**SPOILERS** Laughable and outrageously inept thriller that has to do with this crazed and committed former Kommandant of the Treblinka concentration camp Markus Strand, Jan Nubes. Strand after 40 years in solitary confinement in a Warsaw prison has not opened his mouth, except when he ate his meals, is now about to go public about the missing and fabled Rothschild 287 caret cut diamond "The White Raven" that he and only he knows where it is. It turns out that over the years Strand had become a big fan of Christian Science Monitor and Pulitzer prize winning reporter Tully Windsor, Ron Silver, and wants to tell his story only to him. Tully, playing hard to get, is anything but interested in having the scoop of the century until he finds out that both his mother, who supposedly killed herself, and grandma were somehow connected with the hot rock.
The film "The White Raven" has three stories, all very confusing, running concurrently in it. There's the Triblinka concentration survivor Frau Hanna Rothschild, Elizabeth Shephard,who the "White Raven" originally belonged to wanting it back. Hanna is also involved ,with the Paris Rothschild Bank as a front, with the Israeli Mossad in funneling million of dollars, or franks, to Isreal in it's, or the Mossads, many covert and undercover operations in Europe as well as the Middle East. There's also the determined US General Dodd, Doug Lennox, who was involved in the liberation of Treblinka even though it was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. Gen. Dodd feels that he has it coming, the diamond, in that he was the one who saved it's owner concentration camp inmate Hanna Rothschild from a fate worse then death. Dodd is now looking forward to have the rock or the 100 million dollars that it's worth as part, together with the measly government check that he gets from he US Army, of his retirement.
The triple, or third story, in this incomprehensible mess of a movie has to do with Warsaw police inspector Zielinski, Jack Recknitz,a man who seems to be not only above the laws of his own country Poland but even the laws of nations like Norway and the United States. Zielinski goes without as much as a fear in the world of being caught and prosecuted, and in full view of witnesses, shooting people down together with his band of Warsaw hit men in all three country's. We learn that Zielinski wants the diamond for less selfish reasons then both Gen. Dodd or Madam Rothchild in his mad dream of jump starting, with the money that he'll get for it, a new and more improved Fascist movement in Europe with him of course as it's top banana or kielbasi.
Tully is truly ridicules as a secret agent type, outdoing even a James Bond, as he escapes from every jam or hammerlock that the bad guys get him into even though he's not supposed to be an action hero in the movie. As for his non stop running and acrobatics, as well as dodging bullets, he's anything but in shape to preform them with Tully puffing away and smoking pack after pack of cigarettes in almost every scene, including when he's doing roadwork, in the film. The secret of the missing Rothschild Diamond turns out to be locked up deep in Tully's own Uncle Boy's or Edwin Koch,Jerzy Zydkiewicz, head. But to get Uncle Boy to open his mouth would be somewhat of a miracle on Tullys, or anyone else's, part in that he's never talked, like Kommandant Strand, since the end of WWII. Unlike Strand Uncle Boy is suffering from what seems like an advanced case of Alzheimer's Disease where he couldn't talk even if he wanted too.
P.S there's also actor Roy Scheider in the movie as Tully's former boss at the Monitor Tom Heath. Scheider had enough sense to keep himself scarce in the movie "The White Raven" where he was hardly noticed except if you were awake or conscious enough to spot him, in the few minutes that he was in it, in the beginning and end of the film.
The film "The White Raven" has three stories, all very confusing, running concurrently in it. There's the Triblinka concentration survivor Frau Hanna Rothschild, Elizabeth Shephard,who the "White Raven" originally belonged to wanting it back. Hanna is also involved ,with the Paris Rothschild Bank as a front, with the Israeli Mossad in funneling million of dollars, or franks, to Isreal in it's, or the Mossads, many covert and undercover operations in Europe as well as the Middle East. There's also the determined US General Dodd, Doug Lennox, who was involved in the liberation of Treblinka even though it was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. Gen. Dodd feels that he has it coming, the diamond, in that he was the one who saved it's owner concentration camp inmate Hanna Rothschild from a fate worse then death. Dodd is now looking forward to have the rock or the 100 million dollars that it's worth as part, together with the measly government check that he gets from he US Army, of his retirement.
The triple, or third story, in this incomprehensible mess of a movie has to do with Warsaw police inspector Zielinski, Jack Recknitz,a man who seems to be not only above the laws of his own country Poland but even the laws of nations like Norway and the United States. Zielinski goes without as much as a fear in the world of being caught and prosecuted, and in full view of witnesses, shooting people down together with his band of Warsaw hit men in all three country's. We learn that Zielinski wants the diamond for less selfish reasons then both Gen. Dodd or Madam Rothchild in his mad dream of jump starting, with the money that he'll get for it, a new and more improved Fascist movement in Europe with him of course as it's top banana or kielbasi.
Tully is truly ridicules as a secret agent type, outdoing even a James Bond, as he escapes from every jam or hammerlock that the bad guys get him into even though he's not supposed to be an action hero in the movie. As for his non stop running and acrobatics, as well as dodging bullets, he's anything but in shape to preform them with Tully puffing away and smoking pack after pack of cigarettes in almost every scene, including when he's doing roadwork, in the film. The secret of the missing Rothschild Diamond turns out to be locked up deep in Tully's own Uncle Boy's or Edwin Koch,Jerzy Zydkiewicz, head. But to get Uncle Boy to open his mouth would be somewhat of a miracle on Tullys, or anyone else's, part in that he's never talked, like Kommandant Strand, since the end of WWII. Unlike Strand Uncle Boy is suffering from what seems like an advanced case of Alzheimer's Disease where he couldn't talk even if he wanted too.
P.S there's also actor Roy Scheider in the movie as Tully's former boss at the Monitor Tom Heath. Scheider had enough sense to keep himself scarce in the movie "The White Raven" where he was hardly noticed except if you were awake or conscious enough to spot him, in the few minutes that he was in it, in the beginning and end of the film.