Unfairly criticized as anti-Israel

Rating: 8/10 (2 September 2006)

Steven Spielberg drew quite a hostile reaction from many within the American Jewish community (and in Israel) for what was taken to be a criticism of Israel for its effort to kill the murderers of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich. That criticism focused chiefly on the moral doubts and nightmares suffered toward the end of the picture by the agent, Avener, (Eric Bana) sent by the Mossad to find and execute the members of Black September who had carried out the murders. At the end of the screenplay by Tony Kushner et al., Bana argues with his chief handler that the dead killers have been replaced by people who are even worse and that revenge breeds revenge and will continue forever. What is missing from the screenplay in my view is the appropriate answer to Avner's troubled view -- namely, that failure to punish terrorism will embolden Israel's enemies to continue killing Israelis and Jews all over the world. They must be made to understand that terrorism has deadly consequences for the terrorists. (That point of view is articulated to a very limited extent earlier in the film by the actress playing Golda Meir, then Israel's prime minister, who authorized the reprisals.) Steven Spielberg was so troubled by the criticism that in the DVD version of the film which my wife and I saw, he takes 10 minutes or so before the movie begins to explain why the film is NOT anti-Israel. I didn't think it was. As an ardent supporter of Israel, I had no trouble with the assassinations (now referred to as "targeted killings") of the Black September gang, nor did I find it troubling that Bana's character eventually cracks under the strain, having lost several of his comrades while carrying out his assignment. On a far more modest and therefore more human scale, the Israeli film "Walk on Water" also deals with the moral struggles of a young Israeli agent instructed to make friends with two grandchildren of a Nazi murderer in order to get to the grandfather and execute him. "Walk on Water" is a smaller and more personal film and the emotional effect on the Israeli agent is made more real by the fact that he comes to like the homosexual grandson (though he is prejudiced against gays at the beginning) and falls in love with the granddaughter who has chosen to expiate her country's sins against Jews by living and working on an Israeli kibbutz. The Israeli agent in Munich is under greater stress than the agent in Walk on Water because he has killed seven people and has lost several of his comrades. Yet the emotional and moral dilemmas are much the same. Is Israel justified in seeking out and killing murderers of Jews? Yes. Is it credible that an Israeli assassin would be traumatized by carrying out his assignment? Certainly. Does displaying that dilemma call into question Israel's right to revenge the death of its citizens? Not in my book. Steven Spielberg made a movie, not a propaganda film. He has made other movies that have demonstrated his firm attachment to the Jewish people. If anyone can tell me that he has killed seven people, lost comrades in doing so and been unaffected emotionally or morally, I'm prepared to listen. Otherwise, excuse me, I think this is a fine film (even though I feel Walk on Water was even better).