Brave and important but flawed

Rating: Null/10 (10 February 2006)

Wonderkid turned Hollywood legend director Steven Spielberg makes three types of film: family entertainment ("ET", "Jurassic Park", "Indiana Jones"), action adventures ("Jaws", "Minority Report", "War Of The Worlds") and serious political works ("The Color Purple", "Amistad", "Schindler's List"). "Munich" is firmly in the last category and, in the sense that it picks up on his Jewishness, the book end to "Schindler's List". There is so much to commend this stunning work, but equally so much to cause reservations.
An examination of the Israeli secret service response to the 1972 massacre of 11 Jewish athletes at Munich, this is one of the best political thrillers in a long time, imbued with sustained tension, with some powerful action sequences, and literally exploding with mayhem and murder. The acting is of a high quality with five key roles: Eric Bana as Avner, Mossad agent and leader of the assassination team, Ciaran Hinds as the pipe-smoking planner, Mathieu Kossovitz as the Belgian explosives expert, Hanns Zischler as the German master forger, and Daniel Craig as the South African getaway driver. Each time, they - and we - doubt the reason for all this killing, Spielberg flashes back to that terrible time in Munich.
Above all, this is an honourable and worthy film that poses huge and topical questions about what leads terrorists to take innocent lives and what measures a democratic state can take to combat such terrorism before it betrays the essential values of that society and in the process corrupts those carrying out such revenge. If there was any doubt as to the contemporary force of these issues, we are reminded of them in the closing seconds as we see New York's World Trade Center standing in the background.
The major concern with Spielberg's narrative is the extent to which he has taken artistic licence with the known facts. Although the work is only said to be "inspired by true events", the constant reference to the memory of the reality of Munich and other touches such as the portrayal of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir give the impression that this is almost a drama-documentary.
Every action in the film is carried out by one group, but in fact Mosaad deployed several. The operation is represented as funded by, but otherwise out of the control of, Mossad, whereas the secret service was totally in charge. Although some things go wrong in the film's account, essentially the killings are cleverly executed and the murder of an innocent Arab in Lillehammer in Norway is never mentioned. Information on the location of the intended targets is shown as coming from an odd French family of anarchists - this is taken from the 1984 book "Vengeance" by George Jonas - but there is simply no evidence that such an unlikely faction exists.
Above all, Avner and his team are shown as increasingly troubled by their actions. However, we know from a new Atlantic Productions television documentary featuring interviews with Mossad agents directly involved in "Operation Wrath of God" that they had no doubts and exhibited no hesitation. Perhaps Spielberg is entitled to refashion the operation somewhat in order that he can raise questions and challenge us to think through the moral issues involved, but some of this is just too contrived, such as when the Jewish team find themselves sharing an Athens safe house with Arab terrorists. Also the incident with a freelance Dutch female assassin seems included simply to provide some colour and sex.
Spielberg has had critics from all quarters. From the Jewish side, he has been branded as guilty of "an incorrect moral equation" and "the sin of equivalence" because he has characters articulating the Palestinian cause. From the Arab cause, a former member of Black September has accused him of focusing on "the Zionist side alone". Even George Jonas has charged him with "humanising demons". However, the families of the athletes slain at Munich have publicly praised the work. When all is said, "Munich" is an important and brave work that really should be seen and thought about. It may be 164 minutes, but there is never a moment of boredom and rarely has a film raises such sharp moral issues in such a considered manner.