Munich

[Deleted]

Well, after hearing the opinions here I don't think I'll see it. A plea for peace is a fine thing, we all would like that, but real life, real countries, real movements and real politics don't always allow for such a simple solution. That would have been the film to make.

ETA: Well, after hearing more from you guys I'm ambivalent. I'm in Africa, so it may show up here or not..

[camera21]

I don't think Munich was simplistic...it offered no easy villains, heroes, or answers. The audience the day I saw it (a matinee, with a pretty full house) seemed totally involved in it. It wasn't what I expected -- it was far better.

[speciousreasoning]

I guess I'm one of those people who will have an opinion on this movie without actually seeing it. Everyone has a thing, you know. Stuff they are very protective of and in fact stuff that if it is whored out the wrong way makes them very angry. Mine is Israel. God, I love that country.
I will not spend 10 bucks of my hard earned money on a movie that makes moral equivalence of terrorism and a country's response to said terrorism. But that's just me.

[camera21]

I don't see Munich as "making moral equivalence" of terrorism, etc. I don't think it is anti-Israel. It's possible that, if you saw the film, you might not continue to hold those opinions. However, I can understand your not wanting to spend money on something you feel might demean Israel.

[Coffeecakes]

I personally didn't see the movie as demeaning Israel. The opposite actually. They have to deal with that kind of stuff all the time and things like that just have to be done. Those fuckers involved with Munich deserved to get killed. To me what the movie showed were that the Mossad were not the same as the terrorists. They didn't go after people just for the sake of being Palestinian, they did it because they were involved. It had to be done.

I couldn't imagine killing someone that did deserve it in their own home, enviornment, etc where members of their family are as well. So I can easily imagine how it would emotionally drain them, eat at their souls, etc. The way they were portrayed in the movie is not the real thing I know, but it's still realistic that carrying something like that out would do that to someone.

As for showing the Palestinians in a supposed decent light, I didn't see it that way. I saw it as just merely showing both sides. I see nothing wrong with that. Then again, I am not Israeli nor Palestinian.

[Deleted]

Wow this is my first post weeee…
I’m a long time lurker and this site helped me get through the writing of my very long, long MA thesis. Man, I love you guys. Anyhow, I’d like to say that I loved Munich. I’m Jewish and part of my family is Israeli. Recently they travelled to Canada to celebrate Chrismakha and we all went to see this movie. We all found it to be incredibly powerful and haunting. This movie certainly instigated a lot of discussion in our household. It’s a movie that makes you think and it doesn’t give you any easy answer. It raises discussion and in my big ol’ pacifist heart that can never be a bad thing.

[Deleted]

I finally saw this movie today, and I have really mixed feelings about it. Like speciousreasoning, I am very sensitive about depictions of Israel. I am not Jewish, but I am Christian and my father has spent most of his lifetime studying the Bible and he raised me to always, always consider the Jewish origins of and connectedness to Christianity. So after hearing about how Spielberg was going for a very even-handed, show-all-sides approach, I was somewhat reluctant to see it.

All that said, I get what Spielberg was trying to do and I commend him for trying to do it, but I don't think he pulled it off at all or that this was the subject matter to do so. There's a great scene in Without Limits (pretty sure it was that one and not Prefontaine - I tend to confuse them) where Steve Prefontaine's coach talks about how special and sacred the Olympic Games are and how it's an opportunity for a person to compete against somebody else and prove themselves without weapons or resources, only their best individual ability. How it's supposed to be people from all nations coming together in the best possible spirit to celebrate excellence. I agree with that and that's why I find what the Black September terrorists did so heinous, so abominable, and in my opinion, so deserving of retribution.

If Spielberg wanted to make a movie about how violence begets violence, or about how there is no "winner" in terrorism, or about the spiritual and psychic costs of commiting ghastly acts in the name of service to your country, and then filter it all through the lens of moral equivalence, he should have made that movie and left the story of the Israeli athletes alone. Having seen One Day in September and a few other specials about the massacre, I don't think this movie comes anywhere close to honoring their memory. And that is a movie I would have loved to see.

Also, I didn't even think this movie worked well as a garden variety thriller. I was not surprised by any plot twist or death, and I didn't even think the sequence of the little girl answering the phone was that suspenseful. And what was with the ending? Avner gets burned out, is sick over what he's done, quits, and then basically the movie ends?

I am all for showing various aspects and viewpoints of an issue in an unbiased manner, but the risk of doing that is that you end up with nothing of importance to say. Or worse, whatever it is you are trying to say is a confused muddle. I think this falls into the latter category.

[camera21]

Family members of the Israeli athletes and trainers who were murdered in Munich were interviewed, and felt the film honored their husbands, brothers, etc. That said, I don't think that Spielberg ever intended the film to be pure homage to those men or to explore the spirit of the Olympics. As others have posted, there have already been documentaries that achieved those goals. Munich was meant to show how everyone is diminished when they are forced to sink to the level of the terrorists -- and that the results often are not victories for either side.

I also don't think it was meant to be an ordinary thriller. Unlike your standard action film -- the assignments in Munich are sometimes botched, targets are often not hugely important in the scheme of things, innocent people are harmed or killed. Spielberg never wanted his audience to simply "enjoy" the action -- or feel complacent. Surprise at the deaths of their targets was not his primary goal -- and you suspected throughout that the Israeli agents were going to pay a stiff price of some kind. The means of finding and eliminating their targets plus the toll it took on the agents provided the suspense.

I don't think the film was confused. Spielberg wanted his audience to examine all of the issues involved in terrorism - and it's aftermath. And he wasn't going to provide an easy path to any answers.

[Deleted]

That said, I don't think that Spielberg ever intended the film to be pure homage to those men or to explore the spirit of the Olympics.

Regardless of what he intended, he still rooted the story he wanted to tell in their tragedy. He offered fuller characterizations of their killers than he did of them. My point about the spirit of the Olympics was not that it should have been the focus of the movie; rather, that the violation of it made the act all the more evil.

I also don't think it was meant to be an ordinary thriller.

I didn't mean to imply that it was. I simply meant that even if you subtract the politics, nationalism, and religion, it's still a movie that doesn't work. It goes in too many directions, tries to fit in too many POV's, and tries to be everything to everybody.

[camera21]

"Subtracting the politics, nationalism, and religion.,it's still a movie that doesn't work." If you subtract those things, you are reducing the movie to what? All of those ingredients are necessary to the story.

It just seems to me that too many people wanted Spielberg to reinforce their own p.o.v. -- and were surprised or angry that he didn't.

He was making HIS vision of the importance of the aftermath of the Munich massacre.