a movie review by: Louise Keller

If you have ever looked suspiciously at people around you - whether they are driving in a car, waiting at an airport or walking in the street - this film will make you take an even harder look. A sobering and terrifying glimpse of a side of life that is tragically all too real, Steven Spielberg's Munich is as disturbing and complex as the many issues it raises. The horrific fact of Palestine extremists targeting members of the Israeli team at the 1972 Olympics is the starting point, and the mission to kill the perpetrators, is the chilling consequence. There are no answers, only questions, as we almost suffocate in a never-world, where anyone can be located at a price, the horrors of unbridled violence and the imminent confrontation with death, are inevitable.

Tony Kushner's screenplay gets right to the heart of the matter, where the extreme colour of politics and religion is splashed uncompromisingly, like splatter on an infinite canvas of abstract art. The enormity of the story does pose problems, however, and it is easy to become confused by characters, locations and time. Spielberg was doubtless too close to the project and unwilling to leave out details that might have served the film better, if discarded.

Eric Bana makes a convincing transformation from the 'neat, durable man' Prime Minister Golda Meir chooses as head of 'Operation Wrath of God' to the tormented, guilt-ridden family man who lives life nervously looking over his shoulder. When Bana's Avner sits at the dining table with the team of four with whom he is about to embark on a bloody mission of revenge, the jovial nature of their conversation is incongruous. They even joke about the term 'assassin' as they introduce themselves to each other, describing their skills. Mathieu Kassovitz and Hanns Zischler are especially good, and even small roles are important in the hands of Mathieu Amalric as go-between Louis and Michael Lonsdale's terrifying Papa, who runs his 'business of death', from the kitchen. Geoffrey Rush delivers as usual as the Israeli case officer Ephraim, although the casting is curious.

The graphic, unsettling violence is meant to shock us and it does. When Avner nervously shoots his first target as he heads home carrying a brown paper bag filled with groceries, it is a far cry from his last, when the notion of taking a few extra lives make little difference. The violence is on a large scale and so is the film, whose settings in Europe and the Middle East (shot in Budapest and Malta) compound its far-reaching nature. John Williams' score is as multi-faceted as the story's undertones.

Munich offers plenty to talk about. There are many scenes that resonate, like the casual banter over an apartment balcony with a target before the bomb that has carefully been inserted under his mattress goes off. And the ugly killing of the alluring Dutch 'honeypot' on a canal barge. The focus on killing is a poison that spews like venom. Spielberg has taken a topic that is so hot, we can feel the heat. And like its implications, the heat doesn't fade.

Eric Bana Photo

Geoffrey Rush Photo