Film Review: Munich

You know what to expect, right? Spielberg releases a new movie, and you’re sure you’ve got the measure of it. It’ll contain some dramatic cinematography, a quality screenplay, some dubious intentions, maybe a little sentimentality? I was surprised by this movie. This film was a very thought provoking well-paced examination of the humanity behind the most horrible acts.

The film wastes no time showing us the news reel from the events at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, when Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and murdered Israeli athletes in the “Black September” massacre.

The Israelis plan quick retaliation, and form a crack troop of Mossad assassins to murder every one of the Munich culprits. These are led by Avner, a zealous Mossad bodyguard, played by Eric Bana.

And so the killing begins. As the team start working through the list of Palestinians, they cannot help but be affected by what they see. This is bought about several ways. For every killing, there are numerous complications, many innocent bystanders and family members get killed, and this starts to play heavy on the assassin’s minds. Inevitably, their need to establish guilt becomes paramount, and they lose some of their robotic ruthlessness.

Things start going wrong; they are betrayed by shifty informers, who are also selling information to other interested parties, and the team are reduced in number as mistakes and ambushes lead to deaths. This increases the level of paranoia, and in the end nobody trusts anyone. Although the movie is long, it needs much of this space to allow the feelings of anxiety and doubt build within the characters.

The more they cut themselves off from their lives, and isolate themselves in the horror of their acts, the more aware of their human frailties they become, and the more they miss their homes and families. Eric Bana, in particular portrays the tortured killer brilliantly; at first ruthless, he advises one of his doubting team “don’t think about it, just do it”, yet he himself ultimately insists on ensuring that the people they take out are genuinely guilty of the crime for which they are accused. His Mossad liaison is also excellently played by Geoffrey Rush, and he becomes the dark side of his conscience when his humanity breaks through.

Spielberg makes no commentary on Black September, nor the retaliation, per se. He instead spins out a beautifully shot tale (using the same Director of Photography as in Schindler’s List), showing a string of explosive action scenes, in perfectly recreated 1970’s European capitals. But more than this, he focuses on the human beings at the centre of all this activity, and shows that extremist ideals and brutal regimes are only as successful as individuals’ abilities to shut out their own frailties. 8/10


You can buy Munich here.