Sadly Inevitable

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2006)

Mr. Spielberg has now sadly been drawn into this phenomenon we call terrorism. No civilized person will be allowed to be neutral on this subject in the coming years. Paving the way, as always, is the art world... heralding the coming of the subject of terrorism and the Middle East in particular as they invade popular culture and the debate begins to be democratized as it seeps out into the masses.
Before Cinema, Governments, Zealots and Radicals made their own rules, playing the power game of nationalism and politics free from the scrutiny of those they govern. Now, we are learning how deep the hatreds run among the players and how ruefully unprepared our elected officials are in combating it. Dramatized though it is in parts, Munich lets us peek at the sick momentum that builds within and without world events and the inevitable cause and effect that will ultimately, it seems, decide which group or cause will one day triumph.
I am saddened that Mr. Spielberg, who I'm sure, like all of us, would rather live in a world where there are no ugly realities to inspire such films as this, would feel compelled to tell the story of the Sword of Gideon. I long for the days when we could watch the summer blockbuster escapism, blissfully unaware that outside the theater was a desperate world fighting to remain civilized. The French arms-dealers who traffic in information and lives are such a great illustration of that time, swathed in their cultured hermitage, able to ignore the collateral costs of their family business with at least as much passion as they reserve for their cheeses and wine.
The Spielberg of the multiplex cinema generation has moved into darker, more uncomfortable waters, the only guide for the filmmaker and his audience is our own conscience. Here then is the echo of the mind that made E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Amistad and The Color Purple. He knows us so well, he's sure that inside we are as decent and civil as he is and he knows he merely has to show us the images and we will choose the right path. But they must be images we have not already been desensitized to, because the journey of Munich is not one we can observe from afar. In this journey we must be participants. Because we are of course active participants in the reality of Munich, in the debate about terrorism, in the prayer for a lasting peace, in the hope that men will someday care more about this world than they do the next world.