Review

Review Date: 26-December-05
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Munich (2005)

About six minutes into the fact-based drama "Munich," I realized with a flip of the stomach that it wasn't exactly the historical film I was expecting. I suddenly knew, in effect, what the last shot would be and that it wouldn't let me distance myself from the story as belonging to a crazy era that sanctioned both bell bottoms and wanton massacre. Although this devastating picture by Steven Spielberg begins with the murders that shocked the 1972 Olympic Games, it expands to encompass all acts of terrorism, retribution, and patriotism that ultimately accomplish nothing.

Immediately after the Jewish athletes were killed by the Palestinian group known as "Black September," the Israeli government under Golda Meir launched a shadowy operation to show the world that it shouldn't be messed with. The action follows one of the cells in this operation, led by a loyal, essentially gentle man named Avner (Eric Bana). Upon receiving orders from an assassin-bureaucrat played memorably by Geoffrey Rush, Avner leaves his wife and unborn child at home to track down and destroy the masterminds of Munich. His hunt takes him and a team of four to Italy, Cyprus, Greece, France, Britain, Lebanon, and Holland (the better to showcase Janusz Kaminski's fabulous cinematography and prepare co-star Daniel Craig for his stint as James Bond).

As time goes by and Arab names are checked off the list, Avner and his team become less composed in their mindset and less secure in their position. Part of their worry surrounds their source of information about the targets. At first the enigmatic nature of the Frenchman Louis and his Papa confused me, but I was riveted by the performances of Mathieu Amalric and Michael Lonsdale, respectively, and thereafter recognized that these characters sum up the movie as a whole. Having retreated to a bucolic villa, Papa rules a family that's a nation unto itself and spurns other nations for the soullessness that enables atrocities like the Holocaust. Yet his little state is as amoral as all the rest, willing to sell out anybody for monetary gain. And that's what's so painful about Spielberg's message. "Munich" not only reiterates that violence breeds violence, it debunks the very motives that people always cite in good conscience as exonerating, i.e., country, home, and family. He shows how these things don't provide excuse enough for committing unconscionable acts and are never served by governments, who merely use them to motivate pawns to play their games. In the end, it comes down to who an individual is, alone, and what crimes and justifications he can live with. When kindled by the hue and cry, people like Avner are apt to learn this too late.

As with all of Spielberg's films, "Munich" is a tad excessive in its gestures,* but the message comes through clear, strong, and gut-wrenching. What did the Palestinians achieve at Munich? What did the Israelis gain in their vengeance? How will al-Qaeda and the U.S. profit from 9/11 and its aftermath? There are hard lessons to be learned here, but hardest for everyone if they're never learned at all.

*Now there's the pot calling the kettle black.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.