Munich

Plot synopsis:
The film begins with a depiction of the events of the Munich Massacre in 1972. After the killings, the Israeli government devises "an eye for an eye" retaliation. A target list of eleven names are drawn up in retaliation for the eleven Israeli men murdered.Under orders from Israel's Prime Minister, Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen), Operation Wrath of God is given the green light.Avner (Eric Bana), an Israeli-born Mossad agent of German descent, is hand-picked by Meir to lead the assassination squad because he is not well-known in the field and he knows his way around Europe. To give the Israeli government plausible deniability, Avner officially resigns from Mossad, and the squad operates with no official ties to Mossad or the Government of Israel. Avner is given a team of four men: Steve (Daniel Craig), a South African driver; Hans (Hanns Zischler), a document forger from Frankfurt; Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a Belgian toy-maker trained in explosives; and Carl (Ciarán Hinds), a former Israeli soldier who "cleans up" after the assassinations. Since the Mossad is "not connected" to the mission, Avner and his team set about tracking down the eleven targets with the help of a French informant, Louis, who is introduced to Avner by an old friend. Funding for the mission comes in the form of U.S. cash deposited in a Swiss bank in Zurich.The group go to Rome to track down and kill their first target, one of the Black September planners, Abdel Wael Zwaiter (Makram Khoury), who is now broke and living as a poet in Italy where he has translated One Thousand and One Nights into Italian. The group follows him from a speech he gave to a small audience. After confirming the poet is indeed Abdel Wael Zwaiter (by asking him) two members of the nervous squad (Avner & Robert) make their first kill, shooting him to death in the lobby of his apartment building. Moments after Zwaiter is dead, Carl walks in and collects the spent bullet casings.Robert pretends to be a journalist interviewing their second target, Mahmoud Hamshari (Igal Naor) (who lives in Paris), about the Munich attack. He plants a bomb in the phone that is set to be detonated by a remote key. The phone number of Hamshari is to be dialed by Carl from a public telephone booth. However, Hamshari's daughter, who is supposed to have left for the day, unexpectedly returns to the flat. The men are not able to see her go back into the building because of a truck that blocks their view. When Carl calls the telephone from a phone booth and hears the little girl's voice, he and Avner race to stop Robert from detonating the bomb. After the little girl leaves the building, Carl calls the number, asks the man who answers if he's Mahmoud Hamshari and upon affirmation of same, Robert detonates the bomb. Hamshari is hospitalized and later dies from his wounds.The team travel to Cyprus to kill the next target, Hussein Al Bashir (Hussein Abd Al Chir Mostefa Djadjam), by planting a bomb under his bed in his hotel room. Avner gets a room next to Abd Al Chir in the hotel. Avner and Abd Al Chir are both on the balcony and converse for a short while. When Avner has seen him actually on the bed, he shuts off his night-stand lamp (the agreed signal of the group) and Robert detonates the bomb. However, the explosives are much more powerful than expected, almost killing Avner in the room next door, and injuring a young couple in the room on the other side of Al Chir's. The team now have their doubts about Louis, who provided the explosives. Louis later claims that the explosives were exactly what Robert requested.Louis gives the group information on three Palestinians in Beirut, a calculated risk since Avner & his team were strictly ordered by their handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), not to engage any targets in Arab countries. The three men targeted are among the top most brass of PLO; Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar (Abu Youssef), (involved in planning of Black September), Kamal Adwan, a Fatah veteran, and Kamal Nasser, PLO spokesman. Ephraim at first refuses, however, he relents on the condition that the group be accompanied by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos. In Beirut, Steve, Robert and Avner meet up with a group of Sayeret Matkal IDF soldiers (including future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak). They penetrate the Palestinian leaders' guarded compound, killing all three leaders as well with other militia. Avner stops one of the team from killing a young teenaged witness.Avner travels to Paris and meets again with Louis, who seems angry about the operation carried out in Beirut. Louis says that his father wishes to meet with Avner. Avner agrees and, wearing a sleeping mask, is taken to the French countryside. Louis' father is quite genial; he an Avner share a love for cooking. Avner eats with the family, a tense meal since Louis is agitated by Avner's presence & his papa's favorable attitude toward the stranger. As he leaves, Papa tells him that their business arrangement will continue as is provided Avner and his team do not attempt any other assassinations like those in Beirut. Upon returning to Paris, Louis tells Avner that he has another name for him, Zaid Muchassi (Djemel Barek). Avner agrees to the new fee of $200,000 & asks Louis to arrange a safe house for the team in Athens.The team heads to Athens where Louis has provided a dingy apartment. During the night, four PLO members, who have rented the same apartment as