’’Munich’’, written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, based on the novel by George Jonas; directed by Steven Spielberg.
It’s winter, and that means Oscar season, and that means Serious Films. The studios trot out their takes on weighty, uncommercial subject matter in search of Best Picture gold. Many Oscar-bound films tend to stiffen and dehydrate under the strain between their sombre content and accommodating their audience. ’’Munich’’ is not one of them.
On the surface, Spielberg has made an extremely accomplished and emotional thriller, but beneath its gleaming exterior is something more. ’’Munich’’ is not about supporting political actions or taking sides. It’s about the motives and justifications that lead one down a path of vengeance - a path that ultimately has no end, along the way destroying many of the goals and values meant to be preserved.
It’s the story of Avner, son of a military hero (and new father himself) who is offered the job of leading a covert team to assassinate the leaders of Black September. This group was behind the 1972 massacre of eleven Israeli atheletes during the Munich Olympics. Initially Avner rejects the offer, but reconsiders to get his family off to a better financial start.
The body of the film, then, involves Avner and his four-man team zeroing in on eleven targets within or involved with Black September. The missions begin simply - a man is shot dead in his apartment house lobby - but become increasingly messy and complicated as the story progresses. More and more people are killed with less and less connection to the team’s purpose, and Avner himself becomes increasingly desensitized and haunted by his tasks. It also becomes clear that there is a network of political groups, all with conflicting goals of their own, each being motivated to ever-escalating violence as their paths collide. Naturally, it becomes increasingly difficult to know who to trust, or to justify what trust may exist.
In the end, Avner’s trust disappears. His dreams of home and family are forever changed - he lives as a New York exile, brewing in constant fear of retribution by the groups he’s attacked. His horrors of the original massacre continue undiminished, and the men he trusted are either dead or have withdrawn back into the shadows. The political targets that he eliminated have been replaced by ones all the more resolved by his violence. Little has changed. It’s one of the best endings to a Spielberg film in recent memory. It’s easily his best film since ’’Schindler’s List’’.
The performances are strong across the board, particularly Bana and Geoffrey Rush as his superior, Ephraim. The storytelling (with Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography leading the way) is extremely visual, quite an accomplishment considering the amount of exposition needed for this type of picture. John William’s score is restrained and sensitively used, helping to support the emotional currents of the film. Tony Kushner and Eric Roth’s screenplay is even-handed, eloquent, and even humorous at times. There are parallels (handled well) that can be made to our current situation - our post 9/11 actions are echoed within this story as a larger history, one with a troubling legacy.
This film is strictly not for families or partners. Going with friends is not a bad option.