I did not know of the grave tragedy that took place at the 1972 Olympics before I saw this film. What happened was a group of Arab / Palestinian terrorists known as “Black September” got into the games, killed two Israeli athletes and took nine others hostage. Ultimately all were killed. More details on that here.
This movie deals with the Israeli government’s reaction to this event, basically through the life of one man Avner (Eric Bana, who plays the role with utter sincerity) who is chosen to lead a group of men to assasinate all of those responsible for planning the attack.
I would probably vote this movie as one of director Spielberg’s best works. The plot was brilliant & showed the depths of each character no matter how small the role. It dealt amazingly well with all sides involved in the tragedy & actually made you sympathise with the Jews, sometime with the Arabs, and sometimes with the neutral ones. There is also lots of graphic violence in the film, though given the matter at hand I think it was justified.
The line that stuck out most to me was delivered by one of the main four to Avner (both Jews) towards the end of the film when both their characters had evolded from rejoicing over killing their enemies to understanding the greater picture at hand:
“We are supposed to be righteous. That’s a beautiful thing. And we’re losing it. If I lose that, that’s everything. That’s my soul.”
The point this movie drove to home is that with terrorism, no matter how honorable the intentions, ultimately everyone loses.
This is a multiple Oscar nominated film & definetely not a popcorn flick. As I said it’s Spielberg at his best & definetely will give you something to think about long after you’ve left the theatre.
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April 24th, 2006 at 10:56 am
awaiting for a release here!! really want to see it…
(even before ur review!)
April 24th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Be that as it may be, I find it mildly disturbing that there are hardly any portrayals of Arabs, esp. Palestinians in mainstream cinema that portray their side of the story. And I’m sure they have many a story. They are always shown as screaming terrorists with a day’s growth of beard, clutching Kalashnikovs. It is sadly, a one sided shallow picture, but one that is constantly getting reinforced thru such portrayals.
April 24th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
The movie has a moment when you get to know the story of the other side. A palestinian voices “You don’t know what it is not to have a home” and in that instant the movie stops being pro a particular nationality.
April 24th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
@ bevivek: Seeing as you’ve not seen cinema which portray the Arab side of the story, you def. must watch this one.
There are so many moments where you have things from their point of view. From the mouths of those being killed to the ones who are prepared to continue killing “till necessary”.
@ Richa: You’re right the movie isn’t pro any nationality though it may appear that way initially. I especially liked it because it seemed to be crying out against the insanity of terrorism.
In Spielberg’s own words during an interview for this movie, it’s a “Prayer for Peace”
April 24th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Yes, I like that scene too when Avner talks with the Arab… very well handled. Spielberg has great control over the story telling aspect.
Eric Bana - Bravo! even tho in the end I thought he might just turn green and jump all over the place
His best performance so far.
Good movie, great acting, superb direction, a bit too long.
Munich is in my top 3 Spielberg movies.
April 25th, 2006 at 7:28 am
” especially liked it because it seemed to be crying out against the insanity of terrorism”. Did you mean violence ?. I did’nt get you, Did you mean Spielberg was against the terrorist act of the Arabs at the Olympic village, or are you talking about the reaction of the Israeli government ( MOSSAD killing the planners of the attack). So was the attack by the Israeli government justified? Was that the message of the movie.
April 25th, 2006 at 7:36 am
About the lenght, it was a bit too long. After one point (which I thought was the end), I started asking my friend “Why isn’t this thing getting over???”. But maybe it was because I was getting lazy in my Gold Class recliner.
What was infinetely worse was LOTR: ROTK - it could have ended several times before it actually ended…. it was like these guys have been together for three movies and now just didn’t want to go home. Was at a special screening then - people actually clapped hands & ran away when it finally ended!!!
@ Rahul: Have you seen the movie? If not I suggest you do & not try to understand it too much from my review only (I try not to do spoilers here).
To answer your question as much as I can without a spoiler, the movie evolded into showing that terrorism is wrong & that it really helps no one - neither the Arabs/Palestines nor the Israelites…
April 25th, 2006 at 8:19 am
a long english movie?
oh goody.. long time since i feasted on one of those
April 25th, 2006 at 8:25 am
I wonder how Spielberg got the story for the movie, if the whole MOSSAD mission was TOP SECRET.
April 25th, 2006 at 10:36 am
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History also wittness that , terrorism only kills innocent , it can’t give the freedom………….
April 25th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Finally, thats what happened.
Long back, I remember reading the article by an Indian journalist who covered that Olympics(India won Gold in Hockey for last time at Muenchen/Munich) and had interacted with some of the slain players just the previous day.
