Susan Granger’s review of “Munich” (Universal Pictures)
Steven Spielberg’s gripping, morally complex thriller depicts the 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes by Palestinian terrorists and how the culprits were subsequently tracked down.
The story begins with the slaughter in Munich and how, immediately afterward, Avner (Eric Bana), a Mossad officer and devoted family man, is recruited by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) to lead a covert team of “Mission Impossible”-like operatives to wreak revenge. The vigilantes include a South African getaway driver (Daniel Craig, a.k.a. the new James Bond), a Belgian toymaker-turned-bombmaker (Mathieu Jassovitz), a German forger (Hanns Zischler), a “clean up” man (Ciaran Hinds) and their liaison officer (Geoffrey Rush).
Spielberg, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, editor Michael Kahn and designer Rick Carter collaborate seamlessly, delving into dark, disturbing realms of self-realization as shady French informants (Mathieu Amalric, Michael Lonsdale) are paid to locate the Black September killers.
“Munich” is a worthy successor to “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” but, unlike both of those W.W.II films, there are no clear-cut heroes and an uneasy, apolitical atmosphere of complex ambivalence. As written by Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”) and Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump”), based on “Vengeance” by George Jonas, the Israelis often question their brutal mission and the ambiguous motives of their informants. “All this blood comes back to us,” one observes. And the grave conclusion – that any all-out war on terrorism will, inevitably, continue the cycle of killing – has already become controversial. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Munich” is a soulful, suspenseful, thought-provoking 10. It’s relevant, incendiary and important.
