downward spiral

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2006)

Spielberg is the last person you'd expect to be the director of this movie - no good against evil story, no happy end, no glorification of anyone... You would not even expect it to come from Hollywood. This is not the Saturday night popcorn entertainment kind of film, it's very dark and gripping and will keep your brains busy for a while after you've seen it.
Some people in this forum find the movie too long, some suggesting that the makers did not take enough time to cut and edit it. But in this case the length of the film is a tool to make a point: pointlessness.
SOME SPOILERS: The Israeli "assassin team" receives a list of 11 people to execute in various places all over Europe, all of them are supposed to have some sort of connection with the Munich attack 1972. After the 3rd or 4th kill, the film is getting harder and harder to watch. Not only that there is no bright moment anymore to smile about or to make you feel easier, the feeling of senselessness grows and the graphic violence is getting more intense by each "chapter" of the story. You want it to stop, you want the guys to finish or to give up, but they keep going. You start counting down the kills, but then they even start killing people not on the list, like other assassins that got "in their way", or people replacing people they already have murdered. And then you get it: this is never going to end. It will continue for as long as people respond to violence with violence, and it will get worse.
Apart from the great directing and writing, I have to mention the awesome performance of Eric Bana as the main character Avner, he is extremely believable at all moments. In the beginning he is that smiling, shining young man, ready to take on the world, and in a slow, almost unnoticeable process he becomes a paranoid, twisted and depressed wreck.
If you enjoy movies that do more than just entertain, and if you can take the strong graphic violence: go and see it. 10/10