Jay Mouton
This movie caught a good deal of flak on several of the cable news stations when it was released last year. Accusations that the movie was overtly political, and thus a load of bs, were heard a good deal on said cable news stations. Well, I got a chance to see Munich the other night and I wanted to share my observations with you.
Munich is a powerful movie. Again, I did not read reviews, ask opinions, or pay much attention to the talking heads on cable. Granted, it’s hard not to hear the buzz about recent events if one watches the news at all, but if you watch news enough you begin to get a general feel about how various networks, journalists, and pundits present their “news.” One learns to take virtually all of it with a grain, nay a chunk, of salt. This is not to say that anybody on a network news program would tell a lie, or mislead anybody, but just to be on the safe side, hmm, better keep a salt lick close at hand. Anyway, I digress.
Whew, this is a tough movie; Schindler’s List set to music by The Temptations, and other musical acts from the 60s and 70s. Munich is powerful in the way an undertow is powerful – you can’t see the undertow, but it can sweep you off your feet and pull you to your doom if you’re not careful. Munich has that creeping kind of power that can lull you into a mental complacency, and then shock you into awareness with the speed of the blast from an explosion. Now, let me tell you how it achieves this power.
If you are unfamiliar with the story behind Munich, it fictionally follows several operatives of Israel’s Mossad while they hunt down and assassinate suspected terrorists involved in the slaughter of members of Israel’s 1972 Olympic team. Munich follows, execution by painful execution, the Mossad team as they wreak revenge; and the portent of doomed repetition for all involved is mapped with the splatter of bodies ripped apart by bullets and shrapnel.
Munich is a technically superior movie; we do not expect less from Steven Spielberg. But it is the strength of the acting, all around, and the extraordinary ordinariness each player conveys in stunningly extraordinary circumstances that carry this disturbing film. For instance, there are a number of scenes that take place in kitchens and dining rooms; even warriors have to eat, and in this movie they eat quite well. But, the subtle power in each of the dining scenes juxtaposes the ordinary with the extraordinary; the mundane with the profound. Life is filled with mundane events interrupted on, for many, rare occasions with those profound events, and few events are more destructively profound as death.
Another plus for Munich, as depressing movies go, is a certain dark humor that keeps our heads above the murky waters of the misery of this endless story of turmoil. I got the feeling, throughout much of the movie, that some of the characters were one guffaw away from hysterically “losing it.” One scene, in which operatives are dressed-up as women, is almost funny for just a moment – almost, and only for a moment; the swift shooting deaths of several guards shocks us back from the hint of “funny.”
Now, in respect to the “politics” of Munich, I have to give the movie a high grade. In such volatile stories, it’s extremely easy, perhaps subconsciously unavoidable, for writers to slip into their political agendas; perhaps it’s an inescapable aspect of the human species? For all the complaining I heard from the talking heads on cable news to the contrary, I thought the movie was pretty even handed. The terrorists were not made out to be “heroes,” nor were the Mossad members made to be more then ordinary men caught up in horrendous and extraordinary circumstances – again, this is so easy to do in “art.” I thought the blatantly political statements were apropos of the individual characters that uttered them. While I’m not a Political Science major, I detected no “subliminal seduction” messages whispering “ala akbar” in my ear.
Ultimately, I have to give this movie a high rating. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to watch it, but it worth the rental. Munich is violent, disturbing, and hauntingly sad, still I must recommend it if only share the talents of the crew as they handle such unpopular material.
Jay Mouton
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