Munich (film)
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| Director(s) | Steven Spielberg |
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| Distributor | Universal Studios |
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| At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it’s built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of… | |
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At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it’s built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner (Eric Bana) to lead a team of paid-off-the-book agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one (in reality, there were several teams). It’s physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team’s handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), over information Avner doesn’t want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, and the deeper moral questions of right and wrong come into play, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family’s safety may be in jeopardy.
By all rights, Munich should be an unqualified success—it has gripping subject matter relevant to current events; it was co-written by one of America’s greatest living playwrights (Tony Kushner, Angels in America) and an accomplished screenwriter (Eric Roth); it stars an appealing and likeable actor in Eric Bana; and it was helmed by Steven Spielberg, of all people. While it certainly is a great movie, it falls just short of the immense heights such talent should propel it to. This is due more to some questionable plot devices than anything else (such as the contrived use of a family of French informants to locate the terrorists). But while certain aspects ring hollow, the movie as a whole is a profound accomplishment, despite being only “inspired by true events,” and not factually based on them. From the ferocious beginning to the unforgettable closing shot, Munich works on a visceral level while making a poignant plea for peace, and issuing an unmistakable warning about the destructive cycle of terror and revenge. As one of the characters intones, “There is no peace at the end of this.” —Daniel Vancini
Barnes and Noble
After 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the Israeli government secretly recruited a hit squad from its Mossad intelligence agency and mandated the death of the Black September operatives responsible for the bloodshed. This state-sponsored retribution campaign—rumored for years but only recently detailed in such books as George Jonas’s Vengeance—forms the basis of Steven Spielberg’s masterful Munich, a grimly compelling fact-based drama that’s something of an epic thriller. Eric Bana portrays Avner, the young, newly married Mossad agent who leaves his pregnant wife to head the team—a job he undertakes, at great personal risk, because he believes (initially, at least) that the murders of his countrymen must be avenged. The other four members of his team include: Daniel Craig as tough guy Steve; Mathieu Kassovitz as explosives specialist Robert; Hanns Zischler as forgery master Hans; and, best of all, that versatile character actor Ciaran Hinds as the meticulous organizer Carl. Adopting a much grittier visual style than usual, Spielberg films the key events of this lengthy campaign as a documentarian might, frequently employing handheld cameras and shooting with natural light whenever possible. Moreover, he bends over backward to be evenhanded, turning a gimlet eye on the Israeli government run by Golda Meir. This stance aroused considerable controversy, but Spielberg wasn’t looking to score points with Palestinians and their supporters; he was trying to make a larger point. It becomes apparent in the movie’s second half, when the revenge plot unravels and the assassins become targets themselves. Bana’s character, weary of the killing on both sides, begins to wonder if his side has lost the moral high ground. Spielberg intimates that the never-ending cycle of violence, of attack and retaliation, further exacerbates the Middle East problem and makes peace more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Easily among the master director’s most provocative films, Munich earned five Academy Award nominations, including nods for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Score (the work of John Williams). Ed Hulse
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Munich: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Steven Spielberg directs an international cast in Munich, a suspense thriller set in the aftermath of the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Five-time Academy Award winner John Williams lends his musical talents to the film by composing and conducting the magnificent soundtrack. For Munich, Williams has created some of the most powerful and enduring film music of our time. With his sweeping score, he puts forth a feeling of intense emotion that takes the listener on a thought-provoking journey.
Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team
Vengeance is a true story that reads like a novel. It is the account of five ordinary Israelis, selected to vanish into “the cold” of espionage secrecy—their mission to hunt down and kill the PLO terrorists responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.This is the account of that secret mission, as related by the leader of the group—the first Mossad agent to come out of “deep cover” and tell the story of a heroic endeavor that was shrouded in silence and speculation for years. He reveals the long and dangerous…
