Review – Munich

Spielberg’s re-creation of the terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympics is the best film-making he’s done in years, arguably the most emotionally jarring thing he ever directed. Unfortunately, it only amounts to around ten minutes’ worth of the movie’s nearly three hours of running time (and is partially intercut with one of the most awkward sex scenes in cinema history). The rest of the movie is devoted to the tale of a Mossad agent heading up a hit team charged with the task of assassinating Black September members and associates in retaliation for Munich. Early on it becomes apparent that the violence is merely begetting more violence and that the mission is a good deal more morally ambiguous than it originally seemed. The point is valid enough, but it gets made over and over again so often that one starts to wonder if the storytellers are sure it’s true. Overall the material is strong, but particularly toward the end it becomes so full of intrigue that it ceases to be intriguing. Mildly amusing