a low for Spielberg

Rating: 5/10 (24 June 2006)

I love Spielberg and much of his work. I first loved 'Duel' a minimalistic piece of horror in the early 70s, then he created a genre in 'Jaws', and he brought charm and sensibility in the alien stories in 'E.T.' and 'Encounter'. Later he tried to broaden his themes with 'Schindler's List' and 'Ryan' which were not masterpieces, because of the limits of Hollywood cinema approach, but yet were good films. I am afraid 'Munich' is a low.
The Israeli TV made a few series about the life and moral dilemmas of Israelis that have to fight terrorism and defend their country by using non-conventional means. I am sorry to say, but these movies realized from the Israeli perspective with tools of tele-novellas are better and more true than this movie. Moreover, a bunch of Palestinian and Israeli movies recently were much better in catching the roots of the Middle East conflict and the psychology of its players.
Much was written about the lack of authenticity in 'Munich' in re-creating the Israeli and Palestinian characters, or the numerous location mistakes. I was not that much disturbed about these aspects, but much more concerned about the lack of artistic truth. Palestinian and Isralis in the film behave in schematic way, they are represented through the stereotype view of a person remote to the conflict. The moral dilemma facing the Mossad agents is falsely represented and badly timed. The dialog in in Athens between the Israeli and the PLO agents which could have been a rare opportunity of truth is missed completely and turned into some kind of TV-like debate. At best the film looks like a routine international thriller, at worst it is close to the ridicule, when it tries to fake 'deepness' in rendering the nightmare of the terrorist acts in badly staged black&white flashbacks, or the sex scenes which try to be maybe some way for the main character to consume his anger or doubts, but look just grotesque.
I hope Spielberg will overcome this low in his career, and get back to themes that he has better chances to understand or he dedicates more time and passion to really understand the issues at stake. Frankly, I miss a good dinosaurs movie.