Munich

a good movie that talks about the Munich Olympics. And it also gave lights to the Israel, philistines, Syrian wars . Good story tbh. A 6.6/10

This movie was just incredible! I didn't know if I would like it, but I'm so grateful that I saw it! It was intense and so filled with emotion. You have to be in the mood for something deep, it's definitely not a light movie. It was like a documentary, with all the news clips and so on. We always see things on the news about the fighting and the hatred, but this movie shows us a glimpse of the actual people who are affected and their emotions. It's not a typical Hollywood movie, at ALL. I didn't even know that it was a Spielberg movie until the very end, and I'm glad I didn't know. It was just such a "real" movie, not fake or dramatic or forced. It was like you were watching a real man going through real experiences, and you never feel like you're taking sides, you just get lost in the hopelessness of it all. Although you feel like the situation is hopeless, you don't feel like the movie was a waste of time, because this is a real conflict in the world, and you just feel a little more informed, and thankful for that. The movie was so interesting and deep, I hope that everyone will go see it.

The movie can really be summed up in one line that the wife of the main protagonist, Azner, says after just one of the movies excruciatingly painful clichés. "You're my home", says Azner. "Stop it, that's corny" she replies and the whole movie is a cliché-ridden, corny abomination. After struggling to prevent myself leaving the cinema within the first ten minutes I found myself repeating just that line in my head as I struggled through the unwieldy and overblown three hours that make up the "Munich" "epic". The length is pretty incomprehensible and completely unjustifiable as Spielberg goes in for innumerate lengthy pans on the characters faces which reveal precisely nothing (the worst scene being a completely comical flashback scene as Azner has sex with his wife whilst being "haunted" by the events in Munich he didn't actually see) and includes gratuitous panoramic views of nearly every city in the world. With a terrible script to work from (speaking other languages I wasn't spared from the awfulness of the dialogue in German or French) the actors managed to match it with their delivery. Identification with any of the characters was completely impossible as Spielberg regularly and cringe-worthily tried to dip into the "buddy movie" genre with dialogues between the "crack team" of Israeli operators (about as crack as a WI reunion). The dinner they enjoyed together with awful banter flowing across the table about being toy-makers or furniture dealers sat very awkwardly with feeble jokes about receipts and the role of the South African (I don't look forward to the next James Bond film if that performance is anything to go by) was a mystery to everyone including the actor himself. Well, I can't even begin to emphasise how boring, how much of a waste of time and how completely unengaging this film was, but if you liked Troy (also starring Azner as Hector) and other abominations of movies of a similar ilk then run to the cinemas, throw over your money and take in yet another slice of Hollywood tripe masquerading as an artistic and thought provoking work.

I don't think I say something that you wont know from reading the description of the movie but I prefer putting the spoiler alert just in case. What if a German had made a movie about courageous Nazi soldiers who bravely pursue and kill few Jews who dared defy the Reich ? Do you think it would have been nominated for academy awards ? (lol) From my point of view this movie is an insult to the Palestinians who are still struggling to get all that was taken from them ... This is a good example that history is written by the victors... If you don't know or care about the Palestinian situation you may enjoy this movie.

Having been instructed to sit down and view this film by one of its admirers I prepared myself to be told a good story about an historical event. As the movie unreeled, however, I found I was treated to a shameful falsification of history and what looked more like a propaganda tool for the Israeli government than a true story. Mr Spielberg began his tale by eliminating a rather telling point: the reason why these militants decided to do what they did at Munich. That reason being the continued unrelenting bombing of innocent civilians in refugee camps by the Israeli military. When people see their innocent loved ones blown to bits they tend to get a little upset and want to have vengeance. The dehumanizing way the Palestinians are depicted in this film, as if they are nothing but dirt under the fingernails, is sharply contrasted by the hilariously "noble" depictions of the Israeli assassins, even showing their concerned wives and children (do not the Palestinians have wives and children?). After awhile it was simply too much to bear and I felt sullied by having to sit through such rubbish, complete with sex and violence, made by a director who has never been known for taste, subtlety, story-telling ability or good judgment. I cannot recommend this movie to anyone at all, certainly not to anyone who is interested in the truth of this matter.

