Munich

While many would see Stephen Spielberg as a great American director, he is, in fact, a great American jewish director. Consequently, the sum of his four World War 2 movies:

the first and third Raiders movies
Saving Private Ryan &
Schindler's List
...is that the Nazis were evil and their actions, in particular their attempted extermination of the jews...and there it stops. Spielberg has missed out the pivotal movie in this huge canvas, which is why the state of Israel deserves to exist. Potential title: Zion.

Munich movie review: starring Eric Bana

Munich

Instead, Spielberg leaps forward 25 years to the dreadful massacre of Israeli athletes and officials at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which received 5 Academy Award nominations...

Munich Trailer

Based on George Jonas book, Vengeance...

George Jonas: Vengeance

"...Vengeance is a profoundly human document, a real-life espionage classic that plunges the reader into the shadow world of terrorism and political murder...Its subject is an act of revenge that goes to the very heart of the ancient biblical questions of good and evil..." Amazon blurb

"...An eye-opener on the nature of counter-terrorism..." Amazon reviewer Johann Temmerman

"...A reoccurring theme...is the morality behind terrorism and counter terrorism.

At what point does the defender become the aggressor? America has faced this problem as well in the past few years trying to define the fine line between defense and cold-blooded war
Is counter terrorism justified?
Was Israel's decision to assassinate top terrorist leaders warranted, or did these actions put the Israelis on ethical par with the murderous terrorists?

The book clearly shows how the decisions of war are difficult, and there is often no straightforward moral line in such choices...." Amazon reviewer Josh Moffitt

...and intercut with actual news footage, Munich opens at the 1972 Olympic Games, with Palestinian terrorists, members of a group named Black September, breaking into the Olympic village and taking 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage (killing 2 of them in doing so).

Black September's demands for the safe return of the Israelis are safe passage for the terrorists and the immediate release of 200 Palestinians, suspected terrorists, then in Israeli jails, which Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) rejects.

Shot out of sequence, Munich then cuts to Avner, (Eric Bana), a young member of MOSSAD, the Israli Secret Service. We discover that the athletes had all been killed and Avner is being offered the mission to head a team that will locate the terrorists (who eventually all escaped from Munich) and eliminate them. He accepts with little reservation other than regret about being away from his wife Daphna (Ayelet Zurer).

So far, so good but once the set-up is finished, Munich's very linear script provides very few surprises. Instead, there's rather a lot of retribution killing, facilitated by the mysterious and politically ambivalent INFO provider Louis (Mathieu Amalric) and his father Papa (Michael Lonsdale).

The relentless killing neccessitates Munich looking for diversions rather than developing a substantial sub-plot...and there are two in particular:

1 About two thirds of the way through there's a gorgeous brunette assassin Jeanette (Marie-Josee Croze) who eliminates Carl (Ciaran Hinds) one of Avner's team. She even manages to flash her rather impressive bosom a little later...but her involvement signifies Avner's increasing estrangement from his task as he realises that the team is also being hunted by assassins...and the lines of moral causes are blurring.

2 In the final moments there's also a truly bizarre cinema sequence:

We see the by-now emotionally traumatised Avner making love with Daphna, his wife with that desperate sex intercut with the slow-motion murder of the Israeli athletes by the ambushed terrorists several years before. Ugh!

(By the way, Francis Ford Coppola used a not dissimilar concept far more effectively at the end of Apocalypse Now).

As a piece of recent history, though, Munich is well worth your viewing. As a jew, it might be very worthwhile and as an arab, perhaps even more so but for the movie fan, Munich is only partially recommended:

the acting isn't stellar. Though he isn't bad, I've yet to be convinced by Eric Bana in anything that he's done
the teams accents are fairly dodgy
the jewish jargon, while acceptable in terms of the script isn't particularly understandable to a gentile

Most of all, though, I feel that Munich wasn't a movie that Spielberg should have attempted. His greatest skill has always been the ability to thrill...and in order to thrill you have to take a moral stance e.g. in:

Jaws, humans are good, shark is bad
ET, Elliot, ET & friends are good, scientists trying to catch ET are bad
Indiana Jones, Indie's good, Nazis are bad

Unfortunately, Spielberg can't and understandably doesn't want to take that stance. In an attempt to be empathic and feel for both sides stuck in this awful war of attrition, Spielberg unfortunately loses his connection with his audience.

Still, as a thought provoking piece, Munich is well worth viewing, tackling a question that now has ramifications for all of us, unfortunately.

Munich DVD

"...the underlying message of the movie is that: in a terrorist run world, unless the more civilized protagonist continues to hold himself to a higher standard, the most likely outcome is a world of greatly diminished humanity..." Amazon reviewer Herbert L Calhoun

"...The movie is searing, brutal and difficult to watch. Among Spielberg's work, it has the same sense of uncompromising reality as Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List....The film itself reminds one of a 70's movie, with gritty footage and muted colors (entirely) appropriate to the subject.

Thematically, this movie shows the horrible reality of dreamed-about revenge; how politicians, from on high, make decisions over tea about how we have to "show people we're strong," but how those decisions eventually translate into the ruin of people's lives, some of whom are innocent and some guilty...Amazon reviewer Tyler C. Powell

"...If no-one noticed, Spielberg's movie is not the first filmed version of the Jonas book...That honor belongs to director Michael Anderson's The Sword Of Gideon..." Amazon reviewer L. Cabos

Munich soundtrack

"...John Williams'superb score for "Munich" pulls off something rare-it's better than the movie.This is the maestro at his full-throttle best. The score is intense,powerful, thrilling and magnificently performed by the L.A. Recording Arts Orchestra under the master's superb baton. This is his best work since Saving Private Ryan..." Amazon reviewer Nicholas A. Ziinojr