Munich (film)

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Munich

The first poster for Munich
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by Kathleen Kennedy
Steven Spielberg
Barry Mendel
Colin Wilson
Written by Tony Kushner
Eric Roth
Starring Eric Bana
Daniel Craig
Ciarán Hinds
Mathieu Kassovitz
Hanns Zischler
Geoffrey Rush
Ayelet Zurer
Michael Lonsdale
Mathieu Amalric
Gila Almagor
Moritz Bleibtreu
Music by John Williams
Cinematography Janusz Kaminski
Editing by Michael Kahn
Distributed by USA Theatrical & Worldwide DVD/Video (except Japan)
Universal Pictures
Non-USA Theatrical
DreamWorks SKG through
United International Pictures
Release date(s) December 23, 2005
Running time 163 minutes
Language English, German, Italian, French
Budget $77,000,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Munich is a 2005 semi-fictionalized film about the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes by Black September gunmen and of the Israeli government's secret retaliation. The film stars Eric Bana and was co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg. It was written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth.

The film shows how a squad of assassins, led by former Mossad agent Avner (Eric Bana) tracks down and kills a list of Black September members thought to be responsible for the eleven Israeli athletes' murders. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture.

The first part of the film, which depicts the hostage taking, corresponds well with historical accounts. The second part of the movie, which depicts the Israeli government's response, has been debated a great deal by film critics and newspaper columnists. Spielberg refers to the film's second part as "historical fiction", saying it is inspired by the actual Israeli operations which are now known as Operation Wrath of God.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The film is based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by Canadian journalist George Jonas, which in turn was based on the story of Yuval Aviv, who claims to have been a Mossad agent. In the book, Aviv's story is told through a protagonist called "Avner". Jonas's book was first turned into a made-for-TV movie in 1986 called Sword of Gideon, starring Steve Bauer and Michael York and directed by Michael Anderson.[1]

The film was shot in various places around Malta[2] (which stands in for Tel Aviv, Beirut, Cyprus, Athens, and Rome), in Budapest (standing in for London[3], Rome[4], and for the German airport of Fürstenfeldbruck[5]), Paris, and New York[6].

The film didn't quite break even in the United States, earning US$47,403,685, about two thirds of the film's $75 million cost (estimated). However, the film did do well internationally, grossing $130,346,986 total.[7]

[edit] Plot

Munich Massacre

The film begins with a depiction of the events of the Munich Massacre in 1972.

The Mission

After the killings, the Israeli government devises "an eye for an eye" retaliation. A target list of eleven names are drawn up in retaliation for the eleven Israeli men murdered.

Avner, an Israeli-born Mossad agent of German descent, is chosen to lead the assassination squad because he is not well-known in the field and he knows his way around Europe. To give the Israeli government plausible deniability, Avner officially resigns from Mossad, and the squad operates with no official ties to Mossad or the Government of Israel.

Avner is given a team of four men:

  • Steve, a South African driver;
  • Hans, a document forger from Frankfurt;
  • Robert, a Belgian toy-maker trained in explosives; and
  • Carl, a former Israeli soldier who "cleans up" after the assassinations.

Since the Mossad is "not connected" to the mission, Avner and his team set about tracking down the eleven targets with the help of informant Louis, who is introduced to Avner by an old friend.

Assassination 1

The group go to Rome to track down and shoot their first target, one of the Black September planners, Abdel Wael Zwaiter, who is now broke and living as a poet in Italy where he has translated One Thousand and One Nights into Italian. The group follows him from a speech he gave to a small audience. After confirming the poet is indeed Abdel Wael Zwaiter (by asking him) the nervous squad makes their first kill.

Assassination 2

Robert pretends to be a journalist interviewing their second target, Mahmoud Hamshari, about the Munich attack. He plants a bomb in the phone that is set to be detonated by a remote key.

However, Hamshari's daughter, who is supposed to have left for the day, returns to the flat. The men are not able to see her go back into the building because of a truck that blocks their view. When Carl calls the telephone from a phone booth and hears the little girl's voice, he and Avner race to stop Robert from detonating the bomb.

