Munich
2005
**½
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz
After Arab terrorists kill 11 Israeli atheletes during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the Israeli government appoints a group of assassins to eliminate the masterminds behind this bloodbath. With his earnest drama Steven Spielberg attempts to illustrate that the cycle of revenge has no end. The intention is noble (and rather obvious), but this overlong and overreaching film fails to convince. The group begin to question their mission, not due to guilt but because they nearly botch every job and begin to fear for their own safety. Spielberg has shot the assassination set-pieces with his usual brilliance, but he ends the film on a bafflingly misjudged note by cross-cutting between the protagonist who is having sex and the athletes who are having their heads blown off. Inspired by true events and adapted from George Jonas' book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team.
