Disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2007)

Another disappointing film from Spielberg! In the first place, this doesn't look like a $75 million production. The cast looks authentic, but the actors are not allowed to show what they are capable of.
Compare this film with 'Paradise Now' made by an Israeli Palestinian, and showing the journey of two Palestinian suicide bombers. You can be sure that their budget was minuscule.
It's okay to take a documentary approach; non-judgmental and neutral. However, the filmmaker has to have an incisive POV. What's the point of this endeavor?
Spielberg is trying to say that violence brutalizes the participants, and does not lead to peace. Pretty trite, unless you can deliver the emotional punch of Paradise Now.
The documentary footage and reenactment of the Munich fiasco does have an emotional impact for those who lived through those days. But, what value does this film add for them? What's in it for the rest of us?
How could Spielberg have provided a documentary perspective?
It is rational to deter an enemy by the threat of retaliation. Eleven Palestinian operatives for eleven Israeli victims.
The lamentable point of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle is that retaliation does not work for Israel because of their political objectives.
That is, the expulsion of non-Jews from Israel and the occupation of occupied territories by Jewish settlers. That is why the actions of this group of Israeli operatives were futile.
On a historical note, Israel ceased its operation after the wrong man was killed in Norway. Five Israeli operatives were caught and convicted.
The Palestinians ceased their operations in Europe after they realized that the attacks were a political liability.