A Strong, if Flawed, Endorsement of Revenge

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2006)

What a surprise this was! I expected a maudlin, cloying tale of ethnic woe, but instead, this is an almost perfect close-in thriller where your mind is likely to be racing as quickly as Eric Bana's. As far as I'm concerned, despite all his technically wonderful achievements in Sci-Fi, this is Spielberg's best film. True, he's probably unsurpassed for his ability to scare you even as you marvel at sights you can barely take in. But this film seems so much more difficult.
I am hardly a friendly audience given the subject matter, but I was more than glad I rented the DVD. Here he is telling the story of people who are not interested in telling their story, and somehow it's believable, engrossing and almost defensible. Of course it's something of a let down that all his main characters are rather admirable, but to Spielberg's credit, that humanity is not entirely the domain of the protagonists.
And the action sequences are probably the most realistic I've seen anywhere. Where else can you sit and safely watch what seems like a real gun fight? I have two objections but they're important. In one of the scenes, a Palestinian child is deliberately protected from the mayhem. To my mind this is an attempt to rehabilitate a people known for killing Palestinian children almost without hesitation. It was a huge mistake, in my opinion, for Spielberg to pretend otherwise. THe other distortion is the argument unanswered in the film that the Palestinians have no home when Palestine was their home for more than 2,000 years, far longer than the Israelis ever had it.
Does no one remember the footage of that little boy killed by head-shot by Israelis while huddling beside a wall with his father? Or how about the countless children killed almost as target practice for doing no more than throwing stones? But the chances are no one will question Spielberg's accuracy. Only someone who uses alternative sources on the Middle East is likely to see the Big Lie so innocuously inserted into this enthralling film. Most will succumb to the deluge of counter-spin generated by the well connected Israeli PR people. Spielberg knew that this film contained these poison pills when he edited this otherwise excellent film and I, for one, lament his lapse of courage.