Munich (2005)

Yesterday it was Zero Dark Thirty, today it's Munich - revenge movies, assumingly based on fact (I say assumingly because Munich's claims are much contested, and have been ever since the book on which it was based Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team was released; Zero Dark Thirty because there is much conspiracy belief that Osama Bin Ladin is still alive and well, drinking cocktails with Elvis and Tupac).

Munich tells the story of Israel's response to the tragic 1972 Olympic Games attack on the Israeli athletics contingent by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September. The Israeli Government authorised by Prime Minister Golda Meir, would sanction and fund the formation of a retaliation assassination squad for a mission called Operation Wrath of God. Headed by  Avner Kaufman (a thankfully un-hulkish Eric Bana, in a riveting performance), the task of the team was to assassinate 11 Palestinians who were believed to be behind the attack.

Munich is a Spielberg masterpiece, shot to hectic schedules and delivered for screening within a six month period, Munich delivers a complex examination of terrorism and the response thereto. Released at a time when the world was (as it still is) grappling with the aftermath of The World Trade Centre, Afghanistan and Iraq, the reality of warfare in today's day and age is steeped in the subversiveness of terrorism - and this movie has been hailed and criticised for its depictions thereof, and both sides have valid points.

It is a continuing saga, as it has for decades, terrorism and counter-terrorism, the wonder of whether or not counter-terrorism crosses the line into actual terrorism, and is there ever any real payoff - the original crime never undone, the reason for the perpetration of the original offense never adequately addressed (overshadowed by the act) or forgotten entirely, the actual offense never appeased in the hearts and minds of those left in its wake.

But we never want to go to deep into these subjects, the contentious political, argument inducing opinions around America's response to 9-11, I'll let you have and form your own opinions thereon. 

What I will say is that I have long been provoked by the Olympic Games attacks, I have a very visceral response to the subject, the tragedy of it all, the way it changed the world, the way it spat in the face of the Olympic message of uniting the world, that the attack would happen to Jews on German soil (which had already been soaked in enough Jewish blood) - Munich does a fine job of handling the actual event cutting between the two timelines of the story (the Games Attack and the Israeli response), although there are so many more shocking aspects to what transpired which Stephen Spielberg would have been unable to fit into the two and a half hour running time. 

My suggestion is that if you are interested in what all transpired at the Munich Games, that you watch the 1999 Academy Award winning documentary One Day in September - I guarantee you will be as shocked by what is revealed in this brilliant documentary as I was - the tragedy and the travesty of it all.

So there's two recommendations in one post - oh, Munich is an absolute must see movie by the way, being Nominated for the Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards! One detraction (but a minor and amusing one for South Africans) is Daniel Craig's terrible South African accent. Will anyone in Hollywood ever get it right?

Munich is the first movie watched for the purposes of this blog from the 78th Academy Awards.

nuff said...