Note: The opinions below are just that, opinions. The opinions aren't meant to start a whole Israel and Arab/Palestinian discussion or who did what where. The opinions also aren't intended to insult either Israeli's or Palestinians/Arabs. I hate you all equally just as much as I hate myself, so let's try to be adults and just talk about the movie and its features, mkay? Thank you. [/i]
Okay so I saw it thinking that I was going to see yet another Jewish Spielberg movie promoting Judaism and trying to justify Isreal's place in the world and all that **** that gets re-hashed over and over and over again. I wouldn't mind it, seeing how The Man does know how to make a good film once in a while, and I was willing to let go of the whole weird merger with the scientologist couch-hopper to create that abysmal War of the Worlds travesty. I mean as much as I disliked the Schindler's List for being a Jewish pity party with a full string quartet in the background, the movie WAS a masterpiece regardless of the message, and it was all done properly making it a film to be worth seeing as far as I was concerned.
Okay so Munich.
I've been looking at other reviews before seeing it, all of them were full of praise, and how the Palestinian vs Jewish conflict isn't at all the focal point, that you should go in to see the movie by placing all of your judgements and beliefs at the door before seeing it, and how awesome it is. Okay. Sounds good enough, but I still expected it to glorify Jews, I mean, I didn't think Spielberg could help it.
I was wrong. Now that I've seen it, two words can describe this movie.
****ing boring.
At the one and a half hour mark I was begging Spielberg to tell me how Jews are awesome. Like literally. I wanted to accept the Jews as my god overlords just so he would have mercy on me and roll the ending credits.
But no such luck for me. I don't mean to insult the dead or disrespect them, but really, tons of people die every day, so I guess I just don't put that much weight onto it, especially when it's used as a story stepping stone for a boring movie.
This is the way I saw the movie:
The movie deals with a five man team that works or has worked (however the hell you want to look at it) for the Mossad aka Israel, and they're tasked with killing the eleven Palestinian Black September members who supposedly planned the Munich 1972 Olympic killings. The movie shows the team and how they go about their kills, especially the main Eric Bana character who is the team leader.
The whole thing devolves into a message about how the Israeli's and Palestinians are both to blame for their actions that usually or always result in murder, and how both sides are the same, be they with terroristic or counter-terroristic intentions, which is sort of the main point of the movie I guess, and doesn't quite reflect reality on any stretch of the imagination. I would have preferred the fantasy setting of glorifying Israel and the Jews, and denouncing the Palestinians because that would've been far more fun.
But noooooooooooooo. Two hours and thirty minutes of "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he
himself does not become a monster" or the simpler version "If you lie in bed with children you wake up pissed all over". I needed to spend 2.5 hours just to see those two sentences in action.
It all ends with the poor team leader suffering mentally from his actions, the images of the 1972 Olympic Games massacre intertwining with the scenes in which he ejaculates his semen into his wife, therefore mathematically (I am master mathematician) equating the 1972 killings with an orgasm. Okay so maybe that wasn't the point of the scene, but it very well might be (don't look at me, I didn't film it or edit it) because I was so bored, that's the only amusing outcome.
Positive points? The movie is very good if we're to consider the transition (this is where Direction really shines, I'll give it that) to the seventies. Everything that was done to achieve the movie looking as if it was taking place in the seventies - awesome. I noticed it every step of the way, yes, that looked like the seventies even though I wasn't born in that time.
The actors are also all very good. Geoffrey Rush and Bana were very good casts for their roles and they are very good no doubt about that. The only thing that kept me awake was them really.
So conclusion?
If you read this before seeing it, I suggest not wasting your time or money. Wait for something better from Spielberg.
The thing that gets me though is that Israel and Jewish critics denounce the film as complete fiction and sensless bull****, which sort of I guess means that Spielberg actually went against his "family" in order to make a sacrifice? for telling a movie in a manner not-so-idealising-his-own-blood. Okay, I respect that. But Man, really, at least make that sacrifice with an interesting movie. This boring horse**** just wasn't worth the effort.
