Assassination, paranoia, and his blind critique of eye for an eye

Rating: Null/10 (9 March 2006)

I agree that this was an effort from a man working out his feelings about the state of Israel. It wasn't good, at any rate. The disaster of German special forces in Munich, still a national embarrassment, certainly, as were any initial reports that all the hostages had survived, is restaged for this fim in flashback clips - not all at once. At the beginning, at points inbetween, and at the end of this film, you have to remember to piece it all together in your head as the hero of our story suffers some sort of out of body experience, as if he'd been there in the midst of the hostages. I also agree with the complaint that Spielberg is crazy to have this unexplained supernatural phenomenon occur while at the end of the film the hero has sex with his wife, and just doesn't stop.
The plot is basically that some frat-boy type Americans smooth the way for the terrorists into the dorms by hopping the gate along with them. The terrorists unpack their weapons and assault the Israeli athletes still in their rooms. One fights back, kills or wounds a terrorist, but is mowed down by AK47 fairly quickly. Looks like one escaped. And a total of two were gunned down. As for the nine remaining, Germany readily agrees to the terrorists demands and makes choppers ready at the airport. They don't mean it, of course. The hostages are held together in a tight group with the terrorists, who all mount up into the choppers, at which point the German's just unload on everyone. And the terrorists are shown gunning down the hostages, and tossing the grenades into the choppers. But you don't see a lot of the last bit except at points through the film, and at the end, as already noted.
In retaliation, we have Golda Meir sitting down with the generals in her home to recruit a former bodyguard to head up a team of assassins. She gives essentially a speech about civilized societies necessarily doing uncivilized things to survive, and so on. And the job of these assassins is to kill the organizers of the Munich assault, or generally the leadership of Black September. The government creates a 'deniable deniability', a Swiss bank account with American cash periodically deposited in safe deposit boxes. And off they go. But not before the 'handler', a rather confused jerk, insists that Golda attended the funeral of her sister rather than the official ceremony for the slain athletes because many Israelis held her responsible for not negotiating with terrorists - she didn't want to get booed. Spielbergs says, don't know about history.
So they start with a few names, though none of the team is quite sure how they fit into Munich. Over the months they spend millions for information. And then they shoot some, bomb some, and so on, a total of five or six figures connected with international terrorism. Meanstwhile, on the ever-present TV, there are reports of hi-jackings and cafe bombings, etc., where hundreds have been killed. These are supposedly in retaliation for what the assassins have done, not for anything Israel was doing in Lebanon or wherever else. So Spielberg wants us to know - direct cause - and this is the balance sheet. Hundreds vs. five, or six.
And sure enough, the assassins begin to have questions. Why are we doing this? Are we not righteous Jews? The bombmaker, in particular complains of that, and wants out. It apparently never occurred to them, when they began this cell operation that assassins - kill people. Apparently they only realized that after they killed people, and only then start in about being righteous or not. And look at all the hundreds that died because we killed these few - again, part of Spielberg's message. Essentially, he seems to want to say - what's the point, can't we all just get along? There's a stairwell scene, where this team shares a 'nightmarish pad' with some PLO types, both sent to this 'safe house' by a French information broker getting hundreds of thousands of US greenbacks for each tip, and selling one side against the other, basically. And the PLO type, thinking our hero is just some Communist German stooge, apologetic even for the Nazi past and therefore sympathetic to Israel, says - you reds never quite get it, but you've got homes to go to. We Palestinians will fight for our land, even if it is left to my sons, or to their sons to do so. Brave talk, calling to mind the very struggle to create Israel itself. Spielberg wants us to see that, I think. Death to Israel, forever!
And that's how the movie concludes, as well, from the other side - Israel, forever! The hero's Mom is sort of aware of what her son was doing. But she gives much the same speech, that we'll do anything to keep this, our land, no matter how unjust or unprofessional. You are our hero, son. Remember the PLO guy, mentioned. Spielberg has homes, and homes like few Americans will ever see. He probably feels like some land baron. He's now vested in that order, and protecting it; even if it means more taxes because it's all just money-tree money to him. He's got an endless supply. Spielberg probably can see his own zealotry for the Democrat Party when it's election time. Perhaps. But fierce religious and nationalistic zealotry seems to be lost on him, or scares him as simply destabilizing. Perhaps he's yet to discover that he's a closet Republican? But he's not stupid. And neither were those who knew what assassination meant before they set out.