Spielberg Redeems Himself for the Last Three Years

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2005)

With Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg's new film, "Munich," he redeems himself for the past three years which have turned out disappointing films from him (Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, even AI) by going back to his Jewish roots and making a film whose topic affects his beliefs (as he did for "Schindler's List"). He also tackles a genre he has rarely tackled before in his career: a thriller The events at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany are shown in four different parts throughout the film: Raid, Capture, Transport, and Tragedy. The film opens up with Spielberg's depiction of raid of the Israeli athlete's complex where Arab terrorist storm the building. With flawless editing by Michael Kahn, archive footage from 1972 is incorporated into the preceding event. However, even though the capture, transport, and tragedy aspects of Spielberg's depiction of the events is yet to be seen, it is the archive footage that tells what is happening and which provides the basis for the film's plot.
When the Israeli officials (including Golda Mier) decide to seek vengeance on those who killed the Israeli athletes at the Olympics, they propose to Avner (Eric Bana) to assassinate those who planned the Munich tragedy, with a team of other people played by Daniel Craig (aka the next 007), Mathieu Kassovitz, Hans Zischler, and Ciaran Hinds (in a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination).
However, while hired to assassinate, the team comes upon a number of obstacles from almost killing the pre-teen daughter of a target, to finding the targets by means of a headstrong Frenchman, killing an unplanned target, and the raging inner-demons of Avner's soul.
As Avner's soul progresses, he is haunted by the fact he can't see his wife and newborn daughter. Even when he hears his daughter say 'dada' on the phone, he breaks down completely and seeks for the woman he met in a bar. As his soul is ravaged by his inner-demons, he begins to come senile, even to the extent to sleeping a closet because he believes someone rigged in mattress with a bomb.
This film is the best of 2005, and Spielberg's movie of redemption for his aforementioned films. I can see Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Editing, Supporting Actor (Ciaran Hinds), Score (John Williams), Writing (Adapted), and Sound Editing.