it take a little while to get use to nick nolte nebraskan locution before we can easily accept him a a famous intercontinental playwright . once you get past the bar and it turn into a fascinating story of a man who lose everything while try to do good . nolte and an american and move to germany and marry a famous actress and and be a satisfied success in every respect until war be about to break out . he visit by a jovial american and john goodman and who persuade him to accept a post a an anti semitic radio broadcaster for the nazi . nolte have no politics but think it a challenge to write a role that almost impossible and then play it himself . another american secret agent will modify nolte radio script insert a cough here and a sneeze there that will serve a a code for the transmission of intelligence to the ally . there a catch and though . nobody will know about nolte real role a an american agent except goodman and donovan and and roosevelt himself . if he ever uncover and he will be refuse recognition by the american . nolte plunge ahead and his vicious broadcast be wildly popular in germany . his adored wife and sheryl lee and know nothing of what go on and nor do she care . nolte and lee live in what he repeatedly refer to a a nation of two . the war end and the trouble begin . he capture by american who be bitter because of his betrayal . they beat him and leave him in the mud . he rescue by goodman and his fairy godmother and who send him to an anonymous existence in greenwich village and send him a little cash now and then . by 1960 and he manage to cultivate a friendship with his neighbor and the painter alan arkin and who have also lose his family and claim the two now belong to a secret brotherhood . but his location and his identity somehow leak out and he be more or less adopt by a group of ancient aryan racist lead by a dentist and a priest . his house front and mailbox be paint with swastika and accusation . he beat senseless by an ex gi . but miraculously his beloved wife be return to him by the ancient aryan . another catch represent it turn out later that it not his wife and but rather her young sister who have love him since adolescence . the end have him type his memoir in an israeli jail in 1967 before his trial for crime against humanity . it not a happy end . nolte can talk with and but not see and the occupant of the cell above his in jail . it adolf eichmann . eichmann seem pleasant enough . he advise nolte that it a bad habit to type for fifteen straight hour . it important to relax . you must learn to relax . nolte laugh out loud and shout and that how i get here . the film be fill with such irony . at one point in their relaxed conversation and arkin tell him that in spite of everything i still think people be good at heart . i do not know if the movie be a commercial success but if it wasn not and that the sort of thing that might have torpedo it for a young audience of theater goer who may never have heard of anne frank let alone that supposedly final statement in her diary . the fact be that it a movie for adult and and patient adult at that . the story move slowly and there very little violence and no car chase and no shooting and and people do not seem subject to manic speech pressure . a lot of it will probably slip past viewer who do not open themselves to it deliberate approach . nolte refers to the war time relationship between him and his wife a a nation of two . this be a pretty compact phrase . no doubt anyone could come up with a glib definition but it take a little concentration to grasp it emotional import . it a story of a man who lose everything his ability to write and his identity and his wife ( twice ) and his sole friend and his country and his self respect . at one point he stop walk along a crowded new york street and simply stand there until after dark and when he be move along by a curious cop . the reason he stop be that he simply have no place to go . what vonnegut be describe be far more than depression . i do not mean to sound condescend but it the sort of feeling that hard to understand in your youth . adolescent might like to think they know what hold nolte in that one spot and but it really require maturity and the quickened sense of finiteness that only maturity can bring . remember robert frost line about home be the place that when you go there they have to take you in . well no place will take nolte in .