a safe house, enter the dwelling. After a tense confrontation with guns drawn, Robert defuses the situation by claiming that his squad are fellow militant revolutionaries, members of ETA, RAF and ANC.Avner discusses Middle Eastern politics with the group's leader, Ali. Ali speaks passionately about his quest for a homeland, while Avner debates with him, arguing that violence would only make the world regard Arabs as brutes, and that there are other Arab countries the Palestinians could go to. Ali disagrees, citing the examples of the Irish and the Jews themselves, and concludes that a home is more important than anything else.Avner's group carry out their next assassination that of Zaid Muchassi, the replacement for Hussein Al Bashir in Cyprus. However, the bomb they hid in Muchassi's television malfunctions and it does not detonate. In desperation, Hans walks into the hotel, forces his way into the target's room throwing a grenade at the television and setting off the explosive phosphorus grenades planted there, killing Muchassi. The squad exchanges gunfire with the Palestinians during their escape, and Ali is killed by Carl.Louis provides the squad with information on Ali Hassan Salameh (Mehdi Nebbou), the organizer of the Munich Massacre and the squad's prime target. Avner learns that the CIA may have ties to Salameh. The squad moves to London to track down Salameh, but they are not able to accomplish the assassination due to several unruly men, whom they suspect to be CIA operatives protecting Salameh because he is providing information to the United States government.Avner is later propositioned by a woman in a bar but declines. Afterward, Carl reports to Avner and goes into the bar and is later killed by the same woman, who turns out to be a professional independent Dutch assassin. The group later track down and kill her in Hoorn in the Netherlands. When they have killed her, Hans refuses to let Avner close the woman's robe, leaving her body naked.The movie then proceeds on dark and sombre lines. The squad is feeling the pressure of assassinations. Robert (the explosives expert), questions the morality of the entire mission. Avner listens to him patiently and asks him to take a break while they travel to Hoorn.Later, the three remaining members, Avner, Steve and Hans discuss the futility of the entire mission. Sometime later, Hans is found stabbed to death (reasons not explained) while Robert is killed in an explosion in his workshop.Avner and Steve finally locate Salameh in a gated residence in Spain, however, their assassination attempt is thwarted by Salameh's guards. Frightened, Avner shoots the guard who turns out to be a teenager -- the same one Avner left alive during the Beirut operation. The guards immediately return fire at them, and Avner and Steve manage to escape.At the end, Avner is dispirited and disillusioned. He flies first to Israel, where he is lauded by a number of military persons, including Ephraim. Ephraim is eager to know more about Louis and any other sources, hoping to learn more about potential targets. However, Avner angers Ephraim when he refuses to divulge this information, saying that he is loyal to Louis. Avner visits his mother for consoling, but finds from her words of praise for what he's done.Avner then travels to Brooklyn, New York to reunite with his wife and their child. Avner becomes psychologically tormented with paranoid fears about his family's safety, horrifying flashbacks of the Munich Massacre, and pangs of conscience about the morality of his killings and the value of his mission.Avner travels to Brooklyn to reunite with his wife and their daughter. Increasingly paranoid and post-traumatic, he suspects that agents from the Israeli consulate in New York are spying on him and his family. In a fit of rage, he goes to the consulate and berates the staff, hysterically telling them to leave him alone.Ephraim comes to the United States to urge Avner to rejoin Mossad, but Avner rejects the offer. In the movie's final scene, in a playground in Gantry Plaza State Park across the East River from the United Nations headquarters building, Avner asks Ephraim to join him for dinner, in an offer of Jewish hospitality. Ephraim pauses, declines and leaves. Avner turns to go as well, and the camera pans to a shot of the New York City skyline, including the World Trade Center.A postscript states that nine of the men originally targeted by Mossad were assassinated. It adds that Salameh was eventually killed in 1979.

Tags: avant garde, mystery, murder, realism, dramatic, violence, revenge, thought-provoking, flashback, action, philosophical, romantic, tragedy, suspenseful, historical

Review:
There is so much to praise in this film, because it is utterly seamless film-making with a keen eye for every little detail that never reveals the intense precision behind its construction.While some have found the film "disengaged," I found that it pulled at the viewer's conscience through the central characters, not only Bana's Israeli agent Avner and his cohorts, most of who slowly find themselves gnawed by doubts of their mission's morality and effectiveness, but also smaller characters as well, drawn with indelible deftnessthe weary ex-French Resistance fighter now a trader in deadly information to stateless agents because of his cynicism about recurrent corrupt regimes replacing each other, or the PLO operative who debates Palestinian strategy and justification with Avner, who he wrongly believes to be a German left-wing terrorist who is "soft" on Jews because of the Holocaust.
