Munich
The only reason why I watched “Munich” is because it’s directed by Steven Spielberg. It’s true, I judge movies on their directors most of the time, other than the fact that if someone actually recommends a show, I’ll then take interests. Or otherwise, the show must have a very interesting story plot (or trailer) that entices me deep, like the upcoming “Eight Below”(directed by Frank Marshall, director of Congo — another movie I loved back then) for the trailer that I’d seen earlier on.
In case you don’t know who he is and what films he directed, here’s a list of his shows I’ve watched:
- Jaws (1975),
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982),
- Hook (1991),
- Jurassic Park (1993),
- Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World (1997),
- Saving Private Ryan (1998),
- Artificial Intelligence(2001),
- Band of Brothers (2001),
- Minority Report (2002),
- War of the Worlds (2005)
I don’t know about the event prior to this movie so I can’t talk about it without sounding like a charlatan. So I’ll talk about movie in general instead.
Several things that struck me as fresh is that it was portrayed clearly the fact that unless someone’s been shot several times at once, s/he should be still able to walk a few steps before finally collapsing to one’s death. Yes, I don’t watch much movies, but this is one of the very first that is this realistic. Minor details yes, but kudos to the effort.
Another was the fact that one can never be too sure of the parameters of assasinations: like the explosives used to bomb one of the targets in his bedroom, resulting in a too powerful explosion. And the very first assasination showed newbieness and nervousness, that was pretty funny.
Besides, in this show, the point that killing begets killing was concluded for there’s no end because someone whom Avner (and his team) had killed could easily be replaced by someone even more powerful.
The hitmen were also quickly becoming weary of the assasinations and they started doubting their motives, justifying their very actions. You can almost feel them. Not every movie can bring you to the same emotional level as the characters and you know that.
And there’re many other points that I’d forgotten. Oh, and the ending scene when World Trade Center was included in the scene. I was amazed more than anything.
And like I mentioned, I know next to nothing about this event so I have no idea what happened before the event and why. I left the theater asking questions like “So what really happened?”. Kind of weird huh? But really, I can’t decide who were right, and who were wrong. It felt almost like I was watching a documentary of a real event. And that was Steven Spielberg’s job: to tell us the story of what happened after the event, and I can tell you he did a great job at that without any biaseness. Watching this movie didn’t make me feel like he wanted me to take on a side(Palestinian or the Isreali), he left it entirely up to me to decide.
But the shallow me couldn’t decide, of course.
It’s a great movie that is so political that I was surprised someone would film it (after knowing what happened, that is). And then someone came along and that man is Steven Spielberg.
Now this is a must-see if you’re into some movies that carry great food-for-thoughts because it sort of like ended abruptly without a definte (happy) conclusion. Otherwise shun this like a plague and go back to your fairy-tales where happily-ever-after is in every end.