Munich
Reviewed by Edward Larsen Terkelsen

USA, R, 164 m, 2005
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Stars Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, et al.

Like Amistad and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Munich finds director Steven Spielberg in a vacillating, almost rueful frame of mind. His penchant for the fantastic is on hiatus; any opportunity for showmanship is passed up, which feels like some sort of weird atonement for years of crowd-pleasing roller coaster rides. And while distancing himself from his more saleable pictures may play well with his detractors, it’s likely to bum out those who went so far as to defend him for 1941. Based on George Jonas’s book Vengeance (the authenticity of which has been questioned by many of those in the know), Munich is a thriller with an axe to grind. Spielberg himself has described it as “a prayer for peace,” but it feels more like a sermon. Students of history (or those around to flip on the boob tube at the time) know the out-line of the story: During the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed by a set of radical Palestinians. In retaliation, the Israeli government solicited a group of ex-Mossad agents to hunt down and execute those responsible for the attack. The search and destroy mission here is headed by an Israeli war hero’s son, Avner (played sincerely by Eric Bana), and much of his team’s wet work is the stuff of dramatic license. It’s all pretty compelling stuff, but lacking the illuminating force that drove Schindler’s List. The accusations of Munich being anti-Israel and pro-Palestine (or vice versa, depending upon which chucklehead you’re listening to) are complete and utter bunk. Spielberg doesn’t take sides here. If anything, he’s even-handed to a fault. Still, my topmost quibble is that the film is bereft of that certain magical something we’ve come to describe as “Spielbergean.”

January 13, 2006

© Copyright 2007 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.