Twist of Fate (1989 TV series)

Twist of Fate is a 1989 drama TV miniseries directed by Ian Sharp and starring Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, and Veronica Hamel. A high-ranked participant of the botched Hitler assassination plot goes into hiding with the help of a plastic surgeon as a Jew. In a series of twists of fate he becomes a celebrated general of the Israeli army fighting for the creation of the state of Israel. The film is based on the novel Pursuit by Robert L. Fish and initially was given this name.^[1]

Plot summary[]

The miniseries is 2 episodes, 4 hours total.

Episode I. Aristocratic SS engineer Obersturmbannführer Helmut Von Schraeder in charge of extermination machinery in Treblinka makes a denotator for the Hitler assassination plot. After the failure of the plot he goes into hiding by assuming a new face and voice and an identity of a Jew named Ben Grossman with the help of a blackmailed plastic surgeon, who was practicing on the inmates. Von Shraeder arranges to be sent to a French camp soon to be liberated by the Allies. However he lands in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, which was to be liberated much later. Here he makes some Jewish friends. After the liberation by the Allies, he unsuccessfully tries to go to Switzerland, where he has a sizeable stash in a bank, but he finds himself on a way to Palestine under British mandate with his new Jewish friends. On his way he kills a British officer in a skirmish and becomes an internatioarlly wanted man and wins the respect of the Jews. His Jewish comrade-in-arms notice his military skills (due to his German military training) and he quickly progresses in the ranks.

Episode 2. By 1971, Grossman is a Brigadier General and a hero, but the fate gives him another twist. He is found by the plastic surgeon and the commandant of Treblinka, who were hiding in Argentina and blackmailing him into delivering them the uranium stolen by Mossad. Approximately at the same time Grossman's son makes a documentary about Nazi criminals. His focuses on how ordinary people could become monsters and runs into the career of Von Schraeder. In an old photo he sees his own face and starts to suspect this is his father...^[2][3]

Reception[]

Clifford Terry of Chicago Tribune and Joan Hahauer of UPI had found the plot too too twisted and unbelievable. Hanauer describes the plot thusly: " It opens as a Holocaust film. Then it switches to a founding of Israel drama -- there's a scene where the Arabs attack a kibbutz that looks just like an old Western with the hostiles attacking the settlers in the fort. Only the headgear is different. After a boring middle section, the drama moves on to a Ludlumesque conclusion -- without the thrills.".^[2][3]

Bob Wisehart thinks that the movie is more than just a thriller: " this far-fetched tale raises serious questions about fate, free will and human beings as flawed but improvable creatures"... "Considering the Ben Grossman half of his life, does he deserve leniency? Given the circumstances, isn't there a kind of cosmic statute of limitations at work here? Caught up in a new life in ways he could never have imagined, what else could he do except continue the charade? Or is he guilty now and forever, a man who deserves punishment no matter what?" ^[4]

Howard Rosenberg is critical of the way how an important moral question "how can evil and goodness reside in the same man" was trivialized by the plot that relies on too many coincidences.^[5]

See also[]

• A.K.A Nadia

References[]

External links[]

• Twist of Fate at IMDb