"Spielberg's Balance of Terror"
by Scott Mantz

"Munich"
Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Die hard with a vengeance! Mathieu Kassovitz and Eric Bana plot their next kill in "Munich"

At the 72nd Annual Academy Awards, the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature went to 1999’s “One Day in September,” director Kevin MacDonald’s compelling film about the brutal massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. On September 5 of that year, 8 members of the Palestinian extremist group Black September invaded the Olympic Village, killing 2 athletes and taking 9 others as hostages. The intense standoff came to a tragic end 21 long hours later, when ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” anchorman Jim McKay announced to millions of televised viewers, “They’re all gone.”

Now comes “Munich,” director Steven Spielberg’s gripping $70 million thriller about what happened next – or, I should say, what may have happened next. While the events of that terrible day were well documented, little is known – at least, officially – about the Israeli government’s impassioned retaliation that followed. In one of the boldest and most aggressive assassination plots in modern history, Prime Minister Golda Meir commissioned an undercover hit squad, known as “Operation Wrath of God,” to hunt down and kill the 11 men most responsible for developing and masterminding the Munich murders.

It’s a highly charged subject matter that finds Spielberg back in “serious” territory after having fun with “War of the Worlds,” his summer blockbuster which grossed almost $600 million worldwide. While it’s a safe bet that “Munich” won’t come close to matching those numbers, it’s sure to spark heated controversy for other, more socially relevant reasons. Those reasons are likely to divide moviegoers based on their tolerance of understanding both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but as a stand-alone piece of work, “Munich” finds Spielberg at the top of his game with a powerful, disturbing, violent and ultimately haunting cinematic experience.

Loosely based on the book “Vengeance,” and adapted for the screen by Eric Roth (“Forrest Gump,” “The Insider”) and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (“Angels in America”), “Munich” tells the story of a young Israeli intelligence officer named Avner (Eric Bana, in a terrific, Oscar-worthy performance). After the Munich massacre, a Mossad officer (Geoffrey Rush) approaches him with an offer he can’t refuse. His mission, should he decide to accept it, will be to leave behind his pregnant wife, relinquish his identity and go undercover in an effort to track down and kill the men responsible for the Munich tragedy.

But Avner will not be alone, as four diverse, yet highly skilled recruits join his team. There’s tough South African-born getaway driver Steve (Daniel Craig, who just became the new James Bond); skilled German forger Hans (Hanns Zischler); Belgian toymaker-turned-explosives-expert Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz); and straight-and-narrow “clean up” man Carl (Ciaran Hinds). Avner and his men bond as they traverse the globe, one-by-one knocking off each man on their secret list of targets. But it’s only a matter of time before their mission takes its physical and emotional toll, as they succumb to the fear that the longer they stay on the hunt, the sooner they’ll become the hunted.

Had it not been for the delicacy of the fact-based subject matter, “Munich” would have made a helluva “Mission: Impossible” movie. On that level, it’s a slick, detailed and very well made thriller, thanks to moments of heart-pounding intensity, a provocative screenplay, a minimalist score (composed by John Williams) and dramatic cinematography (by Janusz Kaminski). But the reality of the situation is underscored by the fact that at first, Avner and his team really don’t know what they’re doing – they’re filled with doubt, their hands shake before they gun down their targets, and Robert’s custom-made bombs rarely detonate as planned.

Avner is the only character who is given any real depth, and the speed at which he accepts his mission feels a little too contrived, but the ethical dilemma at the heart of the story is effectively portrayed. At first, Avner and his men embrace their mission of vengeance, but they gradually become disillusioned with doubts about whom exactly they are killing, the spiritual consequences of their actions, and most importantly, when it will all end. Of course, Spielberg’s point is that it will never end – violence just begets more violence, and given the current outbreak of bloodshed between Jewish settlers and Palestinian militants in the West Bank, it’s a vicious cycle that still resonates today.

But isn’t that obvious? Sure it is, and there’s the rub – the more moviegoers feel that way, the less inclined they might be to embrace “Munich” as the important movie that it’s clearly being positioned to be. As it is, Spielberg doesn’t really take sides – what starts off as a black-and-white, pro-Israel point of view becomes clouded with shades of gray, as the Palestinian argument is brought to the fore and the Israeli government seems to hang its secret squad out to dry. It certainly makes for a balanced, compelling story, but the pressure to achieve that balance prevents the film from offering a firm, fresh perspective or a solution to the volatile situation (then again, that may have been the point).

Perhaps what’s most impressive about “Munich” is the speed at which it all came together. While the rest of the free world was covering last summer’s freaky “War of the Worlds” publicity blitz (thanks to the strange unraveling of its star, Tom Cruise), Spielberg filmed his secret project at breakneck speed in order to meet its December release date. The last time he did that was back in 1993, when he followed up his summer blockbuster “Jurassic Park” by winning 2 Oscars for “Schindler’s List.” Who knows whether the same fate will befall “Munich,” but it’s still a riveting film that deserves to be seen. Just make sure you see “One Day in September” first, since it will only deepen the emotional impact of that dreadful event, the retaliation depicted in Spielberg’s film and the aftermath that continues to this day.

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