Not as simple as "Israel is wrong"or vice-versa

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2006)

I recall reading in columnist Ann Coulter's Academy Awards article(not really sure why she decided to cover the awards,given her very public contempt for actors and awards,but anyway...),she boiled down the concept behind Oscar nominee Munich as "Israel is wrong".
From seeing this movie,I can clearly tell she's not seen this film,or if she has she was there to cherry-pick this for the kind of things she didn't want to see or hear. I'm sure she's not alone out there,but these people are missing the point of this film.
This film account of the book(whose title and author eludes me at the moment),co-written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth,tells of the Israeli backed(though NOT officially recognized by the state)mission to find and kill the people responsible for the kidnapping and killing of twelve Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich(hence the title). The group is led by Avner Kaufmann(Eric Bana,very good here,as he was in the Hulk and Troy),the son of a national hero who is a star agent of the Moussad(spelling?). His team of agents are sent by fiat of PM Golda Meir(Lynn Cohen) herself and is authorized by a fellow Mossad commander named Ephraim(Geoffrey Rush) to go about their missions.
Over the course of about eight months,Avner and his five transverse Europe looking for and executing each person for whom they are able to get a hold of,with each mission becoming a little more dangerous and each target becoming more murky. As Avner comes closer and closer to finding the main Palestinian who headed(or financed)the Olympic kidnapping,the endeavor becomes much more dangerous and Avner starts having his doubts about the effectiveness and purpose of his mission.
Dripping in moral quandaries,this movie starts as an anatomy of a national call for vengeance and justice and ends as...well,something different. I don't think I'm giving away anything by saying that this film shows that revenge is not nearly as simple,easy or clear as it seems.
With fantastic supporting performances by Daniel Craig(the future JAmes Bond!),Ayalet Zurer(As Avner's pretty,worried wife and new mother),Ciaran Hinds,Mathieu Kassowitz(both as members of the group),Cohne,Rush,Michael Lonsdael and Mathieu Aralic(as,respectively,the father of the info broker and the broker himself,who supply Avner their info as to whom to kill)among others,this movie is a searing,heart-tugging film. As per Spielberg,there is no skimping on emotional spark-plug moments,and plenty of the images here will stick with you long after you've seen them. This film doesn't pretend to have the answers about the violence in the Middle East,it is merely showing that in one instance of violence and tragedy,the way a nation responds can sometimes complicate or even make worse to some degrees,the situation. Nobody here is really wrong or right,just unable to break the chain of violence that has become synonymous with the region. Anyone who simplifies the situation,or this movie,doesn't get it or the film.