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 n
the heels of the international Tom Cruise cash cow
"War
of the Worlds", über director Steven
Spielberg blessed the world with "
Munich
", a film of the quality and depth one would
expect from an industry force with more platinum
hits than Elvis. "Munich" encompasses
and disgorges visual and emotional power, not to
mention the allegorical nature of Tony Kushner and
Eric Roth's scripting of a true life massacre
which bludgeons the very sensitive moral fiber of
terrorism on racial/religious grounds and post
9/11 culture. Any moviegoer who has seen "The
Terminal", "Catch
me if you can" or the dopey, previously
mentioned Cruise alien face off may never have
guessed that Spielberg made this film if his name
hadn't been the main selling point.
"
Munich
" tells a version of the true story
surrounding the assassination of 11 Israeli
athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists at
the 1972 Olympic Games in
Munich
,
Germany
. While this incomprehensibly reprehensible act of
violence on Jewish civilians most likely
uninvolved in covert anti-Palestinian operations
was globally televised, the dialectical, blood
thirsty "equal and opposite reaction"
which followed was manifest with tenfold callous
vehemence and the faces of those administering
death were kept far under cover. This counter
terrorist venture launched by the Israeli
Government involved a five-man task force armed
with a long supply of money, contacts, weapons and
the freedom to eliminate whomever they pleased as
long as they also rid the world of those
identified as being behind "Black
September", the terrorist group responsible
for Munich.
The son of a famous Israeli
secret agent, Avner (Eric Bana) is recruited as
the leader of this formidable team, each member of
which contains a skill set conducive to the
operation at hand. The others, including 007 new
jack Daniel Craig as Steve, are a heterogeneous
mix of assassins, explosives experts, planners and
"clean-up" men who are bound together
not only by their immediate calls to duty, but a
sincere, though brash and erroneous sense of
nationalism.
As they leave whatever lives
they were living and are sent off into the world
under the guidance of the slick talking official
Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), who glibly veils their
future acts of atrocity with words of
righteousness, the men are quickly confronted with
the inexplicable meaning behind their first
murder, and their mission in general. Questions of
honor and Israeli pride come up frequently in
heated arguments between the group, but Avner
gains the most enlightenment of them all.
Bana captures all of the
physical, mental and spiritual nuances of this man
who, of the group, has been endowed with the
boldest, most steadfast courage and love of his
country, but who also understands and reveals in
his performance the attractor of a sublime
knowledge which Avner learns and acquiesces to.
Once he becomes trapped in the cyclical
interchange of killing between himself and the
enemy which will self iterate to infinity, he
becomes aware of it and of the absurd nature
of the hatred, and the acts spawned from it, which
he is an active part of.
While much praise is due to
the acting and writing, the directorial vision
behind the unrelenting raw brutality of most of
the scenes is where the worth of "
Munich
" as a compelling movie and easily accessible
anti-terrorism statement, no
matter who is behind the terrorizing, can be
found. In a disturbing scene where Avner and Steve
murder a female Dutch assassin as a personal act
of revenge, the woman is shot and blood flows over
her naked body as a primal juxtaposition of life,
death and sexual imagery taken way out of context.
Spielberg deliberately elevates the portrayal of
violence to a shockingly real level; bullets,
bombs, and their carnage are in no way disposable,
anonymous or tools to raise the entertainment
factor. Here, the dead left behind are not
Palestinians or Israelites; they are humans who,
in essence, are defined by the qualifiers of the
human species and not by religious affiliations,
racial markers or nationalities.
"
Munich
" is both timely and timeless as it speaks of
issues crippling the control and safety thought to
thrive in our time of globalization, and those
that, as long as different nations exist and
people separate themselves by borders and gods,
will inevitably be a part of the human condition.
Stripped of its message, this is still an action
packed dramatic thriller far worthier of an Oscar
than the jejune embellishment and predictable
irony of winner "Crash".
Movies don't get much better than this.
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