Enjoyed the movie, disagreed with the message.

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2007)

Spielberg has described "Munich" as his "prayer for peace," and that theme has overshadowed most of the real events this film is based on. It tries to see the actions of both sides, Israeli commandos and Palestinian terrorists, as equal. This brings down the film in an idealistic and preachy way.
When I first heard about this film, I was very excited that Spielberg would be directing it. I thought he could bring attention to the way Israelis have suffered under terrorism in the way he brought attention to the holocaust in "Schindler's List." Most of what I know about the Munich massacre and its aftermath comes from Aaron J. Klein 's "Striking Back," one of the most recent studies of the affair. What that work states is that the targets of "Munich" were high profile PLO members. The Israelis were anxious to fight offensively, not defensively, against Arab terrorists. Most of their targets did not have a direct hand in planning Munich. But in the film Eric Bana's "Avner" is not informed of this until the end, and it is presented to us as if the Israeli government is being shady, just eliminating people it had old rivalries with. The purpose of these assassinations was 1. to prevent terrorists from committing future attacks, 2.to deter terrorists by making them feel unsafe, wherever they were by knowing that while they sought the murder of Jews, they too could never sleep soundly at night, and 3. revenge.
"Munich" doesn't express well enough the motives for the reprisal killings, and the Israelis who take part in the operations are depicted as too somber and glum--Israel could not survive if its agents and leaders acted this way. Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, in the film, states the film's often quoted line, "Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values." In reality, Meir knew well that the perpetrators needed to be hunted down and punished, mercilessly. The impact of the targeted killings, especially the operation "Spring of Youth" in Lebanon, is not given proper significance in the film. "Munich" implies that each of these missions was a bloody, unnecessary mess that lead to more tit-for-tat violence. "Spring of Youth" made Israel's enemies look at the Mossad with tremendous fear and awe; that Israeli agents could hunt down and kill supreme heads of the PLO in an Arab country, while their targets lay in their own beds. The "deterrence" motive definitely seems to have been achieved by these operations. Although controversial, "targeted killings" have proved to be very effective. Israel brings the threat of death to those who plan terrorist attacks, and as a result, the terrorists spend 90% of their time hiding and only 10% of their time planning attacks. Avner says in the film, "Those we killed are being replaced by worse." This is a myth held by the world. True, everyone is replaceable, but often when a highly experienced, skilled, and charismatic Arab terrorist is killed, his replacement is a young person who can't understand the intructions of his weapons because they are in Farsi. Targeted kills are a blow to their organizations, and it is particularly demoralizing to terrorists when their "best" leaders are elminated.
My other complaint about "Munich" is that it feels rushed. Spielberg needed to slow down here, and he should have story-boarded the film. The Munich massacre is sped through too quickly, and there should have been more about how the Germans, with no anti-terror squad at the time, maddeningly bungled the rescue mission of the athletes. What Spielberg instead focused on was the violence (this is one of his bloodiest and most gruesome films to date). The final sequences, involving a concoction of scenes of Abner having rough, sweaty sex with his wife and the murder of the athletes, is bizarre and does not sit well. Many might find it offensive.
What do I like about the film? Well, at least Spielberg tried to make a personal film about the conflict. You can tell that his heart goes out to both sides in an idealistic way. The cinematography, lighting, set pieces, vehicles and costume design appear authentic and dead-on. It has a suspenseful opening and tense moments throughout. It is skillfully cast and all the actors do very well--especially Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush, Omar Metwally, and Daniel Craig, who needed more scenes. Craig is the toughest, most gung-ho character and has the more memorable lines in the film, like "Don't f**k with the Jews," and "The only blood I care about is Jewish blood." The movie gives us great exotic locales and interesting character faces, and a noir-ish feel with a look into a shadowy world of espionage. The film seems at times more about the toll taken on government agents who do hard and ugly things loyally for their governments than about Israel and the Palestinians.
What we have in the end is a film that wears its heart on its sleeve. It is Spielberg's "prayer for peace," with some loss in accuracy as a casualty. Grade: B.