‘Hunters’ Episode 10: Al Pacino's outstanding performance clearly overshadows the finale's big shocking reveal
This review might contain spoilers.
Finally, it all comes to an end - all the fight for justice, the chase and the hunt for rooting out every Nazi from underground. And just as Jonah Heidelbaum (Logan Lerman) is about to close the chapter of his mission, he discovers something that will not only change his life but make him unlearn everything that he learned on his journey. He identifies that Meyer Offerman (Al Pacino) is not the 'Meyer Offerman' he knew as his grandfather or the man his grandmother loved but 'The Wolf' Wilhem Zuchs, whom the Hunters have been hunting all this time!
Jonah is not angry but deeply hurt, confused and disturbed by the revelation. Zuchs gives him a run-through of his past, how he became Meyer Offerman and the life that he lived. From this point on, we do not see Offerman anymore, but Al Pacino, the legend, the outstanding method actor who is known for nailing every character that has ever been given to him.
Narrating his story from the time he escaped the Soviet custody, through the present day, Pacino even makes us feel for Zuchs for a minute. As he goes on to explain to Johan how he escaped and came to the United States, how he lived and breathed like a Jew, feeling their faith, their culture and slowly stepping into the skin of the real ‘Meyer Offerman’, you can see the penance in the eyes of the man. He shed his originality, just to survive and in turn, became a Jew and eventually started identifying himself as one of them.
If we can take the liberty of being so outrageous, we would say, there’s no other actor who could nail this performance as Pacino did, just like he does every time. For his first small-screen appearance since NYPD (‘Godfather Saga’ and ‘Angels in America’ were miniseries), this couldn’t have been more better or more memorable. The final monologue before Jonah shoots him and plunges the knife in his heart, albeit symbolically, marks the end to the chapter of the mission that Zuchs started. It also marks the end of Pacino’s role in the story. Whatever follows hereon, might or might not see another season of the show, but will definitely not see the Hollywood legend again.
As the curtains on ‘Hunters’ Season 1 close with Meyer Offerman/The Wolf’s death, we tip our hats to the one and only Al Pacino for his outstanding performance, yet again.
‘Hunters’ is streaming live on Amazon, in case you have been wondering where you may get to see the maestro's outstanding performance.