After the little girl leaves the building, Carl calls the number, asks the man who answers if he's Mahmoud Hamshari and Robert detonates the bomb. Hamshari survives the blast and is hospitalized but later dies from his wounds.

Assassination 3

The team travel to Cyprus to kill the next target, by planting a bomb under his bed in his hotel room.

Avner gets a room next to the target in the hotel. Avner and the target are both on the balcony while Robert awaits Avner's signal to detonate the bomb when the target tries to start a conversation with Avner. Soon, the target goes to bed, and when Avner has seen him actually on the bed, he shuts off his night-stand lamp and Robert detonates the bomb.

However, the explosives are too powerful, almost killing Avner in the room next door. This causes the team to doubt Louis, who provided the explosives.

Assassination 4, 5 & 6

Louis gives the group information on three Palestinians in Beirut. Ephraim, the team's handler at first refuses to allow them to go to an Arab country. However, he relents on the condition that the group be accompanied by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commandos.

In Beirut, Steve, Robert and Avner meet up with a group of Sayeret Matkal IDF soldiers (including future Prime Minister Ehud Barak). Some of the men disguise themselves as women, to look as if they're on a night out. They penetrate the Palestinian leaders' guarded compound, killing all three leaders as well with other militia and innocent bystanders.

Athens

The team heads to Athens where Louis has provided a dingy apartment that they will use as a safe house. During the night, four PLO members, who have rented the same apartment as a safe house, enter the dwelling.

After a tense confrontation with guns drawn, Robert defuses the situation by claiming that his squad are fellow militant revolutionaries, members of ETA, RAF and ANC.

Avner discusses Middle Eastern politics with the group's leader, Ali, while they're taking a cigarette break. Ali speaks passionately about Gaza and the West Bank, which he calls his homeland, and Avner has to control his thoughts and feelings. Ali thinks Avner is an East German who sympathizes with Jews. Ali tells Avner that the Germans harp on the guilt of Hitler and the Holocaust, but that he has no guilt because his grandfather didn't gas any Jews.

Avner's group carry out their next assassination, but there is a problem with the bomb and it does not detonate. In desperation, Hans walks into the hotel, goes to the target's room, throws a grenade into the room and sets off the explosive phosphorus grenades hidden in the television, killing the replacement KGB contact. The squad exchanges gunfire with the Palestinians during their escape, and Ali is killed by Carl.

London

Louis provides the squad with information on Ali Hassan Salameh, the organizer of the Munich Massacre and the squad's prime target. Avner learns that the CIA may have ties to Salameh. The squad moves to London to track down Salameh, but they are not able to accomplish the assassination, possibly due to the CIA's intervention.

Avner is propositioned by a woman in a bar but declines. Afterward, Carl goes into the bar and is later killed by the same woman, who turns out to be a professional independent Dutch assassin. The squad track her to Hoorn in Holland to avenge Carl's death. However, later, Hans is found stabbed to death while Robert is killed by an accidental detonation of a bomb in his workshop.

Assassination 7 Attempt

When the remaining two assassins finally locate Salameh in a gated residence in Spain, their assassination attempt is thwarted by Salameh's guards. Frightened, Avner shoots the guard who turns out to be a teenager. The guards immediately return fire at Avner and Steve who barely escape.

Conclusion

At the end, Avner is dispirited and disillusioned. He flies first to Israel and then later to his new home in Brooklyn, New York to reunite with his wife and their child. Avner becomes psychologically tormented with paranoid fears about his family's safety, horrifying flashbacks of the Munich Massacre, and pangs of conscience about the morality of his killings and the value of his mission.

Avner's handler, Ephraim, comes to the United States to urge Avner to rejoin Mossad, but Avner rejects the offer. In the movie's final scene, in a playground in Gantry Plaza State Park across the East River from the United Nations headquarters building, Avner asks Ephraim to join for dinner, because "it is written somewhere I should invite you to break bread with me." Ephraim pauses, declines and leaves. Avner turns to go as well, and the camera pans to a shot of the New York City skyline, including the World Trade Center.

