(Credit: Amazon.com)
Directed by
Steven Spielberg
Cast:
Eric Bana …. Avner
Daniel Craig …. Steve
Ciarán Hinds …. Carl
Mathieu Kassovitz …. Robert
Hanns Zischler …. Hans
Ayelet Zurer …. Daphna (as Ayelet Zurer)
Geoffrey Rush …. Ephraim
Gila Almagor …. Avner’s Mother
Michael Lonsdale …. Papa
Mathieu Amalric …. Louis
Moritz Bleibtreu …. Andreas
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi …. Sylvie
Meret Becker …. Yvonne
Marie-Josée Croze …. Jeanette the Dutch Assassin
Yvan Attal …. Tony – Andreas’ Friend
Ami Weinberg …. General Zamir
Lynn Cohen …. Golda Meir
The Movie:
After the enormous success of Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in the late 1970’s, Steven Spielberg planned on putting his stamp on one of the greatest franchises of all time by directing a James Bond film. Of course, we all know that didn’t happen because of intervention from George Lucas and Spielberg ended up making one of the Holy Grails of fandom with Raiders of the Lost Ark instead. In 2005, Spielberg finally returned to the Spy movie genre, but not as the fun loving Spielberg of The Indiana Jones Trilogy or Jurassic Park fame. With Munich folks looking for an all out action fest, similar to Bond or Bourne will find only disappointment, as his latest epic is closer in tone to his WWII epics, Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, than to his mainstream popcorn fair. Based on the book Vengeance, by George Jonas, those patient enough of to see what Spielberg was able to accomplish with this adaptation will be rewarded with what was maybe the best movie of 2005.
Eric Bana’s Avner is not a super agent, like Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt. He’s just a security man, wanting to start a family. In many ways he’s a typical Spielberg hero. He’s lived with his parents’ marital strife his entire life, and has to live with the “hero” status of his father while trying to carve out his own career with Mossad, or Israeli Intelligence. His peaceful existence is turned upside down after the events of the Munich Olympics of 1972 where a terrorist group named Black September massacred 11 Israeli athletes. Although he is not an experienced field agent, when he is asked by Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) to lead a team of assassins that will take revenge on Black September, he’s unable to refuse the task.
In the hands of a novice or flashy director Munich would have come out preachy or uninteresting. With Spielberg at the helm, the film blossoms under a wave of humanity. These five men charged with this “eye for an eye” agenda by their homeland try to suppress their natural instincts, and become the cold blooded killers their leaders demand in the name of patriotism. They kill men without even seeing proof that they were party to Munich killings, but cannot stop the weight of their own morality.
Though the film takes the form of a Spy Thriller, unexpectedly Spielberg raises the stakes by quite often making men being targeted very likable. This is not a video game or exercise, with our heroes taking out faceless villains by the score. Munich’s violence has consequences, not just for the victims, but for Avner’s men as well. One sequence, with Avner speaking to a man on a balcony, after his team has already planted a bomb in his bed, is heartbreaking to behold. Another, when the young daughter of a target is accidentally thrown into the crossfire is a breathtaking sequence as the men try desperately to stop the death of an innocent.
Stylistically, Munich is also a departure for Spielberg. Much like the director aped a WWII documentary style for Schindler’s List, Munich has a feel akin to much of the gritty Crime films of the 1970’s. Helped immensely by Janusz Kaminski, whose use of different filters, a lot of handheld and long close-ups make the film feel genuine in its period, and a haunting score by John Williams, this is another leap forward for a director who has earned as many accolades as any has before him. It is because of these stalwart creators that Munich feels much closer to The French Connection and Serpico than it does to Minority Report.
On top of Spielberg’s most memorable direction in years, the film is filled to the brim with haunting performances. Eric Bana was horribly overlooked when Oscar season rolled around at the end of last year. This is still my favorite performance of 2005, even after seeing Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s mastery in Capote. You can see the pain in his face as he has to sacrifice his own decency so Israel can have its vengeance. Bana makes it easy to get caught up in his desperation and paranoia build as he begins to fear for his life and that of his family’s. Avner gets patted on the back by all those around him, from his bosses to his own mother, but all the operation does is make him feel as if he has no home to go to and no purpose other than murder. Bana shows such a range here, that it’s such a shame that it wasn’t more celebrated.
