Munich - Palm Beach Post movie review

'Munich' is thoughtful, complex, suspenseful

By HAP ERSTEIN
Palm Beach Post

Those who go to Steven Spielberg's anti-terrorist assassination tale Munich looking for Indiana Jones vs. the Palestinians are bound to be disappointed.

While the most accomplished filmmaker of our time tackles his topic — the Israeli response to the brutal killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics — with his usual skill, he does not shape the story into a white hat-black hat action picture with a satisfying, reassuring resolution. For once, Spielberg wants to engage and challenge our minds rather than our emotions.

Universal Pictures

'Munich'

B+

The verdict: A morally complex historical re-creation of the Israeli retaliation for the Munich Olympics massacres.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush, Mathieu Kassovitz, Ayelet July Zurer
Release date: Dec. 23, 2005
Rating: R for strong graphic violence, some sexual content, nudity and language.
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With its moral ambiguities and political overtones, the movie feels less like a statement by Spielberg than by co-screenwriter Tony Kushner, who created the epic look at the AIDS-ravaged '80s, Angels in America. Full of authentic details, and heightened by sheer speculation, Munich refuses to demonize the Palestinians, as many filmgoers might have wanted. If anything, it equates the Israeli hit men with the alleged killers they methodically hunt down and eliminate.

Through actual ABC-TV footage and crafty re-creations, Spielberg begins the film with the infiltration of the Olympic Village, the shooting of two Israelis, and the kidnapping and subsequent murder of the other nine victims. It then shifts focus to Mossad intelligence agent Avner Kauffmann (Eric Bana, The Hulk), assigned by Prime Minister Golda Meir (a steely Lynn Cohen) to assert the nation's strength by killing the 11 people determined to be responsible for the televised massacre.

Enlisted into a shadowy limbo in which he must desert his pregnant wife, Avner gathers a handful of accomplices, not unlike a Mission: Impossible team. There is an icy gunman (Daniel Craig), a clean-up custodian (Ciaran Hinds), a gifted forger (Hanns Zischler) and a toymaker who doubles as an explosives expert (Mathieu Kassovitz). With seeming limitless funds provided by the Israeli government, they buy information about their targets' whereabouts from an untrustworthy French tipster who later will sell out the team as the terrorists retaliate.

The Israelis roam the globe, setting down in such cities as Beirut, Paris, London and Athens, Greece, to accomplish their tasks with nail-biting suspense. One hit in particular, against a well-heeled Parisian, becomes an homage to Alfred Hitchcock, when a booby-trapped telephone is inadvertently picked up by the target's young daughter. Throughout Munich, it is emphasized that these killings are rarely as easy as they seem in the movies — another Hitchcock theme.

Gradually, Avner becomes burdened by the implications of what he is doing and the gnawing doubts about the men he is killing. What — the film asks — are the consequences when the government's intelligence is faulty? Regardless, the Israelis soon become the hunted, as illustrated by a not-so-coincidental encounter by Avner with a sociable and attractive female barfly.

Except for Bana, who conveys his character's torment well, none of the other team members has much opportunity to show off acting abilities. Geoffrey Rush has a few memorable moments as an Israeli official who oversees the mission from afar, and Michael Lonsdale stands out as the French informant's enigmatic father, who has an interest in culinary arts.

Munich is too intelligent to be a big, popular entertainment. Spielberg's instincts may lean more towards blockbusters like War of the Worlds, but if he makes thoughtful fare like Munich every few years, he will come closer to realizing his potential.