Film: Munich

[Banquo]

This film is already generating controversey. From what I understand, the movie opens with the 1972 Munich hostage debacle at the Olympics. The story then follows Israeli Mossad agents as they hunt down the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the tragedy.

Knowing that this is a Spielberg film, it will undeniably have a political angle. It will present both sides, but in the end, one point of view will have an edge.

MUNICH movie poster here

A very opinionated, but interesting, posting from another message board:

So MUNICH will do something similar, making the Mossad agents a bit cuter, a bit more soul searching, a bit more regretful. Spielberg, the master manipulator, will manipulate his audience into feeling "Wow, what an even handed portrait, but I find myself disliking Palestinians a bit more than Israelis." Which will be what he intends. In Saving Private Ryan, the soldiers were cynical, and committed war crimes, but only as satisfying payback for German slaughters. When they get sniped at, one guy prays to God before miraculously getting the sniper. A big soul searching session takes place in a church. Showing mercy to A German comes back to Tom Hanks in the ass (well, kill the nice guy). A pacifist stands by in fear as a German stabs a Jew to death, the German inhumanly shushing his victim. Spielberg is a propagandist, and he will be a propagandist. Remember, he was one of the first celebrities, with Tom Cruise, who publicly came out in support of the current Iraq war! He's a racist, Pro-Israeli thug, who thinks anything against any enemy or Israel is a good thing. 2000 U.S. soldiers are dead now. Fuck Spielberg.

 

[silvia saint]

i concur with the quote. Geoffrey Rush will probably be the best thing about the film.

controversy? try making a film on the plight of the palestinians el spielbergo.

 

[keystroke]

Eric Bana :D

 

[L2R]

I've read that SS (hehehh what ironic initials) is going to lose all of the Jewish following he earned with Schindler's List by making this. I think while the quote may be correct in the handling of the mossad agents, SS will still have to portray their leaders and politicians with the immoral stroke that state sanctioned assassination is.
This has potential to be a great anti US foreign policy statement.

Anybody interested in seeing this, I recommend seeing One Day in September first.

 

[plazma]

ROTFLMAO. I've got to say, I really agree with the substance of that post from the mysterious other message board, it might be angry but damn its made all the right calls about Saving Private Ryan, cause that movie was such a crock of propagandist shit, and more disturbingly it did so in a quasi-subtle way. Subtle propaganda is always more effective and worrying than the other kind.

Its a pity that so many interesting events with a whole heap of issues to analyse are turned into fucking propaganda films. But then I suppose the studios and many directors/producers function on the idea that people don't want to have to think, but want to be told what to think.

-plaz out-

 

[silvia saint]

I've read that SS (hehehh what ironic initials).

lol. i expect someone to make the same observation about mine sooner or later.

 

[Banquo]

bad ass trailer released...

http://www.munichmovie.com/

 

[Banquo]

as much as the preachy tone of Saving Private Ryan bugged me, there are still some wonderful bits in there. my biggest problem with Spielberg is that he never makes things ambiguous. the video, the music, and the characters are always telling you what to think. there hardly ever seems to be room for viewer interpretation. anyhow, i am looking forward to Munich. even if it ends up being preachy and cliche, there will still be a collection of pretty camera shots and acceptable human drama in there somewhere.

===

Spielberg talks about film 'Munich' in magazine
04 Dec 2005 19:55:27 GMT

Source: Reuters

LOS ANGELES, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Director Steven Spielberg said his new film "Munich," the story of Israel's revenge for the killing of its athletes by Palestinian guerrillas at the 1972 Olympics, is "a prayer for peace," Time magazine reported on Sunday.

Leaders of Jewish and Muslim groups as well as diplomats and foreign policy experts will preview the film before its Dec. 23 U.S. opening but Spielberg has shied away from the media hype and costly promotional campaigns that typically precede a big-studio movie.

The magazine said its interview was the only one the Oscar-winning director planned to do before the release of the film, which focuses on Israel's response after a Palestinian group took members of its Olympic team hostage at the Munich Games. Eleven Israeli athletes, five kidnappers and one German policeman were killed.

