WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!This is a very challenging film to watch. It’s violent and intense but also emotionally jarring. The main characters display a wide range of emotions and mental states. From cold and calculating to outright paranoid, this film really has a good sense of itself.
In 1972, several Palestinian/Arab terrorists executed Israeli athletes during the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. The world was shocked and the event is well-documented in history. What is not so well-documented is Israel’s response to the slaughter. Several former Israeli operatives have come forth over the years and told accounts of top-secret Israeli hit squads. Israel has denied any such accusation and continues to maintain that no such assassin teams ever existed, yet refuses to declassify many government files related to these operations, which cover a good stretch of time throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Munich is based on a book written by a former member of one of these “never existed” hit squads assigned to kill specific PLO supporters believed to be members of the terrorist network behind Munich. Eric Bana stars as the leader of the team as they move throughout Europe over the course a few years, following information in the hopes of finding another of their targets. Along the way the team shares tender moments with each other and slowly become disillusioned with their task.
While they initially view their mission as simply wiping out enemies, they discover the human side of their targets, encountering their intended victims’ friends, families and children. This makes it all the more difficult to carry out their mission as they begin to ponder how the bad guys seem so normal when taken out of context of blind faith and the Munich massacre. Some critics and moviegoers complained that this portrayed a sympathetic view of terrorists and was irresponsible for director Steven Spielberg to do so.
It’s called character development, people- deal with it. These moments and nuances call to mind the saying “One man’s terrorist is another man’s hero.” It helps hammer home the point that, in situations like Munich and its aftermath (and even today), both sides of the battle are engaged in shady tactics and both sides have blood on their hands. There is no justification for this kind of activity, no matter how badly you want to think there is.
Eventually, things begin to fall apart for the team, as members are killed and those remaining realize that they are now being hunted by Palestinian hit squads. Bana’s character especially plunges into extreme paranoia. He examines everything around him, looking for signs of the very same booby traps and setups his team had been using to eliminate their own targets. In the end he questions what good his mission did- sure he took out targets that were believed to have masterminded terrible bloodshed, but those assassinations resulted in little more than emboldening his foes even further in their cause.
Munich is a solid film, though it runs a tad longer than the average Joe can tolerate, and provides a unique study of violence begetting more violence and what some people are willing to do in the name of God. I think it was worthy of an Oscar nod, despite being a dark horse for winning.
RATING: 3.75 out of 5
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