Young Man's Journey to Increased Self-Knowledge
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Munich (2005) centers around a young man on a mission of targeted assassinations. His journey takes him from Tel Aviv to Brooklyn, along the way pausing at several places, including Rome, Paris, Cyprus, Athens, the Netherlands and Spain. That young man is Avner Kaufman (Eric Bana), who leads a five-man squad sent out by Israel after 11 members of its 1972 Olympic team are murdered in the German city that gives the film its title. The squad is tasked with tracking down and killing Palestinians whose names are on a list made up by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. But the mission turns out to be problematic, and the movie makes it clear that there are prices to be paid.
Powerful Film, but Sensibility Not Mainstream Hollywood
Munich is an emotionally and intellectually engaging movie that reminded me of cinema's power as an art form. Only time will tell, but I suspect that it will come to be regarded as a great film. At the very least, it proves Spielberg to be a brave and masterful filmmaker at the top of his form.
To my mind, Munich is a daring film because it takes on difficult issues for which there are no easy answers. Unlike most Hollywood movies that make it obvious what the filmmaker wants the audience to think and feel, I was impressed by how Munich has an almost art-house sensibility: Spielberg leaves the interpretation up to the viewers, who must examine their own beliefs and emotions.
Based on Fact, but Artistic License Taken
The central idea for Munich is drawn from actual occurrences: Palestinians killed Israeli team members at the 1972 Olympics, and Israel responded by assassinating Palestinians in Europe. But the words "Inspired by real events" at the beginning of the movie indicate that the filmmakers did not restrict themselves to established facts. I don't take the movie to be a faithful reenactment of historical events; instead I see it as an exploration of some of the issues in carrying out a rational response to terrorism.
Spielberg Speaks Out
The DVD contains a four-and-a-half-minute introduction to Munich in which Spielberg shares with us some of his thinking about the movie, and I found his remarks very enlightening. For example, he states, "This film is an attempt to look at policies Israel shares with the rest of the world and to understand why a country feels its best defense against a certain kind of violence is counter violence." And later he says, "What you see in this movie is not an attempt to answer should there be targeted killings or not. What I'm doing with this movie is highlighting some of the dilemmas and highlighting some of the issues that need to be discussed."
Six Good Featurettes
The second disc of the Munich Two-Disc Collector's Edition contains six featurettes, and they increased my appreciation of the film. They have a total run time of about an hour and a quarter, and collectively they supply the kind of information generally included in making-of documentaries.One of the most rewarding of the featurettes is the 13-minute "The Mission, the Team," in which we hear from not only Spielberg, but Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony Kushner and eight of the film's key actors, including Lynn Cohen, who gives a marvelous performance as Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. Another worthwhile featurette is the nine-minute "Memories of the Event," which contains information and opinion about the real-life 1972 Munich massacre. Here we have Spielberg telling how this event caused a national trauma in Israel and giving his take on the psychology of the Israelis in the wake of the tragedy.
Other featurettes include (1) the 13-minute "Portrait of an Era" about achieving the look of the early 1970's in 14 widely scattered places and location shooting in Malta, Budapest, Paris and Brooklyn; (2) the 15-minute "The 'On Set' Experience" about actually shooting the movie, including how Arab actors play Palestinian terrorists and Israeli actors play members of the Olympic team (Guri Weinberg portrays his father Moshe, a coach who was slain in the massacre); (3) the 13-minute "The International Cast" about the movie's 155 speaking parts, particularly the smaller roles like Omar Metwally as Ali (the actor explains that the key Ali wears around his neck is the one to his ancestral home in Palestine); and (4) the 13-minute "Editing, Sound and Music" about post-production, where we hear from film editor Michael Kahn and composer John Williams, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards for their work on the movie.
On the next page, I've listed the details for the Munich DVD.
