Intriguing Thriller But One That Never Rings True

Rating: 7/10 (9 August 2009)

This is a film that many people consider to be Spielberg's masterwork . In many ways Spielberg amputates much of the sugary sentiment that has spoiled a number of his other movies and makes a rather dispassionate film . Unfortunately the film starts with the claim that it's " inspired by actual events " thereby making an uncritical audience believe they're watching a film heavily based upon fact when in fact the opposite is true
The basic premise is correct : A PLO splinter group called " Black September " murders the Israeli team in Munich during the 1972 Olympic Games and in retaliation the Israeli leader Golda Meir organises a Mossad hit team to wipe out the terrorist leaders responsible . Unfortunately this is where the premise runs out of facts and replaces nearly everything with invention , speculation and farce
Stop to consider the team put together . Probably the most important member is the bomb maker so who do Mossad employ ? Someone who strangely has no experience of making bombs ! He's such a liability he almost kills a fellow agent , fails to kill a target during another operation due to his lack of bomb making experience and eventually blows himself up a farm house . I guess the rest of the team had so little faith in him that's the reason they weren't around when he was making bombs ?
Mossad uses a secretive unnamed French organisation to find the whereabouts of their targets . In reality this organisation almost certainly doesn't exist but makes a good cover story . Unfortunately as it plays out on screen you find yourself questioning the logic of it all . It's even brought to the audience's attention when Avner suggests it may be a cover for Fatah to liquidate PLO rivals . There's no suggestion or hint what the organisation is . Would Mossad even think about dealing with an organisation if they're on a top secret mission that can't fail ?
Avner himself has doubts about the mission , so much so that he suffers a paranoid breakdown and is mentally scarred for life . There's also the notorious sex scene at the end with Avner and his wife intercut the Munich massacre . What's the point of this ? Is there moral equivalence ? Are we to think that if a democratic government surrounded by murderous foes on all sides takes part in assassinations this makes them no better than terrorists ?
The production team could defend themselves on the last point by saying it makes for a more dramatic film because the protagonist has an inner turmoil and this is what drama is all about but there was no need to do this . From what I've read about Operation Wrath Of God none of the Mossad hit team had any qualms about assassinating terrorists . What Spielberg has done is make a film believing because " good people are doing bad things " they must be traumatized by it when in fact this isn't the case in life . He made the opposite mistake with SCHINDLER'S LIST by painting Oskar Schindler in an overly saintly way and his simplistic world view has once again got in the way of a good film that could have been much better