As Spielberg makes clear in this film, all that matters in the end is peace or violence, and whoever ultimately desires the former had better be damn sure that their use of the latter is measured by the awareness that it use will create debts that will need to be repaid in the end, and the debtors will most likely be the generations to come on all sides..
Above all, one can't help but wonder what the Spielberg oeuvre would look had he not dedicated his career to kid's movies, fantasies and feel-good sci-fi.'Munich' is an intelligent and gripping thriller that is a major contender for award recognition, and deservedly so.
Tony Kushner and Eric Roth deal with people in all its complexity - a welcome new detail in a Spielberg film - and that gives "Munich" its most powerful aspect.
They five go on a mission of vengeance, but are soon faced with unexpected problems in the process and feelings of guilt which lead some to believe maybe what they are doing isn't righteous.When creating 'Munich' Steven Spielberg could have sided one way or the other on issue 'revenge killing', but he doesn't, and I strongly admire that.
Spielberg's directing is both electrifying during the action sequences and beautiful during the poignant and thought- provoking scenes like when Kassovitz's Robert questions Bana's Avner about the good of what they are doing in a subway station on the way to assassinate another target.
After struggling to prevent myself leaving the cinema within the first ten minutes I found myself repeating just that line in my head as I struggled through the unwieldy and overblown three hours that make up the "Munich" "epic".The length is pretty incomprehensible and completely unjustifiable as Spielberg goes in for innumerate lengthy pans on the characters faces which reveal precisely nothing (the worst scene being a completely comical flashback scene as Azner has sex with his wife whilst being "haunted" by the events in Munich he didn't actually see) and includes gratuitous panoramic views of nearly every city in the world.With a terrible script to work from (speaking other languages I wasn't spared from the awfulness of the dialogue in German or French) the actors managed to match it with their delivery.
Identification with any of the characters was completely impossible as Spielberg regularly and cringe-worthily tried to dip into the "buddy movie" genre with dialogues between the "crack team" of Israeli operators (about as crack as a WI reunion).The dinner they enjoyed together with awful banter flowing across the table about being toy-makers or furniture dealers sat very awkwardly with feeble jokes about receipts and the role of the South African (I don't look forward to the next James Bond film if that performance is anything to go by) was a mystery to everyone including the actor himself.Well, I can't even begin to emphasise how boring, how much of a waste of time and how completely unengaging this film was, but if you liked Troy (also starring Azner as Hector) and other abominations of movies of a similar ilk then run to the cinemas, throw over your money and take in yet another slice of Hollywood tripe masquerading as an artistic and thought provoking work..
As the movie unreeled, however, I found I was treated to a shameful falsification of history and what looked more like a propaganda tool for the Israeli government than a true story.Mr Spielberg began his tale by eliminating a rather telling point: the reason why these militants decided to do what they did at Munich.
This is the story of a mission that wasn't acknowledge initially when it happened in 1972,Golda Meier(Lynn Cohen) pulled together a number of government officials and members of the Mossad(Geoffrey Rush) and they decided to put together a list of people that they felt were responsible for what had happened in Munich.And they made the decision to try to go after those people.It's told there was a committee of 10 people decided to,sort of,try and sentence to death as many as 11,possible more,possible less but it was probably around 11 Palestian men .Some of the people that were targeted were definitely part of a terror network and some of the people that were targeted were political leaders,intellectual leaders.The idea was to call attention to the world that Israel would no allow this to happen again.And the mission Golda send them on,it's almost an eye for an eye.Golda Meier took the responsibility on her own shoulders.The main dramatic agents are five guys who are assassinating people,the guys are working for intelligence agency and they weren't sociopaths,they were doing their job.The guys are vulnerable,doubtful with no falling into all the obvious clichés of the hit-man with the doubt.The 5 guys(Bana,Daniel Craig,Matthew Kassovitz,Cirian Hinds,Hans Zischler) are all very different,age,background,upbringing,some have been bringing up in Europe,some have been in Israel,they have been selected for their different qualities.We might say it's like a quintet,a musical quintet,they are very sharply defined characters in themselves and sometimes their hesitations look like.They have different ways of speaking ,of behaving ,but they know they are are forged together.They are committed to the cause of Israel and they are ready to fight for his land.Avner(Eric Bana) doesn't really know why he's chose but for some reason he was chosen as the leader though we really know why the others were chosen.It's a totally intelligent movie about hatred and revenge,there is no glory or outcome but pure destruction.It was really no the story of the massacre itself but the aftermath.And this very murky,problematic,complicated story about the policy of targeted assassination.The picture is produced by Barry Mendel using actual locations,he was working on the movie for eight years and he assembled every book and documentary on the subject that he could find including all news footage and then he along with Spilberg who gives his own point of view on the story ,they went to work on the script for the next year and a half and eventually writer Tony Kushner came on at the end of the last year.Tony gave to Spielberg a total immersion into the politics and policies with a point of view coming from both sides,not just one side.When Steven Spielberg first got involved in this project and it was called ¨Vengeance¨,then he hired to Eric Bana when he saw ¨Incredible Hulk ¨,but he saw a warmth and a strength and even a little tickle of fear behind his eyes which humanises people,no matter what their jobs and he was very determined to humanise the characters.In the film intervene the usual and excellent technicians Spielberg as Rick Carter(production design),Michael Kahn(edition),Joanna Johnson(costume designer),and of course the cameraman Janusz Kaminski and the master John Williams with an evocative score musical..
