Thumbs Up!

Rating: 9/10 (14 January 2006)

This was one of those films that none of my friends would go see with me. I don't know why. They could've learned a thing or two from it. So, I went to see this by myself yesterday and it turned out to be a damn good movie.
It immediately starts off with a riveting re-creation of Black September terrorists making their way into the compound that houses the Israeli athletes. The terrorists are not merciful in any way, shape or form.
I liked how Spielberg used the actual TV footage from the 1972 broadcasts. The killing of all the athletes is not completely shown right away. Instead, Spielberg shows it in flashback scenes throughout the film all the way up to the end. This helps us remember why Avner (Eric Bana) and his team are doing what they're doing.
Most of the film concerns Avner and his team tracking down every single senior terrorist responsible for the massacre and disposing of them in unique ways. Not the actual men who carried out the massacre...they are all killed along with the hostages. We're talking about the brains of the operation.
The wealthy Arab men who financed it and set it all up.
A bomb in the telephone and the little girl who almost fatally answers it was a pretty intense scene. The bomb under a man's mattress that's filled with a higher grade explosive than Avner's bomb maker realized. Instead of just blowing the man up inside his hotel room, they accidentally end up taking out an entire floor.
The killing of the female Dutch Assassin with zip guns. (that scene was particularly disturbing to me) Hours...no...days after the film ended, this was the scene that I kept seeing over and over in my mind. You will too when you see this.
Avner and his men are asked to carry these assassinations out by the Israeli government but are considered expendable. If they are caught, Israel will deny all knowledge of them. Even though they are all in the Mossad.
Another fascinating part is Avner's "source" for info. This "source" will give the location of every terrorist for an extremely high price. The average Black September member costs over $200,000+ to take out. Little does Avner know is that his "source" also sells info to the bad guys and soon Avner believes he is being hunted and becomes so paranoid that he slices his own mattress open to see if it contains a bomb. Then he goes and sleeps in the closet.
And just who are the bad guys anyway? That's an interesting question Spielberg proposes. Are Avner and his team just as bad as the terrorists?
I highly recommend this film. Just be sure to buy the extra large bucket of popcorn...this movie is almost 3 hours long.