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After 11 Israeli athletes were massacred at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972, the Israelis decided to take revenge by eliminating the 11 Palestinians believed to have planned the Munich massacre. Steven Spielberg’s Munich is about how they go about doing it. But is it the best way of reacting to the crime? Taking the viewer on a ringside trip with the Israeli higher-ups, including then Prime Minister Golda Meir, it details the psyche of violence or terrorism. "You’re officially unofficial," Mosad agent Avner (Eric Bana) is told. With him are four aides, Steve (Daniel Craig), a hit- man, Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), an explosives expert, Hans (Hanns Zischlers), an expert at forging documents, and Carl (Ciaran Hinds), a clean-up man. Can they function effectively? Then there is that mysterious case officer Ephrain (Geoffrey Rush) who comes in and out of nowhere, merely to give the instructions and await answers, if any. Can Avner do the job? After all he is young and inexperienced. His wife Daphna (Ayelet Zurer) is about to deliver his child. That his initial enthusiasm will be dulled is obvious. But Spielberg takes all of 160 minutes to capture this change of heart, to make him realise that violence only begets more violence. Being Jewish, Spielberg has sidestepped the more obvious or poetic justice ending. But it is in the little anecdotes that Spielberg breaks new ground. The informer Louis is an excellent cameo and so is his dad or Papa as they call him, played by an ageing Michael Lonsdale. He played the arms-supplier to Edward Fox in The Day of the Jackal three decades ago. They have the best lines. "We’re ideologically promiscuous, we love everybody, we hate everybody," is their creed. One has only to see the manner in which violence erupts almost periodically to feel the landmines they are constantly treading on. The clashes are graphically brought out but the inordinate length of the film dulls the few raw moments, like the part played by the Dutch woman. Spielberg can no longer make a normal-length film. Hasn’t he heard of the Bunuel theory? It is his overindulgence that works against the film. There are a few blanks, like how could these Israeli specialists pick on a greenhorn to lead the expedition? Did they have to cover so much ground? The same effect could have been created, perhaps more effectively, by clipping at least 40 minutes off the film. But then Spielberg is Spielberg and one is forced to bear with him. Eric Bana of Troy fame is good in the lead and is adequately supported by the likes of Daniel Craig and Geoffrey Rush but it is Israeli actress Ayelet Zurer as Avner’s wife Daphna who really humanises the story. So, in sum, despite its undue length Munich is worth seeing. |
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