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| Sunday, 16 April 2006 |
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Movie review Munich: Justice or vengeance? by Ranga Chandrarathne Munich, a thriller by renowned director Steven Spielberg, that is now being screened at the Majestic Cinema, starts with the murder of 11 Israel athletes by suspected Palestinian guerillas at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Avner (Eric Bana), Steve (Daniel Craig), Carl (Ciaran Hinds), Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz) and other major casts play convincingly. Spielberg's talent in linear story telling is amply manifested in the film. Themes such as radical and cynical politics, terrorism and counter-terrorism, and more or less the birth of the Israel and Middle East problem is discussed in the film. The Mossad team goes from one country to another in search of their targets, and eliminating one by one, in the process, they also lose their members. Munich is a remarkable experience and the powerful evocative language and images make it a masterpiece, encompassing all the aspects of human feelings. It questions the raison d'tre behind the mission, is it justice or vengeance that the Israel seek? However powerful and successful the mission was, the main character Avner speaks the truth out, that he has to swap his soul for the mission and admits that war is not a solution for the tribulations. Each terrorist leader he eliminates, is replaced by more callous terrorists, and in the background hired assassins and other mercenary groups flourished, unscrupulous in their nature and whose bread is earned through contract murders. Spielberg dispels most critics' claim that he is pro-Israel, as he does not attribute any honour to the blood spilt of the enemies or the members of the Mossad team. Scenes like throwing the blood money on the road by the bribed hotel servant amply describes the realistic nature of terrorism, that is brindled with some sort of political course; justifiable or otherwise. Spielberg tells the world that peace is the only solution for terrorism and it could not be achieved by military means. Munich in this sense is universal and could be applied to any situation like that of Palestinian problems, and is a prayer for peace. *** 'An eye for an eye' In an interview given shortly before the release of "Munich," director Steven Spielberg discussed his film in the context of world terror today, as follows: "Somewhere inside all this intransigence, there has to be a prayer for peace."
But the main dramatic impetus of "Munich" is the retaliation on the Palestinian planners of the "Black September" massacre. The strike force is led by the character Avner, a zealous and patriotic member of Israel's Mossad. Along with Eric Bana in the role of Avner, the entire cast of "Munich" is superb. Geoffrey Rush is a standout as the Mossad handler of Avner, and in an all-too-brief scene, Lynn Cohen turns in a charismatic performance as Golda Meir. But "Munich" is not a film to discuss in terms of star performances, and much credit should go to Tony Kushner and Eric Roth for the thoughtful ensemble screenplay. The most memorable moments in the film are those involving the hit team led by Avner. In the planning and carrying out of the assassinations by a small group of men, it becomes clear that the participants are no more than ordinary people who become obsessed with killing. Thus Avner, who would prefer the domestic world of living with his wife and newborn daughter, descends into a virtual state of madness as a result of the killing frenzy. The Greek poet Aeschylus wrote one of the most expressive works of literature, on the theme of "an eye for an eye", in the revenge trilogy "Oresteia." That epic work dramatizes the culmination of the long cycle of murder within the ill-fated House of Atreus in Greek mythology. The killings finally end when the goddess Athena establishes the law court in Athens to provide human justice, as opposed to blood vengeance. Orestes succumbs to the pursuit of the furies and spirals into madness. That was the precise tragic journey of Avner, as depicted in "Munich." Mr. Spielberg's concept of "intransigence" gets to the heart of the matter in our own modern tragic experience. In the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 'intransigence' is defined as "uncompromising hostility; irreconcilability." Like the "Oresteia," the film "Munich" provides a balanced and powerful commentary on the human impulse of "an eye for an eye" revenge. The ancient Greek concept of justice meant something like "scale" or "balance" used to resolve a seemingly irreconcilable conflict. The thoughtful and powerful film "Munich" offers us the opportunity to meditate on this concept, not for the 5th century B.C. world of Aeschylus, but for our own. |
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Mossad, the powerful Israeli Intelligence Agency deployed a team of
agents led by Avner (Bana) in Europe, in a retaliatory mission to track down
and execute terrorist members known as Black September. 
I personally recall the tragic events of the 1972 Olympic games in
Munich, as I had just graduated from college and was following closely the
moving and graphic images on television, as described so vividly by
newscasters Jim McKay and Peter Jennings. The opening scene of "Munich"
recreates the attack on the dormitory, and the subsequent killing of the
athletes at the airport. Those were ten minutes of taut and riveting drama.