1972 incidents need to be seen from the events that happened in 1967. The Arabs attacked Israel and within a week, they lost so badly that Israel(led by general Rabin) captured full Sinai(thanks to a disobedient smalltime General Ariel Sharon) and also Golan Heights.
Another perspective is that of the role of “British” in the entire conflict. The Arabs and Jews did not have a serious problems before. Its British, who made these guys fight with each other in their divide and rule policy. In the nearby Arab areas they had already put Al-Sauds against Hashemites, who had to flee to jordan in 1850 or so.
So, Al-Sauds in Mecca, Hashemites in jordan, Persians in Iran fighting with each other and hating Turks at the sametime. That was not enough. The British introduced a serious jewish angle to it. The history for next 100 years is almost fixed. And still, some morons blame Bush for it.
April 25th, 2006 at 11:49 am
I am prepared to accept the fact that the entire story is fabricated. The truth that the story portrays however (terrorism isn’t the answer) isn’t. And that’s good enough for me.
@ Swarup: Absolutely. And yet it still exists today. That’s the worst thing about mankind, we never seem to learn from our mistakes.
@ sumanth: Did not know all of this stuff. In fact (as I mentioned at the start of the article) even the whole 72 Olympics thing was new to me (perhaps a pardonable offense since I was born much after).
What I do know is that terrorism is never an answer. Two wrongs can never make a right.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I think they blame Bush and America, becuase pretty much the Israel defense force is funded by theUSA. I don’t think we could balme the British because Jewish state(Israel) did not exist before 1947(because the Jews were dispersed before all over the world and a state was formed with the help of America and Britain after the Holocaust). The conflict arose because the Jews occupied Palestine over one night and displaced the Plaestanians, the Palestanians had no where to go. As far as the Six day war goes no one knows why Egypt accepted defeat while they had strategically had an upper hand in the first five days of the war. It’s one of the mysteries. Melody haven’t seen the movie yet, lost interest when you said it was 3 hrs long.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Imagine all the people living life in peace
Coming back to the movie… did I say it was 3 hrs long? Don’t think it was that long… though it was long. Sigh… can’t remember now…. thinking about the holy mountains… It’s a good watch though.
Ok, just ignore this whole comment, am not where I usually am (mentally speaking). And I really have to get back to work.
April 25th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
Well for me this movie wasn’t about terrorism, yes that was the backdrop for the movie but not the main theme.
It’s the struggle between a man’s sense of duty and his humanity. From his almost perfect life to his descent into dementia, paranoia, how each incident bites his ‘soul’ bit by bit – ultimately leaving him empty.
April 25th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Rajiv, The mysteries of Israel. The other mysteries of Israel , It is said President Truman had a dream were God asked him to get the Jewish folks back to Israel in 1947( promised land ), therefore he took the initative to of creating the modern state of Israel.
As far as the America funding Israel, The American Jews although about 2% of the US population they control the major facets of America (media, Banking institutions, politics, etc)therefore it does’nt surprise me that America funds the Israel Defense forces.
In the old testament of the bible and Jewish torah it is said that God made a covenant with the Jews( That is he asked them to obey him and not go worship money( or go after money), If they did not obey him and they got too involved with material things in life then he would punish them. If they obeyed God and did not give priority to money ,Material blessing would automatically follow ( they would be richly rewarded. Actually this deal was made to children of Abraham so the Arabs also reap benefits of the covenante e.g wonder why the Arabs have oil). God punished the Jews when they disobeyed him by making them wander in the desert for 40 years for worshipping false gods and then sent the new generation to Israel. It is believed the Holocaust was just God punishing the Jews and then sending the new generation of Jews to Israel ( formation of Jewish state in 1947). As far as the Arabs and the Jews, it says in the holy book that the Jews would have to live amongst their brothers(the jews and the Arabs have a common birth Father Abraham) no matter what there is no avoiding it.
April 25th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
@ Rahul: Am amazed! Are you a Christian or just well informed?!
April 26th, 2006 at 12:05 am
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” Mangal Pandey,Rani Lakshmi Bai and Subash Chandra Bose were freedom fighters to Indians but were branded terrorist by the British. The freedom fighters intentions were honorable and ultimately India won (Indian Independence). What’s your prespective ?
Rahul that’s so true. America did not become a superpower until the Jews immigrated, anways although Jews are 2% of the US population they are more Jews in America than in Israel.
I am amazed how a blog review on a movie turned out to be a discussion on middle east politics.
April 26th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Melody I am just well informed.
April 26th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Well given the subject matter of the movie! Now if the movie was “Wedding Crashers” and we started talking middle east politics, that would be funny
@ Rahul: Good for you!
April 27th, 2006 at 10:03 am
Oh for “Wedding Crashers” I guess we would be talking about how crooked Owen Wilson’s nose is.