Munich Has A Faulty Premise: Innocence

Rating: 7/10 (9 January 2006)

"They're all gone," intones sportscaster Jim McKay. McKay and other ABC news folks of 1972 have their TV footage mixed with a quick montage of violent filmed movie scenes of the '72 Olympics where 11 Israeli Olympians were massacred by the Arab Black September group.
Five men led by a young Israeli named Avner are assembled to revenge the massacre of the Munich Olympians. The Munich Avengers hook up with a family that has been in private intelligence since the Vichy Government ran France during World War Two. Lebel (Michael Lonsdale) is its patriarch. He becomes a sage to the Five. "Never work for any government" he warns. Well, its a little late to change that just now. At first everything goes swimmingly. The movie looks like other well made thrillers. These 'pros' who have never exactly done this kind of work in their lives 'seem' very successful.
Thriller afficionados will remember Michael Lonsdale as the French inspector who traced assassin Edward Fox across France in the Day of the Jackal 33 years ago. Older and heavier, Lonsdale is right at home as patriarch of the French family aiding the Israeli assassins in targeting their victims.
The Israelis find themselves sharing a room in Athens with five Arab Assassins but arrange a truce by convincing the Arabs they are part of the German Beider-Meinhof gang. Avner discusses middle east morality and politics with the Arab gang leader. Avner is seen by the audience as losing that argument. Later the forger has to 'fix' a foiled murder attempt in a hotel room. He is wounded. Several of the Arabs Avner's crew boarded with are killed in a gunfight outside. Carl (Cirian Hands) is murdered in bed later by a comely prostitute after Avner has turned the woman down. The Israeli avengers trace her to a Brussels houseboat where each fires a shot into her as she vainly attempts a seductive but grotesque striptease to save her life. An attempt to kill the architect of the Munich Murders is foiled when five Brits, posing as drunks, interfere. Avner's men are now aware they are being followed and watched. Who do the five Brits work for, the CIA or Britain's MI-6? The hunters are now the hunted.
The foiled Assassination perplexes and demoralizes. Their Israeli handler Ephraim calls Avner home to tell him their work is splendid. Not to them it isn't. Avner doesn't want to continue. He suspects they have killed Arabs not involved in Munich and balks at giving names and addresses of contacts to Ephraim. They discover the CIA has protection deals with some of their targets. The remaining Four don't know who is after them or for what. Two more die and a demoralized Avner and Steve(Daniel Craig) split up.
Afraid now, Avner flees to his wife and baby in Brooklyn. But unknown agents follow and scare him. Avener fears for his wife and child. He attacks a bureaucrat in the Israeli Mossad office in Manhattan. He is desperate now. Ephraim meets with him and admits some of the six killed were not Black September but old Israeli scores being settled. Avner won't cooperate with Israel now. And Ephraim won't help him if Avner doesn't agree to continue.
Except for a nightmare-freighted, overdone sexual episode between Avner and his wife, the film is effectively over. Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner have carved this thriller into a political morality tale. The Israelis cannot assume the higher moral ground if they are as murderous as Black September. Every act of revenge sews the seeds of more violence and death. What is the point of that, ask the Authors? An Arab character argues with Avner that the Jews in Israel are outnumbered by the Arab populations that are all around them and growing in numbers much faster than the Israelis. The Authors are saying the Israelis will never win, that time is on the side of the Arabs. Israel will not win and will not survive.
I agree with them. The American War in Iraq will not succeed either. Americans and Israelis will both lose because the Arabs are fighting for their homeland. The Americans, and the Israelis who claim THEY are fighting for their homeland, cannot succeed.
Spielberg and Kushner have loaded the dice too heavily here. Avner and his four henchmen have an underlying innocence about international terrorism calculated to buttress this story and its moral. But would the Israelis really have chosen such a bunch of innocent plebes to carry out a mission as cynical, dangerous and important as this one? Its a great story but it won't play in Bagdhad, Tel Aviv or Peoria not to mention on the big screen.