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Munich

Film // Jim // 28th February 2006

Steven Spielberg’s Munich has copped a fair amount of flack so far, amongst other things it has been accused of:

Being based on somewhat iffy information: Well what a surprise, a Hollywood film taking liberties with the vagaries of historical fact. The major points of the story do seem to be fairly indisputable, but the exact way in which Mossad sought to take revenge on Black September following the deaths of their athletes at the 1972 Olympics is the subject of quite a lot of dispute. One major moan is the seemingly lazy invention of the shadowy French mercenary organisation headed up by Michael Lonsdale, kind of a Terrorist Locations-R-Us really.

Being both anti-Jewish/Israeli and anti-Palestinian: The fact that it has everyone annoyed would seem to suggest that a certain amount of balance has been achieved. The film leaves you with an abiding sense of the complete pointlessness of the whole situation and its endless escalation. Alongside this is a message of the dehumanisation and disillusionment of those caught up in such conflicts as a result of patriotism, loyalty and belief. A timely message.

Being boring: I think “boring” might be a bit harsh, this isn’t a blazing piece of entertaining cinema but it is fairly gripping none-the-less. The overall feel is that of a seventies political thriller, down beat, slow paced and restrained. That isn’t to say that the film is bereft of style, there are any number of visual flourishes and the overall look of the film is very impressive. The acting follows the same path, not much room for scene chewing histrionics here. Mostly it is well played, especially by Eric Bana who really does convince as a man whose emotional state is becoming more fragile as he is tortured by the paranoia and guilt you would probably associate with carrying out endless state sponsored assassinations.

There are moments when you are in no doubt that you are watching a Spielberg film, a case in point being the suspense laden sequence involving the telephone bomb. The tension cranked up by a series of smaller events in a way that is strangely reminiscent of Jurassic Park.

Munich: Restrained, bad sex

The problematic thing about Munich is the way in which the violence (and there is plenty of it) is portrayed over the course of the story. For me this really made it difficult to understand the intended tone of the film while I was watching it.

Spielberg has approached violence in differing ways in the past. On the one hand there is the ultra stylised action of the Indiana Jones films, in which horrible things happen to horrible (usually Nazi) people in a variety of wildly entertaining ways. Think of Harrison Ford killing three (Nazi) soldiers with one shot on top of a tank, the ketchup explosion as a (Nazi) bruiser walks into a propeller or Ford pumping bullets into an off-screen (probably Nazi by association) Tibetan thug while a tell-tale shadow spasms wildly against the wall.
“Cool”, says the viewer, “That bit was ace I can’t wait to see the next inventive way that a Nazi gets killed. I’m so entertained.”

At the nastier end of the Spielberg violence scale is Schindler’s List, containing brutal, casual, almost documentary scenes of violence and atrocity. Ralph Fiennes casually executes random prisoners from his balcony with no ceremony or drama. He walks amongst a group of concentration camp inmates pausing briefly to shoot some of them in the head, it is pointless, unrelenting and absolutely fucking horrible.
“Shit”, says the viewer, “I’m really struggling to watch this. The holocaust was a terrible thing. I feel completely awful.”

Two different approaches to on-screen violence and two completely valid outcomes in their own contexts.

Munich sticks in the main to the grim, realistic unpleasantness of political murder, yet at times the violent scenes spill over into stylish action or flashy visual gimmicks. As an example the sequence based around the 1973 Israeli incursion into Beirut begins with commandos disguised as girls efficiently wiping out a bunch of guards in a manner reminiscent of Luc Besson’s Leon. Quickly the film changes tone as the Israelis storm the building containing their PLO targets, who are then coldly murdered one by one while their wives and children look on. Perhaps this change of tone is intended to draw the viewer in before repulsing them, maybe that is the idea. Who knows? Despite the confusion I experienced it is fair to say that by the end of the film the anti violence message is fairly clear.

Another point of interest (sort of) is another entry (oo-er) into the pantheon of least sexy sex scenes ever. Bana looks like he’s trying to get his cock out of an extra-powerful Dyson while suffering unpleasant visions of the slaughter of the Israeli athletes. At least his Mrs seems fairly satisfied at the close of proceedings.

One thing Munich does successfully is lay the blame for the whole nightmare squarely at the door of America: Right at the beginning the Black September group are unwittingly helped over a fence in the Olympic village by part of team USA. So after all, it is their entire fault.

Munich Links...

The Munich Massacre

Wikipedia article on the 1972 disaster

Zionists don't like Munich

The Zionist Organization of America press release denouncing the film.

Pro-Palestinian or pro-Zionist?

Left wing review, considering the politics of the film.