Not impressed.

Rating: 4/10 (6 June 2007)

The film in general was objective in a sense that it attempted to explain (at least verbally) the two sides and the cycle of violence involved in the conflict. However, when considering the implicit nature of images, the film did injustice to the presentation of both sides. The biggest thing that I noticed was the subtle racism towards the Arabs. All the Palestinian characters were either completely fobs (so the audience could not relate to them at all), or they were wealthy pigs (so the audience was annoyed with them). They spoke broken English and were presented as emotion-driven fanatics. The exception was perhaps the Italian-Arab poet who translates 1001 nights.
This representation happens all the time actually, and this is perhaps why it is easier for Americans to relate to Israelis over Palestinians. People always associate Israel with "the west," those who are like Americans and Europeans while the Palestinians are just backward folks who are nothing like "us." The psychological affect of this is that people pick sides and align themselves with the people who resemble them the most.
Another thing that I noticed was that the Israel assassins were presented as noble characters. The main character is this soft-hearted, beautiful man who cradles his child and says fluffy things to his wife whom he clearly adores. You cannot help but be charmed by this character. The hit-men do everything in their power to avoid killing civilians (esp. the scene when the little girl goes back to her house and they go out of their way to stop the bomb from going off). The same is not done with the Arab side, which is fine since this is not necessary true. However, it is also true that the state of Israel does not differentiate between fighters and citizens, between old and young, between women and men, or between child and adult. Towards the end of the movie, the group kills a woman who seduced and murdered their colleague. This murder is done with tremendous guilt and much difficulty. So this ultimately makes them appear as individuals with sincere personal conscience (and good men with good intentions). On the contrary, the Arab violence is illustrated as senseless brutality and the audience is never really able to understand the Palestinian cause.
Another interesting thing was the fact that the Israeli authorities never provided evidence of guilt to the assassins (as far as the men who they were to kill). So periodically, the audience sees the charming fellow described above struggle with this issue and question the officials for the information. Again, this makes him appear like a man with a firm sense of justice. How cute.
Overall, the movie was better than I actually expected, but it was in many ways, exactly what I expected. I will admit that at one point, it is conveyed that little attention was given to the 200 and some Palestinians who were killed after the Munich tragedy. No one mourned for these people and the world remained fixed on the Munich event. This is true, and the addition of this clip was a sign of an attempt on the film makers part to be "neutral."
Finally, films about supposed Arab terrorism are usually filmed from the viewpoint of the victims and not the terrorist, interestingly, this film was shot from the perspective of the Israeli assassin team leader and not from the view of the victims of this tragedy. So naturally, the audience found itself rooting for murders.
Oh... and the film was not really about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict... at least in my opinion.