Directed by:
Steven SpielbergCinematography:
Janusz KaminskiComposer:
John WilliamsCast:
Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler, Ayelet Zurer, Geoffrey Rush, Gila Almagor, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Amalric (more)VOD (1)
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During the 1972 olympic games in munich 11 israeli athletes are taken hostage & murdered by a palestinian terrorist group known as black september. In retaliation the israeli government recruits a group of mossad agents to track down & execute those responsible for the attack. (official distributor synopsis)
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"Israel has lost her son" some Israeli leaders bitterly declared about Spielberg. What got them so riled up? Although Munich is first and foremost a suspenseful spy thriller, Spielberg is no longer just someone who has E.T. saying "Go home" and Indy wielding his whip for the audience's pleasure, now he also wants to comment on the world's ills, both historical (Schindler's List) and current ones, such as the pressing Israeli-Palestinian issue. When he says through the character of Robert: “All of this blood comes back to us,” or when Avner, in Eric Bana's convincing performance, says “Did we accomplish anything at all? Every man we killed has been replaced by worse. There's no peace at the end of this no matter what you believe.", perhaps this is Spielberg voicing his own opinion, and I believe this was hard for Israeli leaders to listen to (but to be clear, I'm on their side). Politics aside, what's left? Above all, a masterfully directed thriller that captivates with perfect filmmaking (I would highlight the precise set design with a perfect 70s atmosphere), is free of pathos, which has always been a sore point of Spielberg's serious films, and in several scenes proves that this overgrown child can shock properly (I don’t think I’ll forget the harsh naturalistic scene of the killing the Dutch murderess). Munich may not have as deep an emotional impact as Schindler's List or Amistad, but it is a piece of attractive, honest filmmaking that wants to say something, and it says that something in a highly attractive way. To miss it would be a mistake.
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This matador of a director wins on all fronts. Whether he's making Eric Bana cry on the phone or serving up a team that shoots at anything that comes their way. Some rough scenes I wouldn't have expected from him, even though I already know from other wars what he's capable of. Steven Spielberg simply doesn't hold back from diving into historical issues, this time ones that also affect the present. And he has successfully completed his mission brilliantly as never before.
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On the advice of a mysterious French family organization, Mossad assassins head to London in search of their target, the leader of the Palestinian Black September movement. There, however, the assassination is thwarted by undercover CIA agents guarding the leader in exchange for not attacking American diplomats. Later that evening, one of the assassins is killed by a Dutch assassin, apparently hired by the Palestine Liberation Front. God, I love the '70s! I find Munich (like Saving Private Ryan or Schindler's List) the perfect motif on which to pair Spielberg's choreography with Kaminski's experimentation. The numerous scenes and their detailed composition here create a view of a Europe riddled with agents meeting in restaurants, markets, and bars, where everyone has a purpose and takes a side. Even with this simplification and aesthetic stylization, Munich is a first-rate spy genre film (the spy team is like something out of a game) where almost every sequence is carefully crafted and has its own visual attributes. The risk of sentimental idiocy is condensed here to just one scene in which a sweaty Eric Bana has sex with a terrorist (I would have been so uncomfortable in the cinema), the rest is still Spielberg full of energy and ideas. Given the way the film looks and tells the story, it still more than anything creates the illusion that the world was the most interesting when it was the most dangerous.
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Brilliant craftsmanship without a drop of emotion. The combination of such a serious subject with this director promised an emotionally charged spectacle, and yet I witnessed a disproportionately drawn-out revenge spectacle. And while it was supposed to be cold-blooded, not a single scene managed to appeal to me. Spielberg wanted to make a "political espionage" thriller that would cut through the drama with interpersonal relationships, from which the lesson was supposed to be that "violence only breeds more violence." The film contains both, but neither component works as it should. Spielberg did not restrain himself and through the excessive runtime, he tries to create a moral agitprop not only for the Jews but for all people. And yet the skeleton of the story falls apart and the viewer only gets the impression of wholeness in the purges of the Palestinian terrorists, which are just pure craft, nothing more. That actually brings me back to the beginning of my commentary.
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Steven Spielberg, as a Jew, decided not to film the events that led to the killing of Israeli athletes, but rather the events that followed. Essentially, it is a Jewish revenge on people who had something to do with the terrorist action. And maybe even on people who could have been terrorists. It's a bit strange how the abduction of athletes is portrayed here because at first it seems very vivid, very interesting, but Spielberg cuts it off and presents only mechanical television news that can be viewed in archives or on the internet. Nothing revolutionary, he immediately moves on to what followed. I was a bit disappointed that he dedicated so little space to the assassination because he could have filmed it brilliantly, at least the opening scene hinted at it. But Spielberg chose the path of recording revenge, which is not a bad approach, an effort to express the motivations of the other side, their methods of work, etc. Overall, it was successful, but I still feel like the film is not as raw as it could be, but rather completely stylized, trying to play on emotions, which is due to the event itself, not Spielberg's skill. He tries to push it to the limit, giving the lives of Jews and their suffering. It's not bad, the film is well directed, but the main surprise of the whole film is the fact that Eric Bana can also act. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/10/prach-uspesna-pokracovani-animaku.html
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