Munich

[camera21]

We saw Munich the other day (matinee) virtually a full house...and I'd say the audience was pretty much spellbound. Both my husband and I loved the movie. As others have posted, the performances were all excellent...especially Bana. (Michael Lonsdale and Geoffrey Rush were my favorite supporting actors.) I never expected a documentary-style film...knew going in it was fictionalized account. It's meant to engage your emotions and your brain -- and IMO it succeeds beautifully. I agree with TamaraDixon -- I want to see it again.

[Coffeecakes]

I saw it Christmas day, and it was excellent. I really don't see the complaint about the accuracy of the movie because in the beginning it says "inspired by an actual event". WHich to me, in Hollywood speak means that 90-95% of it is completely made up and the rest is half truth.

It was very scary and fitting for today the whole kill one terrorist off, and a more vicious person replaces them.

[speciousreasoning]

That "inspired by actual events" is the part that bugs me the most about the whole thing. If you're going to make a movie about actual events, then do it. I don't mind some dramatic license, but have the balls to actually do it up right. Don't make up shit.
The funny part is the only surviving terrorist involved in the planning of Munich has said that he doesn't feel sorry about killing the athletes because some of them were solidiers who killed Palestinians. Then he said that it doesn't matter who the Israelis (athletes, violinists, teachers, children) are because there are no civilians in Israel. So in other words, he would never feel sorry about killing any Israeli because he considers all of them solidiers, even the kids. Nice guy, huh? Too bad Mossad missed.
Probably this movie annoys me so much because I've been over there and see things in a slightly different way than others. Because my political leanings are definitely different than many other peoples. And when you have a "thing" about certain events or lands or people, anything you see as a problem can potentially be really bad. That's all.

[Binky]

To those who've seen it: Is there a moral equalizing of the Israelis killing the Palestinians who murdered the the athletes? Not a "killing is bad, and we're doing it too" but "killing these terrorists is exactly like killing the athletes at the Olympic games"?

[aiders]

I definitely felt like there was a message of "violence begets violence"- that it will never lead to peace. I do think they become semi-equal.

[camera21]

Since I don't believe Israel ever provided any details about the squads of assassins, nor even admitted they existed....Spielberg probably felt a fictionalized team was the wisest route...making it clear up front it was not pretending to be a documentary or perfect reenactment of events. Unfortunately, I think many people who've written negatively about Munich (some of whom have not even seen the movie), are allowing their biases to cloud their views. Well, I guess we all do that to an extent...but in some cases, those who've ranted against Munich in the media are misinterpreting Spielberg's film.

I agree with Aiders post about the message of Munich...at least I believe it's a part of the message.

[tamaradixon]

I think condemning the film without seeing it first is a bit silly. Its a very good film, on many 'best of' lists for the year. If you don't want to financially support a film that you have a moral position against, then buy a ticket to something else and sneak in (I did that with "War of the Worlds" as I wasn't going to support Crazy TC).

Aiders summed up the film's message well. The film is really a plea for peace and it was very powerful.

[Deleted]

I didn't like it. I have no problem watching a movie that is "based on true events" while being pretty much a piece of fiction, and I thought the filmmaking and acting were all well above par, but I just wasn't engaged. I didn't care about anyone or anything in the movie. I almost wanted Spielberg to bring out more of his emotional tricks so that I would care about SOMETHING in ths movie (even if I was pissed off that I could be blatantly manipulated in such a way). I like almost all of the actors and think the movie did have interesting and thoughtful things to say (and I have to admit that the shot of NYC with the WTC at the end made my pulse leap) but I was moved more by the ideas behind the movie than the movie itself. And WTF was up with the final sex scene spliced with the airport shootings? Not only was is just gross (the droplets of water flying around in slow motion), it completely took me out of the movie.

I saw One Day in September a few years ago and was horrified and outraged. I would definitely recommend the documentary over Munich. Not necessarily because it approaches the events in a more factual way but because it is more engrossing and interesting. I never thought about it, but I realized that I haven't really been able to enjoy the Olympic Games since seeing the doc. The thought of the games continuing just fills me with disgust that I just haven't been able to get over.

[Coffeecakes]

I too thought it was kind of weird that he put in shots of the actual Munich killings instead of the assasinations he and the crew had committed. But I did understand why he put in some kind of flashback, being that the whole thing had affected Avner.

[Deleted]

I don't mind the flashback or the fact that it concerned the events at Munich instead of the later assassinations, I just thought it was a huge turn-off (in EVERY respect) to sandwich those scenes in between thrusts, as it were. Why not show Avner having flashbacks while playing with his daughter or something? The sex just didn't seem necessary or powerful even as a bookend or comparison to the first sex scene and I am still unable to understand why the ideas presented in the flashback (he is haunted by Munich, the killings, the aftermath, his own deeds, Avner as terrorist, etc, etc, etc...) had to presented as he was gettin' down.

Then again, its not like I was loving the movie until the second sex scene. At that point, I didn't really care too much about Avner or his feelings of guilt, so it isn't like the scene ruined the movie for me or anything.

I don't really understand why I loved Jarhead (it is one of my favorite movies of the year) but couldn't get behind Munich. Munich got a lot of the same criticism that was leveled at Jarhead (uninvolving characters, doesn't take sides, remote) but it had action and suspense while Jarhead really didn't. However, the characters in Jarhead moved me while the characters in Munich did not.