Spielberg breaks new ground

Rating: 9/10 (30 December 2005)

This film has stirred up a wide variety of reactions, from the typical unjustified criticism provided by people who won't even see the film to the fluffier question of whether or not Steven Spielberg regains his status as film's top director from Peter Jackson. All of those miss the point. What Munich REALLY accomplishes is the deglorification of violence in entertainment through its story of a vengeance squad put together to hunt down and kill those involved in the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olymkpics. And he doesn't do it by force-feeding the audience, just with Hitchcockian style behind the camera, a questioning script and an unassuming -- but brilliant -- cast led by Eric Bana.