The rest of the cast is also quite superb. Each of the five team members is quite distinct with their own quirky personality. They all jell nicely at first, but they scramble to keep it together as the gravity of the situation becomes clearer. Mathieu Kassovitz’s Robert is the conscience of the team. As a toy maker who now has to make bombs, he doesn’t realize the emotional toll that this assignment will take on him. Daniel Craig’s Steve gives him a great test run for Bond as the team’s getaway driver and the one with the most bloodlust. He’s the Han Solo of the group, constantly itching for a fight, wanting urgently to get his gun off. As Hans, Hanns Zischler seems like a sweet old man, but has moments of zealotry that shock and disturb us. Ciarán Hinds’ Carl is perhaps the character that most will remember after Avner’s. He’s extremely charming, and undeniably cool as the team’s cleanup man, but can’t help it when he questions their missions openly.
If this were a Bond film, then Geoffrey Rush’s Ephraim would be “M”. He’s the Mossad contact for Avner, full of mystery and a real darkness just under the surface. Spielberg even cast a former Bond villain in Michael Lonsdale as leader of a group who gives info to Avner’s team. This is wonderful performance, as he provides a pseudo-father figure for Avner and totally commands every scene he occupies.
Munich is a thought provoking masterpiece from top to bottom. Spielberg sucks you in by trying to make you feel comfortable within the confines of a Spy film, and then whacks you over the side of the head with an emotional wallop that’s hard to let go of. I know for myself, after memory of the feud between Crash and Brokeback has faded, Munich will still be with me. This is a challenging, beautiful film that has the director at the top of his game.
STORY: 10/10
ACTING: 10/10
ORIGINALITY: 9.5/10
LOOK/FEEL: 10/10
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 10/10
TOTAL POINTS: 49.5/50
FINAL MOVIE SCORE: 10
The DVD:
The Video
Absolutely lovely print here on this disc, which does a wonderful job of highlighting Janusz Kaminski’s beautiful cinematography. It’s so nice to see Spielberg shoot in scope, as the last few years he hasn’t give us a full widescreen very often. Anyway, as I’d said before, this is a beautiful print. The film is presented in Anamorphic Widescreen with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
The Audio
John Williams is also done justice, as his thumping, beat driven score really gets the adrenaline going in a Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix.
SPECIAL FEATURES: Video Introduction, Feature Length-Seven Part Documentary.
Video Introduction by Steven Spielberg – The director gives a heartfelt introduction to why this picture was so important to him.
Munich: The Mission, The Team – All in all, these seven parts run about an hour and a half in length. This portion features a look at the film’s story, and what the mission was about. It also takes a look the different members of the team and how they came together. As is the same with the rest of the chapters, this features a lot of interviews with the cast and crew. Honestly, this is the least of the sections.
Munich: Memories of the Event – This features a lot of testimonials by the cast and crew, who each describe how the Munich event impacted them. Spielberg goes very much in depth, speaking about where he was where the event started and how it affected him emotionally. This section has a lot of news and documentary footage from the era, and is pretty heartbreaking to watch.
Munich: Portrait of an Era – This goes over how much work went into making
Munich as authentic as possible when it came to recreating the 1970’s. Costume Designer Joanna Johnston did a wonderful job, especially with evolution of Avner’s look. Watching it, you finally realize how much time was spent making each character and extra from this globetrotting film look great. Production Designer Rick Carter also had to make sets and dress modern locations to make them look period as well, which looks to have been quite difficult. This goes over how they had to take a local skating rink in Budapest and turn it into a sound studio, as all other stages in the area where they filmed were already taken up. What is also very interesting is a section on how Spielberg and Kaminski had Budapest stand in for several locations, including Paris, London, and Lebanon just by going a few blocks or using a different color scheme. This is absolutely brilliant film making.
Munich: The On-Set Experience – This goes in depth on the difficulty of the shoot, even though Spielberg was able to March through and get the picture done under schedule. This is really good stuff here, as the cast and crew had to really jell to make this film work and knew how important this film was.
Munich: The International Cast – This is a really moving account of how many nationalities had to come together to make this film. Moshe Weinberg, one of the coaches killed in the Munich massacre is portrayed in the film by Guri Weinberg, his son who happened to be 1 month old at the time of his father’s death. The mind boggles at how important this must have been for the actor, trying to maybe find some sort of catharsis in his father’s passing. It’s very touching to see all the nationalities pull together to get this picture done, whether Arab, Jew, American, Australian, or German. You can see what a joy it was for all these people to put their hearts and minds together.
Munich: Editing, Sound and Music – Composer John Williams and Editor Michael Kahn are featured here as each are incredibly important to the success of this picture and pulled it off with flying colors. This is the only either is really discussed and its nice that they get some recognition.
Score: 8.0/10
