MUNICH
It's 1993 all over again. Back then, Spielberg made his big popcorn film, Jurassic Park, and then ran off to film Schindler's List, his "big important movie". This year, as soon as War of the Worlds wrapped, he ran off to make Munich, another heavy hitter based on true events.
This time it's the 1972 Olympics in the German capital of Munich, when Palestinian terrorists captured Israeli athletes and killed them in an event dubbed Black September. As this film tells it, the Israeli Prime Minister ordered a secret operation to have the eleven leaders responsible for the attack killed. Eric Bana plays Avner, a man with military history, hired to lead the operation. Avner leaves behind his wife and unborn child for the possibility of years on an extremely dangerous mission. The government basically tells him "we'll give you as much money as you need, but we're not tied to you. It's up to you to get your information and recruit your team. Report back to us when you're done."
Avner goes to Europe and assembles his team and gets a French man to supply him with names and details. They go about their mission, offing middle-aged men whose names were supplied to them. After a while, though, Avner debates whether these men are really connected to Black September. His team individually starts questioning their roles in the whole thing. When his team starts getting picked off, paranoia sets in. Is the French man selling info of Avner's team to another group? Is this mission really helping anything? And once the mission is over, will he be able to relax with his family?
So, really, it's not about events in Munic, but the aftermath of those events. The first half of the movie is very action packed with lots of intense moments that are truly some of the best things Spielberg has ever put to film. When things start breaking down in the second half, it becomes more of a psychological drama, but with the same fierce intensity of the first half. The whole thing is very brutal and it's relentless with the imagery of the attacks and the aftermath.
The film is intentionally ambiguous as to what it believes is right. Since none of this mission has been made publicly official (and, in fact, denied by the Israelis) it's not so much about getting facts right as it is telling a gripping story about vengance. What can be done to stop this chain reaction of terror?
The movie asks a lot of questions for the viewer to absorb. When it was over, I had to sit on it for a few days. It's heavy and it played around in my head for quite a while. It's not every day that a movie has that effect on me. In fact, typing this up right now makes me want to go see it again.
It's good. Don't miss this one in the theater.
This time it's the 1972 Olympics in the German capital of Munich, when Palestinian terrorists captured Israeli athletes and killed them in an event dubbed Black September. As this film tells it, the Israeli Prime Minister ordered a secret operation to have the eleven leaders responsible for the attack killed. Eric Bana plays Avner, a man with military history, hired to lead the operation. Avner leaves behind his wife and unborn child for the possibility of years on an extremely dangerous mission. The government basically tells him "we'll give you as much money as you need, but we're not tied to you. It's up to you to get your information and recruit your team. Report back to us when you're done."
Avner goes to Europe and assembles his team and gets a French man to supply him with names and details. They go about their mission, offing middle-aged men whose names were supplied to them. After a while, though, Avner debates whether these men are really connected to Black September. His team individually starts questioning their roles in the whole thing. When his team starts getting picked off, paranoia sets in. Is the French man selling info of Avner's team to another group? Is this mission really helping anything? And once the mission is over, will he be able to relax with his family?
So, really, it's not about events in Munic, but the aftermath of those events. The first half of the movie is very action packed with lots of intense moments that are truly some of the best things Spielberg has ever put to film. When things start breaking down in the second half, it becomes more of a psychological drama, but with the same fierce intensity of the first half. The whole thing is very brutal and it's relentless with the imagery of the attacks and the aftermath.
The film is intentionally ambiguous as to what it believes is right. Since none of this mission has been made publicly official (and, in fact, denied by the Israelis) it's not so much about getting facts right as it is telling a gripping story about vengance. What can be done to stop this chain reaction of terror?
The movie asks a lot of questions for the viewer to absorb. When it was over, I had to sit on it for a few days. It's heavy and it played around in my head for quite a while. It's not every day that a movie has that effect on me. In fact, typing this up right now makes me want to go see it again.
It's good. Don't miss this one in the theater.
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