Spielberg's back with a vengeance

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2005)

Munich is getting extremely mixed reviews -- from a coronation by Roger Ebert to a trashing from Anthony Lane. My response is somewhere between the two. As a thriller, it is a little predictable for three hours, I accept that. Nevertheless, I've rarely shared a character's (Bana's character's) sense of being hunted before in a movie. Yes, it's a little heavy hitting on the sermonic/moralising side -- but it is Spielberg, and you expect a little didactic direction there. The last scene, with the appearance of the World Trade Center (it's 1972) hammers the 9/11 commentary in a little too much for my liking. For minutes leading up to it, it was obvious that the two characters would end their dialogue with the twin towers in view. I was sitting in the theatre thinking, okay, pan a little more to the right, bring them in ... that's it ... there you go! And then there's the much discussed final sex scene between bana's character and his wife. inter-cut with images of the Munich killings. I interpreted this to be a comment on the endless cycle of violeve: go forth and multiply, the biblical Israel is told, and with every new child is born another subject of generational hatred and the need for vengeance. Others have interpreted this scene more "redemptively" -- new life entering the world, the morning after the darkest night, etc. Overall, it's a good, possibly important, film which misses some opportunities for subtlety and implied comment. Tony Kushner's role seems to have been to polish -- and he had literally only weeks to do that. An original screenplay from Kushner would have improved this considerably. That's not to give the movie a slating: i'd recommend it to anyone, and it has to be considered for some awards. The inevitable controversy in the U.S. about anti-semitism in the film is simply beyond stupid and beyond contempt.