“Munich” is Steven Spielberg’s newest movie. It’s not a summer blockbuster like “War of the Worlds” or “Minority Report” but more in the league of his other movies like “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.”
Munich starts out with the real life events of the 1972 the murders of the 11 kidnapped Israeli athletes during the Olympics. Eric Bana plays Avner, one of the 5 men who are chosen to find and kill people involved in the murders of the athletes by the Israeli government. The movie outlines his questioning of if what he is doing is right, and of the confliction with his personal life, his wife who has just had a baby. All of the killings express an amazing dilemma - twists in the plan, things like that happen all of the time. In one of them, they plant a bomb inside of a man’s telephone, call him, expecting him to go and pick it up. The telephone is by a window, so they have a look-out keeping watch at the phone. When the phone picks up it’s actually the guy’s 10-year-old daugher! Avner runs to guys with the bomb, hoping it’s not to late and trying to not to blow up this innocent girl… well, I’ll let you see the movie. But it’s things like that that really show that this movie had a lot of thought put into it, making it a masterpiece. Most of the murders have these kind of things in them, really making Avner question the moral of what he is doing.
Eric Bana does a great job. He displays the emotions on his face very well, the conflicting things, etc. Most of the other supporting actors are also very good, although we don’t get to know them as well as we could.
The movie is very violent. Throughout the movie, it shows the story of the 11 Israeli athletes, being killed off one after the other in various different ways. Although it is very violent, it is very effective as the movie is not all explosions and blood. It happens when it happens, and it being (fairly) graphic helps remind you the seriousness of what is happening.
During most of the murder scenes there is a very low and quiet drum anticipating the coming killing, much like the music in Batman Begins, but less obvious, it’s more in the background. In a way it acts like their heartbeat as they commit the murders.
Perhaps what makes this movie work is the fact that it is based on real events. It digs a little bit into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is very interesting as this conflict is still alive and still going on today.
So overall, I recommend this movie to anybody who enjoys movies that question morals and a movie that is a very well-told thriller. Also, anybody who likes those puffs of red smoke that appear when ever someone is shot violently. (Does that really happen???)
8.5/10
Of course, you forgot all of the very strong anti-Israeli undertones, but I don’t expect you to understand that anyway.
Hey, I talked all about the palestinian-israeli conflict….. sooo mean is what you are.
you didn’t even see the movie - but I guess it’s like “I, Robot” you know more about it than me…. lol
I continue to be awed by your perceptive reviews of movies! This and the one on Pochahanis are gems! You evidence a wonderful understanding of cinematic technics and write well. I haven’t seen any of the TV shows you write about,but you seem to have those little episodic brainnumbers under control. Anyhow, keep viewing the movies and writing the great reviews.
Grandpa