Review of Munich (2005) by Jens T — 09 Mar 2013

Steven Spielberg's Munich tells the story about four Mossad agents who's objective is to kill all the eleven Palestinians who was responsible for plotting the massacre in the Munich Olympics in 1972. Avner Kaufman (Eric Bana) is picked as team leader. He's job is top secret, he doesn't work for the state of Israel (on paper). He has to leave his wife and newborn child. It's a tough job, and Avner even questions the whole moral of what they are doing,.

Munich is one of the better examples of Spielberg's wide diversity. This is in the same league of serious political movies such as "Schindler's List" and "Lincoln", where Spielberg does not spear our feelings and treats the screenplay with the respect it deserves. It's a story with real meaning and depth. Even though Spielberg is Jewish, Munich does not feel Pro-Zion in any way. It's not all at like Exodus, where Palestinians are being so villainous portrayed. But in Munich there's even a young Palestinian girl, dressed in red, who's father is about to be killed by a Mossad bomb.

Munich is a well executed thriller, with an amazing script by Tony Kushner. A great edited story that give us all the aspects we need to really get into the characters eyes. It's also great because it's an excellent spy thriller with all the double crossing and the fact that in the end it's all about the money. And there's the inner conflict that Avner experiences that really makes this film a masterpiece. Should he continue a meaningless patriotic fight for the motherland? or should he follow his heart and raise his family? 2005 was a great year for movies about the heated Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with such films as the Palestinian "Paradise Now", the Israeli "Live and Become" and the american "Munich" All three excellent masterpieces that really reflects the whole situation. Thumbs up!