america's critic
Added 9/11/2009
story was confusing i felt lost the entire time not much action -- this was a waste i dont reccomend this 1.
1 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Just Saw the Film a second Time
Added 8/20/2009
It is a well done film and has many aspects of the story that create great suspense, intrigue, and self questioning. My issues with the film are few but important. For instance, I am disappointed by the way in which the director creates a tie in at the end between Avner making love to his wife in Brooklyn, and the final bloody shoot out between the PLO hostage terrorists and the German police interjected in between the humping and slobbering. Eric Bana's character feels guilty and his catharsis from guilt comes from the semi violent act of making love to his wife??? Quite ridiculous and far fetched in my opinion, and clearly the only quick and easy way out of the film for the director which is running long 164 minutes, and lacking a clean, happy and realistic ending. With notable exceptions, Spielberg often leans toward unrealistic happy endings. However since he is dealing with a real story, perhaps a real ending could have been more important for the sense of reality that the film attempts to capture. In the end, his own government disappoints him when he questions the policy of going after the terrorists in the same terrorist manner that they have experienced.
One other issue has to do with the story itself. It seems pretty unbelievable that after the French informants have put them in a safe house in Greece with the Palestinian terrorists - and somehow surviving, that Avner and his associates continue to trust the informants despite being set-up by them.
Overall an important film about story that has received a lot of press but one which has put little scrutiny on the German government and people for the lousy handling of the Munich massacre that reads almost like a "how not to handle a hostage crisis". When considering the history of Germany and the jewish people, how can one not point the finger at the German government and police for their ineptitude in creating a shoot out in which no hostages were left alive. Then a few weeks later how quickly the spineless German government chose to extricate themselves from the mess they created in the first pace thru their poor security at the Munich games by deciding to hand over the 3 remaining captured terrorists to the Libyans in exchange for 12 Germans whose plane was hijacked in the middle east.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Quite a Story!
Added 8/16/2009
This is a spy thriller in essence. Based on the book Vengeance, an Israeli Body Guard to Golda Meir is engaged to assassinate conspirators in the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The main character uses many different aliases and travels throughout Europe to kill his targets. It's an intriguing story and one that was never discredited as the truth. I found the movie quite interesting but also confusing. It is difficult to completely understand what is going on but I suspect that the main character and the other Israeli agents also felt that way. The story is ambiguous in whether the mission helped Israel or harmed the country's long term peace goals. It also highlights the intractable problem these two groups - israelis and Palestinians have with each other. A very good movie to watch and learn from which can be entertaining at times, but very confusing and without a real ending - like real life.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."-Mahatma Gandhi
Added 7/30/2009
No matter how justified the intentions, no matter how a group of people was hurt or victimized, the inescapable truth remains that revenge doesn't correct a wrong.
The human message in this movie, the great acting, the conversations between enemies make it one of the best movies by Steven Speilberg.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Truth is Stranger than Fiction
Added 7/5/2009
I missed "Munich" when it was originally released but I recall the reviews at the time. As I understood it, "Munich" was criticized for being too "soft" on the Palistinians. After watching it last night, I understand that criticism somewhat but that isn't my criticism of the film.
I was 20 at the time of the horrible event at the Munich Olympics and I am surprized as to how little I knew about the details. I discovered how limited my knowledge was when I watched the excellent documentary "One Day in September". That film was electrifying and it was the unanticipated standard that emerged as I was watching "Munich". I was put on guard with the opening note "Based on an actual event" (or words to that effect). What could be more rivitting than the actual events? Well, not "Munich" as it turned out. I did not play Spielburg's introduction to the film so maybe there was something in that which could have assuaged my concerns. Nonetheless, I took heart in realizing that this movie would be about the ruthless and systematic search and destruction of the group that plotted the outrageous act. That went well until I started questioning who, what and WHY was there a family that, for a price, did all the search and location of the enemy participants. I realized right away that this had to be a fictionalized short cut that denied us the greater appreciation as to how the "good guys" were able to locate the "bad guys". I assumed, with disappointment, that it was an effort to save time on the already lengthy script. It bothered me and I couldn't let it go. It may have served in a symbolic way although I didn't get a point worthy of its' inclusion. It did give us a perspective, in time, of the hunters becoming the hunted.
Ultimately, the message I got from "Munich" was that violence is its' own reward. The individual in charge of the actual search and destruction metamorphs into a very troubled individual. The overall theme that I found is that hate met with revenge reproduces itself endlessly until a new dirrection is introduced. Tell that to the Israeli's who don't have many options to safely experiment with. There were elements of world-wide politics that were introduced to the movies and many might have caught some conspiritorial meaning in those allusions. However, I was immune to that since that French family of missing person brokers convinced me it was all fiction anyway. If you thought that "Munich" was interesting from an historical perspective, be sure and get the better (and more dramatic) reality from "One Day in September".
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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america's critic
Added 9/11/2009
story was confusing i felt lost the entire time not much action -- this was a waste i dont reccomend this 1.
1 out of 5 people found this helpful.
|
Just Saw the Film a second Time
Added 8/20/2009
It is a well done film and has many aspects of the story that create great suspense, intrigue, and self questioning. My issues with the film are few but important. For instance, I am disappointed by the way in which the director creates a tie in at the end between Avner making love to his wife in Brooklyn, and the final bloody shoot out between the PLO hostage terrorists and the German police interjected in between the humping and slobbering. Eric Bana's character feels guilty and his catharsis from guilt comes from the semi violent act of making love to his wife??? Quite ridiculous and far fetched in my opinion, and clearly the only quick and easy way out of the film for the director which is running long 164 minutes, and lacking a clean, happy and realistic ending. With notable exceptions, Spielberg often leans toward unrealistic happy endings. However since he is dealing with a real story, perhaps a real ending could have been more important for the sense of reality that the film attempts to capture. In the end, his own government disappoints him when he questions the policy of going after the terrorists in the same terrorist manner that they have experienced.
One other issue has to do with the story itself. It seems pretty unbelievable that after the French informants have put them in a safe house in Greece with the Palestinian terrorists - and somehow surviving, that Avner and his associates continue to trust the informants despite being set-up by them.
Overall an important film about story that has received a lot of press but one which has put little scrutiny on the German government and people for the lousy handling of the Munich massacre that reads almost like a "how not to handle a hostage crisis". When considering the history of Germany and the jewish people, how can one not point the finger at the German government and police for their ineptitude in creating a shoot out in which no hostages were left alive. Then a few weeks later how quickly the spineless German government chose to extricate themselves from the mess they created in the first pace thru their poor security at the Munich games by deciding to hand over the 3 remaining captured terrorists to the Libyans in exchange for 12 Germans whose plane was hijacked in the middle east.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Quite a Story!
Added 8/16/2009
This is a spy thriller in essence. Based on the book Vengeance, an Israeli Body Guard to Golda Meir is engaged to assassinate conspirators in the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The main character uses many different aliases and travels throughout Europe to kill his targets. It's an intriguing story and one that was never discredited as the truth. I found the movie quite interesting but also confusing. It is difficult to completely understand what is going on but I suspect that the main character and the other Israeli agents also felt that way. The story is ambiguous in whether the mission helped Israel or harmed the country's long term peace goals. It also highlights the intractable problem these two groups - israelis and Palestinians have with each other. A very good movie to watch and learn from which can be entertaining at times, but very confusing and without a real ending - like real life.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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