Photo by Samira Rahi on Unsplash
By Lauryn Longacre, Staff Editor
The newest production from executive producer Jordan Peele and MonkeyPaw productions, “Hunters,” centers around a group of Nazi hunters in 1970s New York City, loosely based off of a true event that took place after World War II.
Between 1945 and 1959, around 1,600 German scientists and engineers were brought to the United States, many of whom were members and leaders of the Nazi party. The mission, known as Operation Paperclip, was focused on defeating the USSR in the ongoing Space Race.
A plethora of Holocaust survivors tracked down the free Nazis and turned them in for their war crimes. The show uses the historical event as a foundation for its plot but stands as a heavily fictionalized retelling of the people it is based on.
The 10-episode series was written by David Weil and focuses on its main character, 19-year-old Jonah Heidelbaum played by Logan Lerman after the murder of his grandmother, an Auschwitz survivor. Following her death, Jonah became obsessed with finding her murderer as the police were doing nothing.
The series follows Jonah as his grandmother’s friend, played by Al Pacino, introduces him to a group of Nazi hunters. The group is made up of a British nun who doubles as a spy, a Jewish actor who uses his acting skills as a master of disguise, a single mom who can pick locks, a Holocaust surviving elderly couple who specialize in weaponry, and a war veteran.
Jonah proves to be worthy of a position in the group when he quickly finds the location of a Nazi the group had been hunting. Despite this, the group still dismissed Jonah as naïve and too young.
Unlike the other members in the group, Jonah’s moral dilemma and main conflict are his hesitation to kill. He must determine whether torturing and killing Nazis is exacting revenge or hypocritical.
During one of the final showdowns, as Jonah prepares himself to finally kill a neo-Nazi, the FBI agent, played by Jerikka Hinton, who has been tracking him, tells him, “if you do this, you become the evil you are fighting.”
The show plays out like a comic with outlandish scenes such as the group’s introductory scene that acts like a game show. The style amplifies the fun nature of the group and helps to dissociate the show from the real-life story.
One scene that takes place in Auschwitz could have been taken right out of a “Batman” comic, which has recently sparked some controversy with the Auschwitz Holocaust Museum. The scene is Meyer telling Jonah about the notorious Nazi, Heinz Richter, and how he made the prisoners of Auschwitz play human chess matches where they were forced to kill one another under his watch. The scene is horrendous and tragic but adds history to the series without exploiting the horrors of the concentration camps.
Although the show is very fast paced, it can sometimes feel like it isn’t going anywhere. Despite it’s very satisfying scenes of Nazis being killed off by avenging Nazi Hunters, there is a hint of repetitiveness. Every time Jonah is given the opportunity to kill a Nazi, he falters, and it puts him or his the team in jeopardy. Regardless, the action-pact style and complex story-line make the show truly enjoyable.
“Hunters” premiered Feb. 21 on Amazon Prime.