too long, too boring, too gory, too slow, too little character development, too self serving, too ugly sex, too stupid dialog, too many locations unknown to the audience, too much fiction posing as history, too false as to Intifada vs 9/11 terrorists, too little of the reason for the Olympic assassinations, too bad Spielberg is washed up.I thought the remake of "War of the Worlds" was bad, but this took the cake.
It also was fascinating to me as almost a travelogue, seeing a lot of different cities around the world, following this team of Israelis as they track down and kill many of the men responsible for murdering hostages in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.That's the story of this film: not what happened at the Olympics, but how the Israelis tracked down the killers/terrorists afterward.Some of the violence is room-shaking if you have good speakers as a few of the explosions felt like it made my room shake when they went off!
Still the Israeli hit team was unable to find and terminate the Big Salami and leader of the bunch who's name ironically is Ali Hassan Salameh, Mehdi Nebbon; were told at the end of he movie "Munich" that Ali Hassan Salameh was indeed killed by the Israeli Mossad in 1979.Penetrating and thought provoking real life thriller that shows the fine line between the Israeli hunters and Palestinian hunted.
We also see how they suddenly switch later in the movie when the Black September terrorists start to turn the tables on the Israelis by tricking and trapping three of their agents, with the help of a beautiful but deadly Dutch femme fatal Jeanette(Marie Josee-Croze),leading to their deaths.Avner who was so eager and determined to do his job later started to get sick of killing and even felt a bit of sympathy for the hated Palestinians seeing that they, like himself an Israeli Jew, have a right to live in a land of their own.
Eric Bana, all the character actors--everyone completely became their characters.I see that some people complain that Spielberg didn't completely get the facts straight, but this movie never purports to be a documentary--it is "inspired by true events." Really what it is about is how difficult it is to kill another human being, and the price we often pay for fighting for what we believe in.
The only thing Steven Spielberg made clear is that this violence will continue forever.I thought it was offensive to make an action movie out of this subject matter, SS is making $$ off of these people's tragedies!!
The cinematography is great, as is the direction and Eric Bana, as ever, does an excellent job of leading the film; but like Schindler's List before it, Munich just feels like nothing more than an attempt to win an Oscar.
There is one scene in particular which is SO OUTRAGEOUSLY BAD, it doesn't even seem like the same movie.Ultimately, there's no real emotional tug here, and one gets the sense that the same story could have been told more effectively in a shorter film which focused more on the main characters.But, yet, the film did affect me, mostly for the way it convincingly transported me, through its look and some visual sequences, into its world, evoking thoughts and memories of historical events and the state of our world today..
The film's screenplay, cinematography, acting and of course his own trademark serious yet visually appealing style of direction.Israel security officer Avner is assigned to conduct a secret government operation to kill eleven Palestinian high officials after eleven Israeli athletes were murdered in 1972 Olympic Games.
The movie is well crafted right from the way the title is displayed(showing all cities involved in the movie(incident) to the end of the movie where the director sends a strong message to the Zionist regime (or) even the warring nations at a larger picture.Eric bana shines as Avner exemplifying the saying 'Action speaks louder than words'.He is a stern Mossad agent who is asked to kill 11 Palestinian names, who are said to have planned the Munich massacre.
He starts doubting whether the persons he kills were actually behind the Munich operation and gets out of mossad leaving a strong message that 'there is no peace at the end of all this'.A must watch movie .
