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At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it’s built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner (Eric Bana) to lead a team of paid-off-the-book agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one (in reality, there were several teams). It’s physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team’s handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), over information Avner doesn’t want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, and the deeper moral questions of right and wrong come into play, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family’s safety may be in jeopardy.
By all rights, Munich should be an unqualified success--it has gripping subject matter relevant to current events; it was co-written by one of America’s greatest living playwrights (Tony Kushner, Angels in America) and an accomplished screenwriter (Eric Roth); it stars an appealing and likeable actor in Eric Bana; and it was helmed by Steven Spielberg, of all people. While it certainly is a great movie, it falls just short of the immense heights such talent should propel it to. This is due more to some questionable plot devices than anything else (such as the contrived use of a family of French informants to locate the terrorists). But while certain aspects ring hollow, the movie as a whole is a profound accomplishment, despite being only "inspired by true events," and not factually based on them. From the ferocious beginning to the unforgettable closing shot, Munich works on a visceral level while making a poignant plea for peace, and issuing an unmistakable warning about the destructive cycle of terror and revenge. As one of the characters intones, "There is no peace at the end of this." --Daniel Vancini
MunichReviewed by David Belport, 2010-02-12
I thought the product was altogether in excellent condition as offered and advertised. I would definitely buy again from this seller.
SUPERB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Reviewed by HISTORY GOURMET, 2010-02-09
SCORE ANOTHER HOME RUN FOR STEVEN SPIELBERG. THIS FILM CONTINUES HIS LONG LINE OF FINE FILMS, MANY OF WHICH HIT HOME WITH THEIR MESSAGE,AS THIS ONE DOES. EVEN IF THE NOVEL "VENENGANCE" ,UPON WHICH THE MOVIE IS BASED, IS FICTIONAL, AS MANY HAVE CLAIMED, IT IS STILL A RIVETING STORY,BROUGHT TO THE BIG SCREEN BY THE MASTER. WATCH IT TODAY !!!!!!!
A Thriller with a Vital Moral DimensionReviewed by John F. Rooney, 2009-12-29
"Munich" (2005) is a powerful, well-acted, very suspenseful film by
Steven Spielberg about retribution and the stressful toll it can
exact on those practicing it. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics eleven
Israeli athletes were brutally slaughtered by eight Palestinian
terrorists. Israel in retaliation began a campaign to hunt down and
kill the eleven people who were believed to have planned the
attack. As a result of the Israeli plan hundreds may have died in
retaliatory actions.
In the final scenes of the movie two characters are talking, and in
the background can be seen standing proudly the World Trade Center
before the horrific attack of September 11, 2001. After that event
the United States began a campaign of retribution that caused the
deaths of thousands, and as of yet the masterminds of the attack
have not been found or punished.
The movie deals with the grim realities of the Munich tragedy and
its aftermath. Golda Meier, the Israeli prime minister, selects one
man, Avner (actor Eric Bana) to head a five man team to kill the
responsible parties. The movie painstakingly traces the team's
attempts to kill off the planners. Each member of the team comes
across as a real person, each brave and resourceful. Daniel Craig
portrays one of the team members.
Avner is a decent man whose conscience gets to him: he cracks under
the stress because of the moral dilemma he's been encased in. He's
haunted by the blood bath unleashed in Munich and the retaliation
under his leadership.
From the standpoint of being a thriller, this is an extremely
well-developed film aside from its moral and political
implications. The masterful sense of timing, the cinematography,
the characterization, the casting, the narrative velocity, the
intensity of the action - all contribute to catch your attention
and hold it. The scenes of the hostage-taking and the brutal
airport violence, like newsreel footage, are not shown all at once.
They come at you at different times in the movie making it a
gripping experience.
John Le Carre and Graham Greene in their thrillers almost always
dealt with the moral dimension of the situation, and this move is
powerful because it is much more than a thriller; it deals with the
moral consequences of actions and reactions.
Bana Makes a Strong Argument......Reviewed by M. Jensen, 2009-12-16
......For Dullest Actor on the Planet. He leads a cast of no-name nobodies in this immensely unbelievable movie. If you can watch past the ridiculous shootout at an hour and 16 minutes, give yourself a pat on the back. With so many liberties taken with history, it's ashame this travesty was even made. Dialogue rarely rings true, and characters never seem to develop any sort of rapport or even a hint of a personality. A tragedy that should've translated into a riveting movie just bored me to tears, and my eyes rolled back into my skull so many times I am permanently cross-eyed. Good shots of cities around the globe, and for capturing the look and feel of the early 70's, cudos. Otherwise, a shameful mess.
Gripping but depressingReviewed by Irfan A. Alvi, 2009-12-06
I hadn't previously investigated Munich and its aftermath, so I
can't judge the accuracy of this movie. But that doesn't matter,
for three reasons: (a) perhaps no one outside the world of
espionage knows what really happened, (b) the movie is
self-described as only "inspired by" real events, and (c) what
matters is the broader message, not the details.
And that broader message is quite obvious, indeed commonplace, if
you can rise above a strongly partisan viewpoint. The message is
that when two distinct and clannish groups desperately want the
same piece of land as their home, and neither group can eliminate
the other, conflict and violence will tend to be perpetuated,
resulting in a lose-lose outcome. At the same time, there's some
hope of compromise and peace if each group comes to recognize the
faults in its own ideology and actions, appreciates that the other
side isn't entirely wrong, and recognizes a shared humanity. So
there are two tensions operating in parallel: (a) between the two
groups, and (b) within each group, between making concessions in
order to compromise versus continuing to fight (at whatever mutual
cost) until the other group has been utterly defeated. At a more
specific level, a related message is that assassinations and
terrorism may keep pressure on the other side, but they ultimately
only contribute to perpetuating the conflict rather than resolving
it.
The movie depicts all of this quite clearly, and thereby does a
service in helping us better understand the problem. At nearly 3
hours, it's quite long, but it kept my attention, so I didn't mind.
As some reviewers have noted (ignore the extremists), it isn't a
perfect movie (hence my 4-star rating), but I still recommend it to
people who want to better understand why these types of conflicts
are so difficult to resolve.
Finally, here's my proposed solution to the problem. Forget about
the current Palestinian territories and instead give the northmost
third of Israel to the Palestinians. Provide the Palestinians with
quality infrastructure, fully cover their relocation costs, and
provide them with plenty of seed money, all of this paid for by
Israel and international aid. Help the Palestinians establish a
credible democratic government with adequate military backing. Last
but not least, place Jerusalem under UN control, with everyone
having guaranteed safe access to it, including a dedicated highway
from the new Palestine to Jerusalem. That's all it takes: allow
each group to continue to exist, physically seperate the two
groups, allow each group to have quality land within the current
territory, and throw some money at the problem where needed. Can we
please implement this solution soon, so that everyone can move on
to other issues?