A postscript states: "Ultimately, nine of the eleven Palestinian men originally targeted for assassination were killed." It adds that Salameh was eventually killed in 1979.

[edit] Critical reaction

Unlike many of Spielberg's films, Munich proved to be controversial and highly polarizing among critics. It garnered a 77% favorable rating from critics (per Rotten Tomatoes), though its "cream of the crop" rating was lower at 59%. Roger Ebert praised the film, saying that "With this film (Spielberg) has dramatically opened a wider dialogue, helping to make the inarguable into the debatable." [8][9] and placed it at #3 on his top ten list of 2005.[10] James Berardinelli wrote that "Munich is an eye-opener - a motion picture that asks difficult questions, presents well-developed characters, and keeps us white-knuckled throughout." He named it the best film of the year[11]; it was the only movie in 2005 which he gave four stars, and he also put it on his Top 100 Films of All Time list. Entertainment Weekly movie critic Owen Gleiberman said that Munich was the #1 film of 2005. Rex Reed from New York Observer belongs to the group of critics who didn't like the movie: "With no heart, no ideology and not much intellectual debate, Munich is a big disappointment, and something of a bore."[12]

Variety magazine reviewer Todd McCarthy called Munich a "beautifully made" film. He criticized the film for failing to include "compelling" characters, and for its use of laborious plotting and a "flabby script." McCarthy says that the film turns into "...a lumpy and overlong morality play on a failed thriller template." To succeed, McCarthy states that Spielberg would have needed to implicate the viewer in the assassin squad leader's growing crisis of conscience and create a more "sustain(ed) intellectual interest" for the viewer.[13]

Chicago Tribune reviewer Allison Benedikt calls Munich a "competent thriller", but laments that as an "intellectual pursuit, it is little more than a pretty prism through which superficial Jewish guilt and generalized Palestinian nationalism" are made to "... look like the product of serious soul-searching." Benedikt states that Spielberg's treatment of the film's "dense and complicated" subject matter can be summed up as "Palestinians want a homeland, Israelis have to protect theirs." She rhetorically asks: "Do we need another handsome, well-assembled, entertaining movie to prove that we all bleed red?"[14]

Another all-round critique, with attention to relations between fictive film and true history, and to Spielberg and especially Kushner's feeling that the Palestinian terrorists and the Mossad agents are morally equivalent, is Gabriel Schoenfeld's "Spielberg's 'Munich'" in the February 2006 issue of conservative Commentary magazine. His conclusion: "The movie deserves an Oscar in one category only: most pernicious film of the year."

The film ended up receiving five Academy Award nominations, including the coveted Best Picture, but did not win any awards.

[edit] Controversies

Some reviewers have criticized Munich for what they call the film's equating the Israeli assassins with terrorists.[15] Leon Wieseltier wrote in The New Republic, "... Worse, 'Munich' prefers a discussion of counter-terrorism to a discussion of terrorism; or it thinks that they are the same discussion".[16][17]

Melman and other critics of the book and the film have said that the story's premise—that Israeli agents had second thoughts about their work—is not supported by interviews or public statements. A retired head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service, Avi Dichter, currently the Internal Security Minister, likened Munich to a children's adventure story: "There is no comparison between what you see in the movie and how it works in reality," he said in an interview with Reuters.[18] In a Time Magazine cover story about the film on December 4, 2005, Spielberg said that the source of the film had second thoughts about his actions. "There is something about killing people at close range that is excruciating," Spielberg said. "It's bound to try a man's soul." Of the real Avner, Spielberg says, "I don’t think he will ever find peace."[19]

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), describing itself as "the oldest, and one of the largest, pro-Israel and Zionist organizations in the United States", called for a boycott of the film on December 27, 2005.[20] The ZOA criticized the factual basis of the film, and leveled criticism at one of the screenwriters, Tony Kushner, who the ZOA has described as an "Israel-hater".[21] Criticism was also directed at the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) National Director, Abraham Foxman for his support of the film.[20] The BBC World News review accused the film of being too impartial, being "too balanced" and refusing to take a side to the point where it had no clear message.[citation needed]

