We finally got to see Munich last week. It wasn't a top priority film, but, at the time, there was nothing else worth watching in Kobe. As it happens, though, Munich was well worth it. Every time I see a Spielberg film, it seems great at the time, but then quickly fades. He's good at the short, reasonably gripping story, but not so good at making real classics. I'd even include Schindler's List and Private Ryan in this. Both are great movies, but no so good the second time round. In both cases the political message vastly overshadows the story and there are too many Hollywood gimmicks.Although a week has passed and I've had time to think, I still believe Munich is much, much better. It too has a political message, but it isn't as pro-Israel or anti-Arab as I was expecting. In fact, the film seems to lean strongly towards criticism of the Israeli campaign to kill the instigators of the Munich terrorist attack. But, as I say "seems to", this is perhaps something many people won't like: it doesn't take sides all that clearly. Having said that, the movie is very clear in condemning the openly terrorist orientated activities perpetrated mostly by Arabs.
In the story, following the attack and killing of an Israeli team of athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics by Palestinian terrorists, the Israeli version of the CIA, Mossad, commissions one of its agents to find and kill 11 of the Palestinian masterminds behind the attack. This, as far as I can tell, is all based on truth, and most of the 11 targets were eventually assassinated.
Eric Bana plays the lead role as the Mossad agent and does a really superb job. He's very ably supported by his team both in the story and in their acting roles. Daniel Craig is excellent as a rough, South African Jew, and Ciaran Hinds is fantastic as the 'cleaner' who looks after the cover-up details of each assassination.
As the story progresses, the team of assassins work alone, using shady French underworld connections (the one really difficult to believe part of the whole story, and perhaps another American sideswipe at the French) to track-down and kill each of their targets. But as none of them are trained assassins, the team soon begin to have moral reservations about what they are doing and see themselves, quite rightly, as little better than the people they are trying to kill. The ending is fairly ambiguous, but presumably, Eric Bana's lead character ends up with a far more morally correct view of the world compared to his Mossad controller played by the ever brilliant Geoffrey Rush.
The movie isn't short, but it flies by. I had my doubts when it was Oscar nominated and, although, apart from Wallace & Gromit, this is the only nomination we've been able to see because Japan screens movies so very late, I can now understand why Munich was nominated. This is not a 'let's support the poor state of Israel' movie at all. It's really, really good.
(Once again, however, watching the movie in Japan was a bit of a disappointment. The cinema was packed, but most watchers had never heard of the Munich attack. The really, really funny scene, where Mossad tells Bana he needs receipts for everything, raised not a titter. You could just see the audience thinking, "Well of course he needs receipts! Why are those foreigners laughing? Even assassins have to account for expenses." What a country?!)
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