Posted: 12/21/2005

Munich

(2005)

by Hank Yuloff

It is the Summer Olympics, 1972. In Munich. The first time the torch had gone to Germany since 1936 in Berlin. When I see highlights of Olympics past and it is from the ‘72 games, I am instantly reminded what happened. It’s the decimal point. Instead of a point marker, it is a Star of David. In recognition of 11 Israeli athletes that were kidnapped and killed by Arab terrorists on September 5, with 6 days left in the games. Instead of Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz, it is that decimal point star that stays with my mind. And finally we’re left with the video of ABC announcer Jim McKay uttering his fateful words, “They’re all gone.”

Munich is not the story of what happened at the Olympics, though it shows, with flashbacks the horror. It is the story of what happened after. The Israeli response to Black September and Black September’s reaction to the Israeli response.

Israel puts together teams of soldiers to go after the men who planned the killings. We follow Avner (Eric Bana from Troy and Black Hawk Down), Steve (Daniel Craig from The Jacket), Carl (Mathiew Kassovitz who played Ceasar in HBO’s Rome), Robert (Hanns Zischler from Jakob the Liar and Birthday Girl) and Hans (Hanns Zischler from Walk on Water) as they track down the terrorists.

The story would be a very simple series of plan followed by killings but this team has no history together and they must learn to become a team and do things they have not done before: hunt down an enemy and kill it. They all have Israeli army experience, but this is different. It is without a uniform and without official cover. They officially do not exist. But they do have help. Geoffrey Rush (Shakespeare in Love, Frieda, Ned Kelly) is their Mossad (Israeli intelligence) contact and there is a French family who sells them the whereabouts of the men they search for. Michael Lonsdale (Ronin, Jefferson in Paris) plays Papa and his son Louis is played by French actor, Mathieu Amalric. I mention their names now because as an ensemble, they are magnificent. I did not even recognize Kassovitz and I was an avid fan of Rome.

The tension in this film is as palpable as any I have felt as the hunters become the hunted. The team has early successes but suddenly and subtly, they realize that they are expected. Are their French friends selling them out? The CIA has both a reason to help and hurt them but they do not know which it is. They killed a Russian agent by accident so is it the communists who are after them? Or have the Arabs they hunt come back to bite them? I was aware that it was a long film, but I was generally too involved to notice. The film seemed to have a hard time ending and it does show in the last 20 minutes.

The feel of the movie is very 1970’s. Almost like a documentary that has turned a bit sepia over the years. Director Stephen Spielberg has gone to the trouble to put a face on the Arab/palestinian side of the struggle (their arguments sound the same in 2005 as since they started). But the answers to the questions are nowhere to be found here. I went in joking that Spielberg wanted another Oscar but had already told a Holocaust story so this way he could stay true to his roots and still get on stage in February. He did tell another story of the struggle of Israel to be at peace but it is not without showing the internal struggle that says in part: We are the good guys, we do not hunt down those who do us wrong. It reminded me of a feeling I have had recently about the United States - and how we have not always done what is right, but what our leaders feel is important for our survival.

This is a very graphic film. It is not for the squeamish or those for whom film violence offends. The general topic of spy films like Bourne Identity may have some going in feeling this is a shoot ‘em up chase of a thriller. It is more. It takes itself far more seriously. And for that reason, it may have a harder time finding its audience, especially around the holidays. But it is truly not one to be missed.

Hank Yuloff is our senior film critic in Los Angeles.

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