Review of Munich (2005) by David O — 27 Nov 2011

" Forget peace for now. We have to show them we are strong.".

Disturbing and depressing, but intense and powerful. The movie "Munich" tells the story of eleven Jewish athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic games who are murdered by terrorists of a operation known as "Black September". After this becomes worldwide, the Jewish political agency known as "mossad" come together to make a plan. They draw out eleven Palestinian names who planned black September together and are now hiding in the European countries. They discuss that the world see's Jews as weak people, but they have to show they're strong. They gather up a team of five Jewish agents to go in Europe, track down each of the eleven leaders and kill them all, one by one, no matter what the cost. The team of agents are Avner, a German-Israeli retired agent, the leader of the team, who must protect his men, family such as his pregnant wife Daphna, and leave no evidence of the assassinations behind. The other four are Carl, a sneaky agent who cleans up after the target is killed, Robert, a Belgian toy maker now turned to a bomb maker who provides the explosives for the team, Hans, a quiet document forger, and Steve, a hokey, gangster- like south African getaway driver. Through out the film as each target is killed, the team learn that some of them have families, bodyguards, princes, and some could even be the wrong targets. As they look through Europe and even some Arab countries, they look over their shoulder for the CIA, PLO, KGB, and even mossad. With every target they kill, another one is replaced, and the more people are attacked, the more the team lose their humanity and become killers instead of agents. Munich is a powerful film that shows there is no good side here, only conflicts of two nations against each other. This film is without a doubt Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, and the acting in the film is phenomenal, especially Eric Bana, who gives his best performance since chopper as the tortured and grieved agent. the action scenes, although not constant, are intense and breathtaking. This is a film that will stay with you and teach you the difference between good and evil.