Apathy

Rating: 3/10 (19 May 2006)

My wife said this was too important an event to make into such a poor movie. But:
If your idea of a good movie is limited to gory special effects, chases, mumbling talk, arty photography, then leave your mind at the door and enjoy this movie. But,
If you want a movie that tells an important story in a logical manner, portraying an easy to follow course of events, then this is not your movie. These events happened more than 30 years ago and this overly long movie would be hard too follow even if a viewer had a good knowledge of those events. And,
If you want a history lesson which portrays the difference between good and evil then this is absolutely not your movie. This is political correctness run amuck.
Munich is Steven Spielberg's version of the story of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by 11 Palestinians at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and the secret hit squad of Israelis who were assigned to track down and kill the Palestinians. In the movie a couple Palestinians give a brief discourse about the land taken from them and given to Jews to form Israel as the reason for their actions. The implication is that all points of view are equal and the Palestinians actions are justified, i.e., forget history.
Possibly Spielberg forgot some things since he made Shindler's List and Survivors of the Holocaust, i.e., Hitler and the Nazis murdered 6 million Jewish men, women, and children; the Palestinians bomb shops, pizza parlors, etc. and want to eliminate Israel; Iran is developing the A-bomb. Gathering Jews from all over Europe during WWII and putting them on trains for transport to Treblinka to be gassed was time consuming whereas a few A- bombs dropped on the nearly 6 million conveniently gathered Jews in Israel is all that is needed and is the goal of today's Hitlers.
Near the end of the movie the Israeli who headed the hit squad is very disturbed over killing 5 of the Palestinians and questions if his actions are murder. This is bizarre. What is Spielberg's purpose in asking such a question? Aren't the athlete killers and those who bomb pizza parlors and the Hitlers and the others who want to kill all Jews - men, women, and children - the murderers?
This movie is demeaning to the Israelis who fight and sacrifice their lives to protect Israel and equates them with the murderers who indiscriminately kill women and children, disturbing in that there was no public outcry over this history twisting film, and appalling because history void minds nominated Munich for Best Picture and Best Director.
Elie Wiesel is correct - Apathy is the greatest sin.