By Chris Sabga
The story centers around a group of young Mossad (Israeli Secret Service) operatives who have been assigned to kill the Palestinians involved in the 1972 murders of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Ironically, you barely see any of the Munich incident the movie is based on. Most of what happened there is shown through flashbacks during the rest of the story.
Eric Bana (The Hulk) and Daniel Craig (the future James Bond) play two of the Mossad agents. Bana in particular does a spectacular job. He's Australian, yet he pulls a tremendous Israeli accent. I see big things in his future. There's a stunning conversation scene between an Iraeli and a Palestinian somewhere in the middle of the movie. It lasts only a few minutes, but the actor playing the Palestinian definitely deserves a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
As you have probably heard, the movie come under fire from the Jewish community, with Steven Spielberg being called "no friend of Israel." I personally think all of that controversy is ridiculous and laughable. No, it doesn't always portray Israel in a lilly white way, but so what? That's life! Making Israel out to be completely pure and flawless would've been inaccurate propaganda (which is what I feared the movie would be, but I'm glad to say my fears were unfounded). No country is perfect.
Spielberg has referred to this movie as his "prayer for peace," and that's exactly what it is. Both the Israelis and Palestinians are portrayed fairly. But this is mainly a story about Israel. The Palestenians are more or less just in the background. And that's fine for the story Spielberg is trying to tell here.
One of the most interesting aspects of the movie is that it's nearly impossible to tell the Jews from the Arabs some of the time. As one person remarked to me, "Jews are really the cousins of the Arabs in a lot of ways," and that's so true.
Some naysayers have called this a liberal allegory for the current war in Iraq, and while I can certainly see how someone could arrive at that conclusion, I personally don't believe that was Spielberg's intent at all.
This may be Spielberg's best film. It's certainly his best in several years.
