Psst - This section contains some inside trivia about the film
Quotes - Good One Liners from the movie
Oops - Goofs from the movie
Director – Steven Spielberg
Screenplay – Tony Kushner, Eric Roth and George Jonas.
On 5th September in the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, Palestinian terrorist Group, Black September had Armed Terrorists held 11 Israeli Athletes Hostage for nearly 18 hours. They take them to the Furstenfeldbruck airport in a helicopter and a failed rescue mission by the German Army results in all the athletes and all but 3 of the Terrorists getting killed. Israel retaliates to this massacre by sending secret agents on various missions across Europe and the Arab Countries to eliminate all those who were behind the attacks. Mossad (Israeli Intelligence) sends a group of Spies Leaded by Avner (Eric Bana) and supported by Steve (Daniel Craig), Carl(Ciaran Hinds), Ephraim(Geoffrey Rush), Robert(Mathieu Kassovitz) and Hans(Hans Zischler). He gets all the inside information from another source from Paris, Louis(Mathieu Amalric). One by one they visit various cities around Europe ane even Beirut in Lebanon to kill the terrorists. The only thing they don’t realize is that Violence Begets Violence and they have to pay a big price both professionally and personally to achieve their mission. Superb actibg by everyone. First Rate Direction by Spielberg and excellent screenplay. Superb Editing by Michael Kahn and excellent cinematography by Spielberg movie regular Janusz Kaminski and no Spielberg movie is complete without excellent Score by John Williams. The Action sequence are extremely realistic and absolutely mind blowing. Pity the movie didn’t fare too well at the box office. A must watch for movie buffs and Spielberg Fans. Very Very Loosely reminds you of 1994 Hindi Movie – Mohra.
Psst -
1) Although the movie was made on a budget of $75 Million, it just about managed to recover 2/3rd of the cost.
2) Although the events in the movie were never publicly acknowledged by anyone, The Then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir had secretly authorized Mossad to eliminate those responsible for the Munich Massacre and later the Operation was known as Mivtza Elohim or Operation – Wrath Of God.
3) The Operation in Beirut was called Operation Spring Of Youth.
4) Movie based on George Jonas’s book – Vengance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter Terrorist Team and was earlier made in to a TV Movie – Sword of Gideon way back in 1986.
5) Jamal As-Gashey, the sole remaining Terrorist of Munich Games had come for an interview for the 1999 Oscar Winning Documentary – One Day In September. He is in Hiding ever since.
6) The Israeli Athlete contingents who were killed were from the Wrestling Team.
7) Abu Daoud, the only man who proclaimed to have master minded the attack is said to have got the official go ahead from the Late PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Arafat has always condemned the attacks and denied the charges.
8) Spielberg Trademark – Superb Steadycam sequences.
9) The role of Geoffrey Rush was originally meant for Ben Kingsley.
10)Movie was slated to be made in late 2003 or early 2004 release which was postponed due to Shooting of War of the Worlds.
11) Movie took less then 6 months to be made.
12) Such was the secrecy of the project that even the trailers didn’t give much details about the movie
Quotes
1) “We are supposed to be righteous. That’s a beautiful thing. And we’re losing it. If I lose that, that’s everything. That’s my soul. “
2) “We deposit money from a fund that doesn’t exist into a box we don’t know about in a bank we’ve never set foot in.”
3) “Leave it.”
4) “Yeah, Don’t f with the Jews.”
5) “All of this blood comes back to us.”
6) “How long into pregnancy are you supposed to stop having sex? Labour.”
7) “We had to take it, because no one would ever give it to us.”
8) “We have 11 Palestinian names, each one of them had a hand in planning Munich. We want them all dead.”
9) “I need receipts.”
Oops
Movie was too engrossing for me to notice any goofs.
I would like to thank IMDB.com and wikepedia for providing the inputs about the trivia section.