| Munich  [+ favourites]
Unfortunately, I bought this movie. For some reason I still want to be able to blindly follow Spielberg wherever he takes me even though the last few locations have been pretty crappy. I think this may be the final act on "faith" I lend the Jew.
**** SPOILERS
Munich is all about the kidnapping of the Israeli athletes from the olympic games in the 70s. They get killed, and Israel launches a state-sponsored terrorist squad to go and kill 11 "Arabs" who may have been responsible in some way to this event.
The movie goes on to explain, in detail, what these guys do (led by Eric Bana) from bomb making to shooting Arabs in elevators.
The Good: Speilberg still definitely has the touch of subtlety. He uses sound well, and all the action scenes are not dramatized. It all seems very realistic.
The Bad: The Good stuff doesn't support a very interesting premise. So they go and kill arabs. There doesn't seem to be a very clear underlying moral to the story. Are the Jews bad? Are the Arabs bad? Is killing bad in general? The end is deflated and stretched out. You are waiting for some tragedy to happen to tie everything you've seen together, but it never happens.
It's just a story about a hit squad, and the main guy has nightmares about the Munich kidnappings.
One rather large issue I have with the movie is it seems, to some degree, that Spielberg is trying to empathize with the behaviour of the Jews just a little too much. He throws in a little criticism of their behaviour here and there, but somehow tries to justify both sides and leaves it up to the viewer to decide.
But come on! Israelites have treated Palestines horrifically! They have what is considered by some to be the most advanced and well trained army in the world. They bombed and killed about 200 arabs right after the Munich massacre... but it didn't get enough limelight so they went on an assasination spree.
I suppose it's difficult to choose sides when you're a Jew yourself... but one sign of a healthy soul is one that does not fail to empathize with the enemy, and criticize the alllies.
The question is, is it fair for Jews to massacre and relocate hundreds of thousands of Muslims because they want a "homeland"?
Of course not! That's imperialism!
But apparently Speilberg's not sure...
"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."
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