Munich may just be Spielberg's greatest accomplishment ever and it isn't a sweeping epic like you'd expect, but a patient psychological thriller that sneaks up on you and takes you and shakes you. It not shy away from blood, politics or nudity in its portrayal of events and this makes it extremely intense, absorbing and occasionally very violent. The first half of Münich is not altogether different from a heist drama; a group of diverse men with different skills team up to accomplish a mission. They get to travel across Europe, make deals, infiltrate suspect facilities and manufacture explosive devices. Unlike heist films, however, their mission is not for personal gain, but for the government. They are to assassinate eleven Arabs who were alleged to be behind terrorist attacks like Münich 1972. So the more accessible part of the film sees Bana and his men botch their way through a hit-list as inexperienced hit-men, fumbling and trembling with the weight of this somber new task. This part is so extraordinarily well-handled and engaging with a tone so tense and shadowed by politics and ethical dilemmas that every slight pause is mistaken for humour. It is also an excellent portrayal of an era - the 1970s - with great eye for detail, all carefully sewn together by a master tailor (Spielberg). It is a fantastic piece of film-making. While Munich keeps you interested throughout, it gradually loses its fresh thriller edge by opting for more typical scenarios. Eric Bana's character goes through emotional struggles because he finds it too hard to kill people. He thinks about his family--his wife has just had a baby girl. He wonders if he is doing the right thing. He starts sympathizing with the Arabs. He wonders if they killings will stop once he has completed his mission. Everything is classic and you saw it coming. It needs to be present in the film for a balanced portrayal but the hackneyed formula with which it is expressed is disappointing. It started so promising, after all. Sadly, the culmination of this slightly hackneyed recipe manifests itself in the final scene of the film and it is absolutely dreadful and drags the whole film down by at least one star - but overall this is superb quality that is carried by a strong ensemble cast (Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig) although it is ultimately Bana's show. He captures the inner turmoil and hesitation of his character in the most believable way, making Munich into a worthwhile adventure for its performances alone. But most importantly, it dares to asks questions. 8/10

Munich is getting extremely mixed reviews -- from a coronation by Roger Ebert to a trashing from Anthony Lane. My response is somewhere between the two. As a thriller, it is a little predictable for three hours, I accept that. Nevertheless, I've rarely shared a character's (Bana's character's) sense of being hunted before in a movie. Yes, it's a little heavy hitting on the sermonic/moralising side -- but it is Spielberg, and you expect a little didactic direction there. The last scene, with the appearance of the World Trade Center (it's 1972) hammers the 9/11 commentary in a little too much for my liking. For minutes leading up to it, it was obvious that the two characters would end their dialogue with the twin towers in view. I was sitting in the theatre thinking, okay, pan a little more to the right, bring them in ... that's it ... there you go! And then there's the much discussed final sex scene between bana's character and his wife. inter-cut with images of the Munich killings. I interpreted this to be a comment on the endless cycle of violeve: go forth and multiply, the biblical Israel is told, and with every new child is born another subject of generational hatred and the need for vengeance. Others have interpreted this scene more "redemptively" -- new life entering the world, the morning after the darkest night, etc. Overall, it's a good, possibly important, film which misses some opportunities for subtlety and implied comment. Tony Kushner's role seems to have been to polish -- and he had literally only weeks to do that. An original screenplay from Kushner would have improved this considerably. That's not to give the movie a slating: i'd recommend it to anyone, and it has to be considered for some awards. The inevitable controversy in the U.S. about anti-semitism in the film is simply beyond stupid and beyond contempt.

