Munich (2005)

Rating: 8/10 (6 February 2013)

Munich ,a thriller that deals with Mossad's response to the siege and killing of 11 Israeli athletes by Black September at the 1972 Munich Olympics, is a near flawless piece. There is a definite message in this film and it's obvious to anyone who sees this movie and understands politics. It's important to point out that this film is "based on real events" and is not true-to-life as far as the history of Munich's aftermath. If you're okay with that, then it's an excellent story. The Jews had always been a recipient of numerous conflicts and atrocities since the ages of antiquity. They had been involved in slavery, territorial conflicts, racial discrimination and struggle, religious controversies and several other misunderstandings and for that the Jews is considered to be the most sensationalized race in this world. The most often miserable fate of the Jews has countlessly been re-portrayed in film and has captured considerable sympathizers. Since the Jews had been in conflict with different races and countries, their never-ending history of war is not anymore new to the world. And movies with their struggle against countries like Egypt, Greece, Rome and Germany had continually haunted every audience. Spielberg didn't reside on what just actually happened on the Munich Olympics hostage tragedy and its aftermath but it tried to depict the characters' dilemma on their given assignments since the predefined missions were not really clear and pure. Although the veil of nationalism and justice was the major pretext of their elders, Avner(played by Eric Bana) was caught between conspiracies he had no clue of and would somehow fail to understand unless his elders feed him the truth. The already sensationalized history of the Arab-Israeli conflict has smoothly shifted to the dilemma of the character and his allies, giving us a point of view that we need to reconsider and reflect as well as it is often overlooked in most sensationalized and biased situations as that. The memorable aspect of this film are the tragic flashbacks of the events at Munich with the Israeli team being taken hostage to their haunting deaths at the end but to me personally best part was a postscript note that says 9 of the 11 men targeted by Mossad were eventually assassinated. It's again nothing less than a masterpiece from a great director and one could just imagine how Spielberg was able to harmonize and give rhythm to a number of short scenes on the movie to create an overall theme of pure drama and portrayal of the effects of the Black September tragedy in Munich to the individuals related and to the world.
My Rating - 8/10