Saw Steven Spielberg’s München, a three hour tale of vengeance.
It’s a movie that describes the Israeli retaliation on the München olympic massacre. A long movie, it doesn’t rush the viewer, nor the protagonists. The magnitude of the revenge is tangible, and shown on the face of the leader of the team. Indeed, Eric Bana as the point assassin plays the part well. Starting eager and effective, but drawn to a nightmare of shifting allegiances and waning trust – his haggard face is as much an emblem of the tale as the hooded face of the Black September fedayeen from the news.
The movie moves slowly, and interludes the main plotline with both news footage as well as dramatized re-enactments from the olympic village and the infamous Fürstenfeldbruck airfield. The slow pace didn’t bother me the slightest, and felt no need to check the time – quite unlike what some other drawn out movies have caused.
The future James Bond plays his part as one of the assassins well, as does the token hippie played by Mathieu Kassovitz. All in all the almost entirely male case is almost faultless – depicting mainly dark emotions throughout the rampage. The cinematography is well done also, the seventies are realized effectively, and the Twin Towers looming in the background of the final shot is quite powerful in pushing forward the last few lines of dialogue about peace unattainable through revenge.
It’s not a happy movie. It’s not an easy movie. But it’s a worthwhile movie. Which is a lot more than can be said of Spielberg’s other recent output.