Munich **** (2005, Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Amalric, Moritz Bleibtreu, Marie-Josée Croze) – Classic Movie Review 5053

‘The world was watching in 1972 as 11 Israeli athletes were murdered at the Munich Olympics. This is the story of what happened next.’ Director Steven Spielberg’s dark, tense and sombre 2005 historical political thriller tells the story of a team of five assassins who gather in Switzerland to set out to track down and kill alleged members of Black September, who had kidnapped and assassinated 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.

Munich is written by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, based on the book Vengeance about Yuval Aviv, who says he was a Mossad agent. Eric Bana gives an excellent performance in the star role of Avner Kaufman (based on Yuval Aviv), a Mossad agent of German-Jewish descent, who is chosen to lead the assassination mission against 11 Palestinians allegedly involved in the massacre.

Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Lonsdale, Mathieu Amalric, Moritz Bleibtreu, Yvan Attal and Marie-Josée Croze (as Jeanette the Dutch Assassin) also all make a strong impression in the cast.

The film follows the story of the Operation Wrath of God, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s Government’s secret retaliation against the Palestine Liberation Organization after the Munich massacre.

Spielberg filmed on location in Malta, Budapest (Hungary), Paris and New York City. Although it works perfectly as an exciting action thriller, it is perhaps too complex and cerebral for popular taste. Despite all the excellent work, good reviews and five Oscar nominations (though no wins), it is one of Spielberg’s lowest-grossing films with a worldwide box office of $130.4 million on a cost of $70 million. It took only $47.3 million in the US. But, nevertheless, it is good to have Spielberg tackling something grown-up, meaty, serious and significant like this.

The music, composed and conducted by John Williams, was nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar but lost to Brokeback Mountain. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Visual Media Score for but lost to Memoirs of a Geisha (also scored by Williams).

It is a very adult movie, R rated for strong graphic violence, some sexual content, nudity and strong language.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5053

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