In sum

Rating: 1/10 (25 December 2005)

There are, thus, two central arguments advanced by Spielberg in this film (each of which is repeated ad nauseum, neither of which is conveyed with the slightest bit of subtlety). The first, that violence begets only violence and nothing more, is simple-minded and pointless criticism, especially in light of the fact that he offers no viable alternative to exacting revenge on your enemies for the pain and suffering they cause you. At no time does Spielberg suggest that say, dialogue would be more effective, nor does he indicate that it was ever an option (it wasn't, not with the Arabs, not at that time in history, and anyone who thinks otherwise is not up to snuff with 1970s geopolitics.) One wonders, if Spielberg's own family had been among the 11 athletes mercilessly snuffed out, would he still have advocated passivity and non-reaction?
The other argument is the contrast drawn between Judaism and the State of Israel. Two seemingly parallel ideals, often perceived as synonymous to the outside mind. But in Spielberg's weltanschhaung, one is virtuous, the other is but a pale reflection, the antithesis of the values the first strives to uphold. The state's raison d'etre, he argues, is only self-survival, at any cost, at any compromise of its own values, and it shuns anything remotely, traditionally Jewish (read: "good"). This argument is used by the most vicious, virulent anti-Semites, who cloak their hateful, senseless criticism of Israel by distinguishing between the 'nazi-like' character of their state (in their view), and Judaism, which is pure and righteous. By the 'revolutionaries' who claim that they support every minority's right to self-determination, but when it comes to the Jews, they should be condemned to the same wandering and lack of independence that caused millennia of pogrom, inquisition, holocaust...
The primary figure responsible for ensuring that the world never forgets what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust, in artistic and literary bed with the same murderers and defamers who would slaughter the Jews through the stroke of their pen? For shame.