Akin to spy films, only without the spies, Munich is a gripping emotional film that takes you too the edge of your seat and to the brink of tears.Following the slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes by a group of Palestinians at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, a group of Israelis is then contracted to hunt down and kill the organizers of the event.Violence begetting violence and the futility of it all is the major theme that Steven Spielberg wants you to take away from it all.
I love Steven Spielberg's movies but I truly wanted to hate this one.The happenings at the Munich Olympics, 34 years later, are still fresh in my mind, and my feelings of that day, that someone needs to get even with Black September and its supporters is still present.
Therefore, I wasn't ready to accept a large part of Spielberg's premise---that there was a great personal toll on the Israelies who were commissioned to carry out targeted killings of those who actually planned and/or carried out the terrorist plot.With mixed emotions I have to say that this is an outstanding movie pointing out the complexities of how a free Western society reacts to the actions of society's lowest common denominator--those who would rather destroy a perceived enemy than attempt to work with them as partners.
From it's beginning to it's end, the film's graphic subject matter will not be easy for those to take.Eric Bana, Oscar worthy in every way, portrays Israeli Mossad (intelligence) officer, Avner Kauufman who was years ago a bodyguard of the then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.Kauufman is a loyal Israeli supporter who wants nothing more than for a strong Isreal and it's citizens.Hours after the massacre at Munich, Avner is contacted by an Israeli intelligence officer played by Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush to plan a top secret mission of retaliation against the members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization responsible for the murders of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games.Avner is brought together with a group of European Jews each with a certain specialty, one who is great with weapons, and for getaways, one for creating explosives, one who is excellent with forging documents, and one for clean up, leaving no traces of Israeli responsibility.The first sets of retaliations goes as planned as the group led by Avner and his hit-man team track down and "assassinate" each of the Black September members responsible for the assassinations in Munich.Shortly afterwords, the tables are turned against Avner and his team as Black September and it's members begin tracking Avner's team in retaliation for the first bombings.
This starts to mark questions in Avner and the audience's mind about what is right and what is wrong in dealing with terrorism.This begins a long game of cat and mouse between the Israels and the members of Black September as they chase each other across the globe, from Europe to the Middle East, searching for revenge on one another.One of the biggest and most tense scenes is where Avner, and a member of Black September argue each other's point, Avner justifying the existence of Israel, and the Black September member arguing for a homeland for the Palestinians.There are no points in confronting terrorism, is the movie's message, each time you retaliate, the other side will also retaliate.This is definitely Spielberg's darkest film, with some of the most graphic violence recreating the assassinations of the Israeli athletes, and those looking for simple answers will not find them in this film.Spielberg has raised some serious questions, about the state of Israel, it's existence, and how they handle and justify their defense against terrorism, and this film could anger some of his most loyal fans.However, I applaud Spielberg for the questions, that he and his film have laid out, and the questions it asks for how our country is leading the current War on Terrorism.One word about this film, it is surely going to be controversial, some will absolutely hail it, and some will absolutely hate it.
The action shots covered the actually killing of the Israeli Olympic team feels hauntingly real, as does some of the bombings which take place.While some may be turned away by the 164 minute run time (which I know my friends were) I feel this is a great film, and definitely one of Spielberg's best.
At this point, I feel like I know his face better than one of my family members."Munich" is a powerful story done by a powerhouse group, as it is directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Tony Kushner.
It's the story of a young Israeli, Avner (Eric Bana), who is asked to head up a team with the mission to eliminate the men responsible for the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
I agree that Spielberg does not take sides in the film and shows how everyone suffers in any violent conflict, and that after a time, people hate for the sake of hating and kill for the sake of killing, often forgetting what started the whole cycle.Eric Bana gives a fantastic performance as Avner.
This Steven Spielberg movie tells a haunting and compelling story, based on a terrorist attack during the Olympic Games in Munich.
Based on George Jonas' book 'Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team' this movie tells about how one group of men enacted Israel's retribution and the prices they had to pay.Eric Bana is awesome in the film as a man who undergoes a dramatic change after what he does for his country, a country that cannot afford to acknowledge his existence.
By film's end, Avner fantasizes that he is both a member of the Black September attack and a member of the doomed Olympic team.Spielberg also portrays both Israeli and Palestinians as defending their actions due to their desire to have a home.
From two-time Academy Award winning director Steven Spielberg comes Munich, the story of the assassination of the 11 Israeli athletes who were killed at the 1972 Olympic Games.