R, 164 min.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Tony Kushner, Eric
Roth, George Jonas (book “Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli
Counter-Terrorist Team”)
Starring: Eric Bana, Daniel
Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler, Ayelet Zurer, Geoffrey
Rush, Gila Almagor, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Amalric, Marie-Josée Croze, Lynn
Cohen
Well, this is kind of a
sober note on which to exit the Winter Olympics in Sochi, but it isn’t really
about the Olympics, is it? Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film “Munich” examines the
aftermath of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich during which 11 Israeli athletes
were killed after being taken hostage by the political terrorist group Black
September. In the days following the internationally televised incident,
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Mier makes the decision to retaliate with a group
of Mossad assassins tasked with killing 11 Arabs linked with the Munich Games
massacre.
Steven Spielberg has been
adamant that his movie is not a criticism of Israeli actions or even of strike
back tactics in general. It certainly isn’t in praise of them, however. In the
way it examines the psychological toll on the assassins and the ineffectiveness
of their work in terms of breaking down their enemies’ resolve, “Munich” is a
devastating account of the conflict involved in exacting revenge for “righteous
reasons.” While it’s possible to see how it is necessary to strike back in
order to show some sort of resolve against terrorist practices, any sort of
action comes with incredibly heavy prices that necessitate the plausible
deniability with which they are usually administered.
Spielberg ends his film with
a shot that stands strong on the image of the World Trade Center long before
our own country’s fateful September morning. This is no coincidence. Of course,
we also exacted our “revenge” against those responsible. That resulted in a ten-year
manhunt of Osama Bin Laden, a story also depicted without judgment in the
excellent film “Zero Dark Thirty”. In both cases, the world does not seem so
greatly changed following the measures taken by each country. The question is
just how many lives were destroyed in the wake of those events compounding
their overall effectiveness as acts of terror.
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