The film has had several defenders. Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic Roger Ebert defended the film in his review by stating that "by not taking sides, he [Spielberg] has taken both sides."[9] Several of the film's defenders state that the film was never meant to offer truth but merely raise debate on the issues touched upon in the film and to also draw attention to today's events. James Berardinelli, who named the film the best of 2005 stated that "Spielberg asks, but cannot answer, a key question: Is a war against terrorism winnable? We would like to think the answer is 'yes'. It would help us sleep better at night. But Munich points out a sobering truth: for every terrorist killed, there is another – possibly a worse one – waiting to take his place."[11]

A Channel 4 documentary broadcast in Britain in January of 2006 called "Munich: Mossad's Revenge" includes the accounts of men the producers claim are retired Mossad agents who participated in Operation Wrath of God, accounts that diverge considerably from the story as Spielberg recounts it. Among the main discrepancies include the claim that the assassination operation broke down not because, as the film suggests, the members of the team lost their nerve, but rather because of the Lillehammer affair in which a team of Mossad agents pursuing Ali Hassan Salameh misidentified their target and instead shot and killed an innocent waiter named Ahmed Bouchiki, causing an enormous international backlash and the conviction for murder of five Israeli agents, who received negligible prison terms and returned to Israel within less than two years. Atlantic Productions, who made the Channel 4 documentary, notes that "Spielberg does not even mention Lillehammer."[22] However, it can be interpreted that he made an allusion to it in the last assassination attempt scene against Salameh, when Steve tells Avner that he "has to be sure" the target is Salameh.

David Edelstein of Slate argued that "The Israeli government and many conservative and pro-Israeli commentators have lambasted the film for naiveté, for implying that governments should never retaliate. But an expression of uncertainty and disgust is not the same as one of outright denunciation. What Munich does say – and what I find irrefutable – is that this shortsighted tit-for-tat can produce a kind of insanity, both individual and collective."[23]

[edit] Historical authenticity

Although Munich is a work of fiction, it describes many actual events and figures from the early 1970s. On the Israeli side, Prime Minister Golda Meir is depicted in the film, and other military and political leaders such as Attorney General Meir Shamgar, Mossad chief Zvi Zamir and Aman chief Aharon Yariv are also depicted. The filmmaker has also tried to make the depiction of the hostage-taking and killing of the Israeli athletes historically authentic.[24] Unlike the earlier film, 21 Hours at Munich, Spielberg's film depicts the shooting of all the Israeli athletes, which according to the autopsies was accurate. In addition, the film uses actual news clips shot during the hostage situation.

The named members of Black September, and their deaths, are also mostly factual. Abdel Wael Zwaiter, a translator at the Libyan embassy in Rome, was shot 11 times, one bullet for each of the victims of the Munich Massacre, in the lobby of his apartment 41 days after Munich. On December 8 of that year Mahmoud Hamshiri, a senior PLO figure, was killed in Paris by a bomb concealed in the table below his telephone, though the film depicts the bomb being concealed in the telephone itself, other details of the assassination (such as confirmation of the target via telephone call) are accurate. Others killed during this period include Mohammed Boudia, Basil al-Kubasi, Abad al-Chir, Zaid Muchassi, some of whose deaths are depicted in the film. Ali Hassan Salameh was also a real person, and a prominent member of Black September. He was killed by car bomb in Beirut in 1979.[25]

The commando raid in Beirut, known as Operation Spring of Youth, also occurred. This attack included future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is portrayed by name in the film. The methods used to track down and assassinate the Black September members were much more complicated than the methods portrayed in the film; for example, the tracking of the Black September cell members was achieved by a network of Mossad agents, not a shadowy informant as depicted in the film.