"Somewhere inside all this intransigence there has to be a prayer for peace," Spielberg told Time, "because the biggest enemy is not the Palestinians or the Israelis. The biggest enemy in the region is intransigence."

The director also discussed another film project he is initiating in February, in which he is buying 250 video cameras and players and giving them to Israeli and Palestinian children so that they can make movies about their own lives.

"Not dramas," Spielberg said, "just little documentaries about who they are and what they believe in, who their parents are, where they go to school, what they had to eat, what movies they watch, what CDs they listen to."

Spielberg said the children will then exchange the videos with one another.

"That's the kind of thing that can be effective, I think, in simply making people understand that there aren't as many differences that divide Israelis and Palestinians. Not as human beings anyway," he said.

The director told Time he's very proud of the fact that "Munich" doesn't demonize either the Israeli or Palestinian side.

"We don't demonize our targets," Spielberg said. "They're individuals. They have families."

The movie stars Eric Bana, Daniel Craig and and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04167775.htm

 

[jackstack]

Munich

This film is Steven Spielberg's film about terrorism. It made Roger Ebert's 3rd best film of the year. Anyone looking forward to seeing it? Is it opening nationally the 23rd of this month?

 

[wanderlust]

Film: Munich (merged)

please search for a film before starting a new thread.
thanks!

merged and adding poll, also

 

[ChemicalBeauty]

Looking forward to this.

 

[IAmJacksUserName]

This has potential to be a great anti US foreign policy statement.
[/URL] first.

Except, it's not about U.S. foriegn policy.

 

[L2R]

^ no, but it is about state sanctioned international assassination. read between the lines.

 

[miss starry]

anybody seen this? is it any good?

 

[Banquo]

edit - seeing it soon. will write a full report.

 

[m885]

I just saw this today, Spielberg's a genius. People will take whatever political message they want to from this film, but it's wonderfully done and told a fascinating story.

 

[Tanuki_23]

^Just saw it yesterday. Of course the message is inspiring and heartfelt, but the story is perfect for the big screen in terms of locations. Rome, London, Tel Aviv, New York City . . . and all so inviting. Spieldberg did an amazing job, and some of the shots are so intricate and drawn out, I was amazed throughout. I also appreciate heros with a conscious. Instead of walking away from an exploding building while putting on sun glasses, these men all had major internal conflict with their duties to Israel. I voted for Syriana originally as my favorite movie, but this surpassed it pretty much all the way.

 

[miss starry]

I saw this movie last weekend, and it was definitely one of the best movies I have seen in a while. I was skeptical before seeing it, because I wasn't sure how Spielburg would portray the two sides of the conflict. Obviously with Spielburg directing I didn't think the movie would be anti-Israel, but it's so easy for people to react to these types of films and say that they're not accurate, they're biased toward one side, etc. etc.

I enjoyed the movie immensly because although the broad topic is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the movie is less political and more about inner conflicts of the main character, Avner. After Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by Palestinian terrorists, the Israeli government hires Avner as a hitman to kill the Palestinians involved in planning the attacks. Basically, the government tells him they don't know who he is; he will have money in a bank deposit box and a group of men working for him. He leaves his pregnant wife in Israel and goes on the mission. The movie follows him and his comrades plotting the killings of several Palestinians in Europe, and shows how each of them slowly becomes dishearted with the whole process. Although they're each loyal to Israel in their own ways, they all slowly start to question the point behind the killing they've been asked to do--each time they kill a terrorist six more come in his place. Do they have an obligation to kill the replacements too, or just the original names on the list? They also see the Palestinians they encounter as more than just faceless, nameless evil terrorists; they see them living their daily lives as regular people.

 

[posner]

Less heavy-handed than most of Spielberg's movies, but it didn't blow me away. I could have done without the sex/slaying montage near the end. I would recommend seeing it, though.

The message, violence begets violence, is the best part of the movie.

 

[miss starry]

Yeah, for some reason the sex scenes in this movie made me uncomforable. But I think that was the point.