Munich Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)January 2nd, 2006
Munich
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 4 out of 4
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Mathieu Bleibtreu
Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Eric Roth (based on the novel Vengeance by George Jonas)
MPAA Classification: R (strong graphic violence, some sexual content, nudity and language)
At its heart, Munich is about home. The film confidently questions the validity of a conflict on the West Bank, as well as questioning America's own war on terror, a similar endeavor to that of Munich's hero, Avner (Eric Bana). Spielberg doesn't hide behind his widely publicized Jewish beliefs, however. Rather the opposite, Munich doesn't play the role of diplomat, attempting not to tiptoe around political controversy but, instead, offer an honest explanation for the blind fury and non-descript dedication of the war's soldiers. In one of the more poignant scenes, Avner, the Israeli soldier asks a member of the PLO why his people fight so feverishly for the chalky, sandy lands of the West Bank. Without hesitation, the Palestinian answers that all they want, both the Israelis and the Palestinians, is a place they can truthfully call their home. And throughout the film, within the lives of our closely knit heroes and even wound around the overarching story, Munich struggles with that spindly, elusive theme of home. Without this, Munich would be nothing; little more than a well-photographed, 164 minute action film. But home makes Munich universal, not only bringing Avner and company into perspective, but also bringing into a more focused understanding the still raging violence over yonder.
The film opens as viciously as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, with the massacre of eleven Israeli Olypmic athletes at the 1972 Munich Games. It's a scene that lets us in on how solemn Spielberg intends to be, with stolid, bloody violence and a steady unflinching perspective. The scene is cut and dispersed throughout the film, its picture unfolding as though from a tightly sealed envelope, eventually allowing us full understanding of the incident.
In response to the violence, Israel's Prime Minister (Lynn Cohen) agrees to an assassination effort, targeting the eleven architects of the Munich massacre. Heading up the operation is Avner (Eric Bana), a young, modest reserve soldier with an expecting wife (Ayelet Zorer). Avner leads Steve (Daniel Craig), a trigger happy point man, Carl (Ciaran Hinds), the clean-up man, Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), the bomb expert, and Hans (Hanns Zischler), whose role isn't clearly explained but is essential nonetheless. They're task is to eliminate the targets on an unlimited budget while confining themselves only to European nations, avoiding conflict within Arab states.
Spielberg does well in his pacing not to make Munich into a tedious romp of assassinations. The film's premise is, yes, simple, but follows characters and motives that clearly aren't. The real meat of the film is in watching Avner and his boys turn from non-descript Jewish workers to tough-skinned assassins. Tony Kushner, who penned the script along with Eric Roth, had never before written a story that involved violence. This pacific sentimentality plays well for the film: Violence is seminal to Munich's success, but isn't relished. Death is the reality of Avner's situation, and must be dealt with not by explosions and car chases, but with bristling scabs of emotion that bulge and threaten to burst, but later harden into scars.
As we've come to expect, Spielberg's cinematic reality is flawless. We constantly leap from nation to nation, every one of them as authentic as the last. He doesn't flaunt his sets' authenticity like lesser films, however, with loud period-contextual music and period-contextual cars and period-contextual costumes and period-contextual speech. All that jazz is present, of course, but Spielberg creates the locales to live and breathe with realism. Instead of photographing one city block, he decides to re-create entire neighborhoods and cities to fit his 1970's Europe.
There has been complaint about the recent running-lengths of blockbuster films, such as Munich (164 minutes) and King Kong (188 minutes). I'm an advocate of the three-hour film; especially with projects as rife with content as King Kong and Munich. There's a theme that Kushner launches mid-way through the picture: Carl explains to Avner that he believes his leader to be a runner; somebody that outruns his emotions and scruples to finish the job, but also somebody who can't stand to have stillness. Later in the film, both Carl and Avner find that stillness. Kushner writes the situations as a final development to his characters' arc, requiring the film to run longer to include these last rich, bloody, and inherently difficult scenes. Without them-without the last hurrah of story-Munich would run ashore and dry out with dissatisfaction. The film is instead full and beautifully glorious, working in themes that go far beyond the killing of eleven Palestinian men, and questioning not only the politics of 1972, but also the politics of present. But Spielberg isn't heady with his controversy (except maybe that final shot...), instead solitarily using only the poignant story of Avner and his men to portray his point. Munich is another of Spielberg's masterpieces, a swift departure from War of the Worlds, and on-par (or maybe better) than his last entry into film history's canon, Saving Private Ryan. Like I said, Munich is full and beautifully glorious.
-www.samseescinema.com
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