Munich
Steven Spielberg looks at both sides of an issue
but still gets in trouble
"Munich" is the story of the kidnapping and murders
of 11 Israeli athletes participating in the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and the
Israeli response--the create an unofficial death squad to hunt down 11 of the
Palestinian organizers of the massacre.
The film centers on Avner (Eric Bana), a
one-time body guard to Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, who is tapped to lead
a team of five men who work on hunting down the Black September organizers, and
then killing them. They start with a shooting but then move on to more elaborate
remote-bombing schemes. The victims are erudite, sophisticated, and even
likeable, which some critics have turned into an argument that the film is
anti-Israel. But then again, the same adjectives could be used for the Israelis,
or the Frenchmen who sell information to the highest bidder.
The core of the film is that killing
slowly dehumanizes you (this was also at the core of the Israeli-made film "Walk
on Water"). As the body counts mount on both sides, as Israel also has official
responses in terms of bombing PLO camps, and the PLO counterattacks, etc., the
viewer, seeing this story 30 years later, realizes that neither side has
actually won much of anything. Israel and the Palestinians are still at it,
despite peace talks.
What interesting
about this film is that any two warring factions could be plugged into this
situation and the story would be the same--IRA vs. UK, Tamil Tigers vs.
Singhalese buddhists in Sri Lanka, Shia vs. Sunni in Iraq. Of course, the story
of the creation of Israel is rooted in the Holocaust, an event unparalleled in
history. Clearly, the Jews have suffered years of oppression and anti-Semitic
abuse and killings, culminating in the Nazis' "Final Solution." What makes the
film particularly Jewish is the notion that finally, the Jews have one little
corner of the world that's theirs.
Golda
Meir, in the film (but possibly not in real life) says that nations are often
challenged to compromise their values. Like many nations, wars, and quieter
secret initiatives, work to ensure a public sense of security at the expense of
human life and the very ideals its citizens hold dear.
Needless to say, Spielberg has taken on
a big issue, and is getting hit from all sides, but it's good that he's put the
issues into some sort of dialogue, instead of making it "too big to
discuss."
Posted: Fri - December
30, 2005 at 01:33 AM