A Balanced View from a Human Perspective

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2006)

Very fine piece. I read from several semi-trusted sources that it glorified the Israeli position over the Palestinian. Wrong. It was a balanced, personal perspective that was, at heart, anti-war. I think, any viewer would feel compassion for the Palestinian's also from this piece. However, I can see how Palestinans would not be satisfied, but trust me, the point was made several times, very explicitly, that they both share the same story. Displaced. No home. Brutal tactics. Fight or die.
I spent a month in Israel in '73. I was 19 and sleeping on the beaches at Eilat on the Red Sea. Golda Mier came to town and they used fire hoses to get us off the beach but it was all good natured. So we built hippie shanties out of cardboard in hills. I slept in city parks all around Israel and the occupied territories. Stayed in several kibbutz settlements where goats like to eat passports. I hiked alone and camped in the mountains above the Dead Sea. Played chess in open-air, dive bars drinking beer till the wee hours.
I went there to see what it was like to have your back against the wall and see what war cost you, does for you and to you. It was like going back in time to our own American Revolutionary War. I was not disappointed. That's what "Munich" accomplishes. War is not tidy.
I took a ship from Haifa to Cyprus. You couldn't go directly from Israel to an Arab country, so Cyprus was the stepping stone. Israel doesn't stamp the passport directly, but gave me a sheet to hold their passport stamp. That way you can toss it and get into the Arab countries. The night I got to Cyprus 30 bombs went off in the capital. It was unstable, but more from the Greeks and Turks who both claim Cyprus. I got the next ship out to Beirut.
Beirut was beautiful in '73. This was a few years before Lebanon started to melt down, but I was in the city right around the time of the para-military raid they depicted in the movie. I spent a few weeks in the Beka Valley near Syria exploring the Roman ruins. The hash oil trade was the main line of business in village where I stayed, but I declined to buy into it no matter how attractive and safe the dealers made it appear.
When I saw "Midnight Express" five years later in 1978 it made my butt pucker. I took the same path as the main character over land through Syria and Turkey to Europe. Syria was full of Soviet goods like the very heavy, clunky cameras that, nevertheless, worked pretty well. Turkey was full of 1956 Chevy's. I ate some bad sausage in Turkey and almost died for a few weeks. Beautiful land.
My point is that being around there a few months gave me good feel for the very complicated, intractable situation and a love for all the people involved. Steven Spielberg does an honorable job with "Munich." Well, maybe the last speech by main character's mother was a bit much, but just a bit. The movie depicted what I saw in the eyes of a young Israeli women soldier in '73. It's the same look I saw in eyes of a young Arab man who played a game of chess with me and shared some beer.