[edit] Cast

Actor Role
Eric Bana Avner Kaufman
Daniel Craig Steve
Ciarán Hinds Carl
Mathieu Kassovitz Robert
Hanns Zischler Hans
Ayelet Zurer Daphna Kaufman
Geoffrey Rush Ephraim
Gila Almagor Avner's Mother
Michael Lonsdale Papa
Mathieu Amalric Louis
Moritz Bleibtreu Andreas
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi Sylvie
Meret Becker Yvonne
Marie-Josée Croze Jeanette (the Dutch Assassin)
Yvan Attal Tony
Ami Weinberg Major General Zvi Zamir
Lynn Cohen Prime Minister Golda Meir
Amos Lavi General Aharon Yariv
Moshe Ivgy Mike Harari
Michael Warshaviak Attorney General Meir Shamgar

[edit] Awards and Nominations

[edit] Won

[edit] Nominated

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sword of Gideon (1986). IMDb. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  2. ^ The Malta Connection. An Encyclopedia of Film and Cinema. Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
  3. ^ From the Mailbag (I): Apologize to Steven Spielberg, or Else!. Pestiside.hu. All Hungary Media Group (2005-09-02). Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
  4. ^ The Pictures Steven Spielberg Doesn't Want You to See. Pestiside.hu. All Hungary Media Group (2005-08-12). Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
  5. ^ Mid-Day Reality Check: Spielberg Helicopter in Death Fireball!. Pestiside.hu. All Hungary Media Group (2005-09-14). Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
  6. ^ Munich (2005) - Filming locations
  7. ^ Munich (2005). boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  8. ^ Roger Ebert. "A telephone call with Spielberg", Chicago Sun-Times, December 25, 2005. 
  9. ^ a b Roger Ebert. "Reviews: Munich", Chicago Sun-Times, 2005-12-22. 
  10. ^ Roger Ebert. "Ebert's Best 10 Movies of 2005", Chicago Sun-Times, December 18, 2005. 
  11. ^ a b James Berardinelli (2005). Munich review. reelviews.net. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  12. ^ Rex Reed. "Pierce My Heart! 007 is The Matador", The New York Observer, December 26, 2005. 
  13. ^ Todd McCarthy. "Munich Review", Variety, December 9, 2005. 
  14. ^ Allison Benedikt. "Movie review: Munich", Chicago Tribune, August 31, 2007. 
  15. ^ Ain, Stewart (2005-12-16). 'Munich' Refuels Debate Over Moral Equivalency. The Jewish Week. Retrieved on 2007-01-06.
  16. ^ Wieseltier, Leon (December 19, 2005). "Hits". The New Republic 233 (4,744): 38. 
  17. ^ thejewishweek.com
  18. ^ "Sharon's aide helps Spielberg promote controversial film", The Guardian, December 19, 2005. 
  19. ^ Richard Schickel. "Spielberg Takes on Terror", TIME, December 4, 2005. 
  20. ^ a b Zionist Organization of America (December 27, 2005). "ZOA: Don't See Spielberg's 'Munich' Unless You Like Humanizing Terrorists & Dehumanizing Israelis". Press release.
  21. ^ Zionist Organization of America (May 5, 2006). "Playwright Tony Kushner Supports Boycotting And Divesting From Israel – Yet Brandeis U. Is Honoring Him". Press release.
  22. ^ Ewen MacAskill and Ian Black. "Munich: Mossad breaks cover", The Guardian, January 26, 2006. 
  23. ^ David Edelstein. "Death of a Hit Man", Slate, December 22, 2005. 
  24. ^ Note: Israeli actor Gur Weinberg, one month old in September 1972 was used to portray his father Moshe, the wrestling coach and first hostage killed.
  25. ^ Harari Evidence
  • Richard Girling "A Thirst for Vengeance: The Real Story behind Munich". The Sunday Times. January 15, 2006

[edit] External links

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Films directed by Steven Spielberg
1970s
The Sugarland Express (1974)  · Jaws (1975)  · Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)  · 1941 (1979)
1980s
1990s
Hook (1991)  · Jurassic Park (1993)  · Schindler's List (1993)  · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)  · Amistad (1997)  · Saving Private Ryan (1998)
2000s
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