Munich
When I hear the word Munich I think of Nevile Chamberlain's sell-out of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, dooming that democratic nation and later the world to a bloody global war. Did Steven Spielberg think of that when he named his film, based on the George Jonas novel, Vengeance - first adapted for the screen for Michael Anderson's 1986 film Sword of Gideon starring Steven Bauer, Michael York and Rod Steiger? I don't think his historical memory stretches those few years further back past the Holocaust represented in Schindler's List.
Munich refers to the 1972 Olympic Games city that saw Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September movement hold hostage and then kill 11 Israeli hostages. German authorities completely botched their rescue attempt. The 3 terrorists arrested were later released when Palestinian hijackers took control of a Lufthansa jet out of Damascus. Israel decided to strike back with targeted assassinations of the planners behind 'Munich'.
The film then follows the Israeli team as they hunt down the 11 names they have been given, paying off informants and killing the Palestinians, making it just over half way through their list before they themselves become the hunted, only 2 surviving.
The leader of the group, Avner, becomes disillusioned with the mission and when he botches the final assassination moves to New York with his family. In general, Spielberg follows the same general plot of the George Jonas novel, as did Sword of Gideon. However, he departs in a couple of important ways - it's all too easy to to blame screenwriter Tony Kushner. First, he tries, like Geroge Lucas did in the horrendous Star Wars finale, to inject his own moral equivalence and lecturing on international relations into the film. Unlike Lucas, however, his dialogue isn't turgid, if somewhat unbelievable coming from the characters involved.
Although Eric Bana's Avner ends up, like Steven Bauer's, disillusioned in New York. Bana appears to go insane (pointed out by Geoffrey Rush's well-played Ephraim - though Steiger looked more the part) accusing Israel of threatening his family and trusting the French information dealer whom he has met twice. Avner would have done no such thing, and indeed he did not. Spielberg omits that only a few months after his Avner and Ephraim part company (seemingly for good) the real Avner returned to Israel to defend it in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
"Why can't we arrest them like we did with Eichmann?" Bana asks, apparently forgeting that the men he had been assassinating had been living in the open throughout Europe, where any Interpol warrant could have been exercised had the Germans wanted to actually prosecute those responsible for the massacre of the Israeli atheletes. Moreover, Eichmann was, in fact, kidnapped from Argentina. Even Spielberg doesn't labor this point as surely he knows the folly of trying to kidnap a dozen Palestinians throughout Europe and the Arab countries and bringing them back to Israel.
The Casablanca comparison: Mark Steyn notes that Spielberg has a history of reversing the Casablanca scenario - 'the problems of this crazy world don't amount to a hill of beans when compared to a few people's emotional issues'.
Rating: It might not sound like it, but as a film I thought this was very powerful and is a well-spent 3+ hours. Eric Bana is very good as Avner, and the supporting cast is mixed, but reasonably well cast. The action is intended to convey realism and this Spielberg does exceptionally well. Like Lucas and special effects, so Spielberg and the camera can create amazing film experiences, if only they'd leave their baggage at the door. As a film, I give this 8 out of 10.
Munich refers to the 1972 Olympic Games city that saw Palestinian terrorists belonging to the Black September movement hold hostage and then kill 11 Israeli hostages. German authorities completely botched their rescue attempt. The 3 terrorists arrested were later released when Palestinian hijackers took control of a Lufthansa jet out of Damascus. Israel decided to strike back with targeted assassinations of the planners behind 'Munich'.
The film then follows the Israeli team as they hunt down the 11 names they have been given, paying off informants and killing the Palestinians, making it just over half way through their list before they themselves become the hunted, only 2 surviving.
The leader of the group, Avner, becomes disillusioned with the mission and when he botches the final assassination moves to New York with his family. In general, Spielberg follows the same general plot of the George Jonas novel, as did Sword of Gideon. However, he departs in a couple of important ways - it's all too easy to to blame screenwriter Tony Kushner. First, he tries, like Geroge Lucas did in the horrendous Star Wars finale, to inject his own moral equivalence and lecturing on international relations into the film. Unlike Lucas, however, his dialogue isn't turgid, if somewhat unbelievable coming from the characters involved.
Although Eric Bana's Avner ends up, like Steven Bauer's, disillusioned in New York. Bana appears to go insane (pointed out by Geoffrey Rush's well-played Ephraim - though Steiger looked more the part) accusing Israel of threatening his family and trusting the French information dealer whom he has met twice. Avner would have done no such thing, and indeed he did not. Spielberg omits that only a few months after his Avner and Ephraim part company (seemingly for good) the real Avner returned to Israel to defend it in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
"Why can't we arrest them like we did with Eichmann?" Bana asks, apparently forgeting that the men he had been assassinating had been living in the open throughout Europe, where any Interpol warrant could have been exercised had the Germans wanted to actually prosecute those responsible for the massacre of the Israeli atheletes. Moreover, Eichmann was, in fact, kidnapped from Argentina. Even Spielberg doesn't labor this point as surely he knows the folly of trying to kidnap a dozen Palestinians throughout Europe and the Arab countries and bringing them back to Israel.
The Casablanca comparison: Mark Steyn notes that Spielberg has a history of reversing the Casablanca scenario - 'the problems of this crazy world don't amount to a hill of beans when compared to a few people's emotional issues'.
Rating: It might not sound like it, but as a film I thought this was very powerful and is a well-spent 3+ hours. Eric Bana is very good as Avner, and the supporting cast is mixed, but reasonably well cast. The action is intended to convey realism and this Spielberg does exceptionally well. Like Lucas and special effects, so Spielberg and the camera can create amazing film experiences, if only they'd leave their baggage at the door. As a film, I give this 8 out of 10.
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