The Mice in Your Head

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2005)

Greetings again from the darkness. We never really know which Steven Spielberg is going to show up. Will it be the incredible storyteller of "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan"? Or will it be the fun loving, mushy, sometimes too-cute-for-his-own-good director off "AI" and "Catch Me if You Can"? No question, the famed storyteller and master technician brought is A game for "Munich".
We get the sickening story after the tragic story of in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. SS crafts a dramatic reenactment amidst the the real-life newsreels featuring sportscaster Jim McKay and Howard Cosell thrust into unfamiliar territory. For those of us old enough to remember, this became a moment like Kennedy's assassination and the walk on the moon ... we recall where we were at when McKay informs "They're all gone".
What Spielberg has done is concentrate on the aftermath. The story of the original terrorists is almost secondary. Watching actress Lynn Cohen reincarnate Prime Minister Golda Meir is very creepy. She really captures the spirit and power of the woman. As the Israeli government organizes an assassination team to take care of the terrorists involved, we realize the goal of revenge is pretty hopeless and that bloodshed could go on forever with these tactics.
The leader of the team is Avner, played excruciatingly well by Eric Bana. Bana has come along way from "Hulk"! We feel his pain and moral conflict throughout. This process leads him to the brink of losing touch with reality. What a sad result of a bad idea. Although, Bana is the main actor, it is interesting to note that Daniel Craig offers up another performance making it all but impossible to imagine him as a wise-cracking international spy known as Bond.
Is there any hope that these two lands can reconcile and live peaceably? Spielberg does not really answer. The real sadness is that this clash of ethnic, cultural and religious differences offer no real hope for change in the present or future. This is stunning visual storytelling and remarkable film-making that will touch you and frustrate you.