rather interesting feature that might have benefitted from just a bit more clear exposition and development, but which recounts the fascinating if inherently disturbing tale of a gaggle of post-World War II Jews who in their own way "revolted" against the horrors of the Holocaust, with a patently insane strategy to basically claim "an eye for an eye" for all of the Jewish lives lost in the debacle. Since most repsected historians place that number at around six million, the scope of "Plan A" can therefore be immediately understood as being epic. This is another one of those "ripped from the headlines" drama, and if the headlines in this case are decades old, and some of the narrative peculiarities in this adaptation may not always be well (no weapons of mass destruction pun intended) executed, the story is so unusual and my hunch is so generally unknown that Plan A may provide a riveting viewing experience for a lot of armchair historians, especially those interested in World War II and its immediate aftermath.

While there are actually a couple of groups in Plan A exacting their own kinds of revenge on former Nazis, a narrative element that frankly adds a bit of confusion at times, the basic focus here is on a real life (and/or death, as the case may be) group called Nakam, the Hebrew word for "revenge". Before this film's version of Nakam is introduced, Holocaust survivor Max (August Diehl) is seen, more dead than alive perhaps, shuffling back to what was once his family home. In a plot device that may in fact remind some of another production Menemsha Films put out on Blu-ray, 1945, Max of course is greeted by the German (Christian) family who had simply taken Max's home during the war and who now inform him it's still theirs.

In a chilling moment, the German husband and father attacks Max with the butt of his rifle and tells Max that simply because the war is over doesn't mean Germans can't keep killing Jews. And that right there is, if a fictionalized moment, completely salient to the reason why Nakam undertook some pretty wild attempts at "justice", since they were completely sure that the German "soul", so to speak, was infected with a disease that needed to be eradicated, in what is an unavoidably ironic reaction to some of the central tenets of Nazism toward Jews.

Plan A takes the fictional character of Max and plops him down among at least one notable real life figure, Abba Kovner (Ishai Golan), the "big makher" (to use an appropriate term) in Nakam, and a man who later had a rather fascinating history in Israel. He's in zealot territory at this point in his life, and he is absolutely positive that taking out six million Germans is the only possible response to what has gone down in the Holocaust. Suffice it to say that several Nakam members, including Max who ends up infiltrating the group, are tasked with poisoning a major water supply, and they seem to be surprisingly close to pulling that feat off at several points in this tale.

Plan A has a lot on its plate, so to speak, and with subtext that addresses everything from survivor's guilt to a perhaps concomitant desire for revenge, means this effort can be stuffed to its veritable gills with emotional content, though it's rather surprising how tamped down a lot of the proceedings are. Diehl's haunted face brings Max fully alive, and if a probably too abrupt wrap up and then improbably sanguine ending may not have the visceral force of the first parts of the story, this is still an often thought provoking piece.

Plan A Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Plan A is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Menemsha Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. There is a dearth of verifiable, authoritative technical information online about this shoot (that I could dredge up, anyway), and so I can't comment on the camera of resolution of the DI. Virtually this entire presentation is swathed in slate grays and colder blue tones, something that gives an undeniably wintry aspect to much of the imagery. Still, detail levels tend to be very good to excellent throughout, with the possible exception of some of the darkest sequences, as in a harrowing chase through a forest fairly early in the film that takes place in the dead of night. The emphasis on cooler tones can give a slightly alien look to things. That perhaps makes a very brief but striking final few seconds with Max in some brightly lit fields feel like the "land of milk and honey" might be more appropriately called the "land of milk and honey color". Some of the CGI is not particularly effective, and it seems obvious that the filmmakers may have had only a couple of "city" locations that were redressed for various shots.

Plan A Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Plan A features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 options, perhaps surprisingly given this film's German-Israeli co- production status, in English. A lot of the film takes place in extremely intimate, up close and personal moments, where engagement of the surround channels is utilized mostly for background ambient environmental sounds. But there are a number of striking outdoor scenes where immersion is evident, and some of the sequences in a water processing facility are filled with the sounds of machinery. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Plan A Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers include Plan A (HD; 2:19), along with trailers for other Blu-ray releases from Menemsha Films.

Plan A Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Plan A has a few narrative hurdles to overcome, and I found parts of the exposition to be on the clunky side, including some initial stumbles that don't adequately explain Max's relationships with both the British Jewish Infantry Brigade Group and Nakam, especially Max's "double agent" (or maybe even "triple agent" status. That said, I was largely unaware of this story and found it so preposterously outrageous that any missteps were ameliorated by the sheer audacity of this "true life" story. Technical merits are solid. Recommended.