What should have been an uneventful Olympics in Munich, 1972, became the bloodshed that unfolded like a Moebius strip and unleashed even more blood unto the world. On September 5, 1972, eight Palestinian terrorists killed two Israeli athletes, kidnapped nine more, and asked for safe passage out of Germany and the subsequent liberation of Arab prisoners in Israeli and German prisons. Once at the airport they encountered resistance from the German authorities, and in a scuffle, all of the other nine hostages were killed. This led to the Israeli government to have the Mossad -- Israel's intelligence agency -- track down and kill every terrorist responsible for the killings. For this they hired one of Golda Meir's bodyguards, known as Avner, put him in a special ops team, and gave them minimal information about these terrorists. Avner on his own is able to strike back at the "supposed" terrorists via the appearance of a shady Parisian named Louie, but as the assignments become more and more difficult, he wonders if it is all worth it, and once his own team gets decimated by counter-agents, he wonders if behind every terrorist there is a even more dangerous one just waiting in the wings with ways to get back at him and his family. Steven Spielberg is at his best when not directing sci-fi movies. The world of 1972 hasn't changed a bit then from now: when one sees the events of September 11, 2001 (and the World Trade Center inserted into the New York City skyline right at the final scene), and the political interests which led to their horrific unfolding on American soil -- once a concept thought unthinkable -- it becomes food for thought if behind every Saddam, every Osama, there aren't tens, if not hundreds, waiting, with more reasons to hate the Western world for butting their heads in their business. Avner, while a minion of Israel, ponders these things, and is himself terrorized when he comes to America to live a life away from the madness he was involved in: namely, the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine, both fighting for what they consider home. As one PLO member effectively says: "Home is all we know." No right, no wrong, but a grey middle is the prevalent tone in MUNICH. While re-enacting a swift retribution against those who destroy order would be the thing to do, what does it solve? Spielberg doesn't say. What he does do is create an increasing, nail-biting suspense that Hitchcock himself would have loved -- and this film, reminiscent itself of SABOTAGE, is proof that terror and mayhem at the hands of subversives is still a thing of now as much as then and that innocents are always on hand to pay with the intended victims. One sequence, as the foursome wait for their first target to pick up the phone but find that his young daughter has not left the house yet, is incredibly powerful. Another one is when Avner waits for a bomb to go off in the room beside him. Nothing is ever clean and easy in the real world, and even bombers can never really know what to expect from their toys, and all one can do is wait and wait and wait. MUNICH has strong performances all throughout. Eric Bana is tortured as Avner, a man who only wants to be with his wife and young daughter and cannot escape the horrors he has seen. Geoffrey Rush, Ciaran Hinds, Daniel Craig, Mathieu Kassovitz, Lynn Cohen, Hans Ziechler, Michael Lonsdale, and Mathieu Amalric all supply great support in a well-rounded cast and flesh out great characters in this excellent, if morally ambiguous story.

I lived in Munich in 1972, so I wanted to see this movie. I understand that the movie is only loosely based on actual events and the rest is based on a fictional book. I understand that Spielberg wanted to give us a message that violence against violence will create more violence. But did he have to make that movie so boring? I do not like to see violent movies but in some instances it may be necessary to make a point. But I see no point in showing a bleeding completely naked woman as long as possible, but for some sick gratification. I also found the copulation scene at the end a step in the wrong artistic direction. There was really nothing in the movie which could hold my attention. And I should have been fascinated because I practically knew every location they showed. Maybe Spielberg should think about retiring? I heard that no attempt was made by Spielberg or Kushner to contact anybody who was actually involved in Israel. Why make a movie and use on one side actual material and then make no attempt to try to portray the truth and facts? At least this movie did not get much attention at the Oscar nods.

Another dip in the Spielberg pool and I come away drenched in emotion. I was a freshman in high school in Texas during the Munich games. I was stunned by the events and understood little. Today, I am still stunned by Munich and every terrorist act that followed, but I understand so much more and grieve. Spielberg gives us a powerful glimpse into the meaning of home, family, honor, history, ethics, and faith. The movie is not about the Jews and Arabs. It's about human beings. It's about us. The narrative is driven by our connection to Avner. We watch as Eric Bana opens himself up in a way that the likes of a George Clooney in Syriana only dreams of. This is a must see.