Offensive at Best

Rating: 1/10 (14 October 2006)

I have, for a long time, followed the incident that occurred at the Munich Olympics, so you can imagine how excited I was when I heard this film would be made. By all accounts, it should have been great: good actors, a compelling story and gut-wrenching footage of the actual event. But when the story got handed over to Eric Roth and Steven Spielberg, any chance the film had to succeed was snatched away. Spielberg should stick to "B" movies, instead of trying ineffectually to deal with delicate matters. The script is shallow and ridiculous, polished over with a thin veneer of trying to display both sides, when it really has a single and distinct point of view. It is even worse, though, by trying to deny this. While there are some scenes that are cinematographically beautiful, most are boring or stacked with hilariously obvious "subtle meaning." The film goes on too long, drags, and is overly episodic. The actors are given nothing to work with (only Jeffrey Rush shines in short scenes) and the film is so blunt and heavy handed you can almost feel them squirming through the scenes (especially in one scene between Bana and his wife near the end). One of the worst films I can think of: muck masquerading as a masterpiece (far worse than the admitted muck of even Uwe Boll). If you want to know a truly terrible film, this is worth a watch. Otherwise, I would avoid this offensive mess all together.