It surely is a film that will make you think and question. But in what direction will your thoughts head for?

Rating: 10/10 (29 January 2006)

For various reasons I wanted to watch Munich. The events of those Olympics themselves were of some interest to me and did not find the time to do some further reading. Also being a film about the Israeli revenge in response to the Munich massacre which was directed buy no other than Spielberg himself made me even more intrigued. This combined with the fact that the government of Israel responded negatively to this film made it a must see for me.
Munich is without a doubt a very powerful film. It has the power to display strong emotions that derive from one's allegiance to own country history and religion. Though rather long it is not tiresome in any way because it carries you through along, scene by scene event by event you question what you see and evaluate the decades long issue of the Jewish-Arab dispute which was now using Europe as a battlefield.
Naturally you will find yourself asking why. Why all this bloodshed? Why did the Arabs act the way they did? Why did the Jews respond in such a manner? Who is right and who is evil? Though questions will be raised no answers will be provided. The film itself does not aim to answer this; it is merely there to provoke some thinking.
My biggest question nevertheless is that since the events described in the film and the vengeance operation in particular is not how it happened in reality why would Spielberg direct a film which risks portraying Jews as cold blooded killers as the assassins of the Olympic carnage. The nearest think I have to an answer is that Spielberg has come of age. He remains devoted as ever to his religion and Jewish background; however he perhaps saw that Jewish people had some blame in all this and possible he wanted to show that above all he is American.