Munich ★★★★
IN 1972 the World was rocked by the terrorist attack at the Olympic Games village in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered.
Making Munich (2005) three decades later, director Steven Spielberg chose to focus on the just as deadly repercussions of the incident.
From the outset words are chosen carefully with the opening titles stating ‘inspired’ by actual events. It is a fact that all the terrorists at the scene were also killed, but the Israeli Government’s subsequent actions are understandably shrouded in secrecy or subject to conjecture.
Spielberg starts his film by throwing us into the fateful night’s events. However, this will be a truncated view of the incident to which we return later via several, more detailed flashbacks.
We then join Israeli president Golda Meir and her Cabinet who are presented as retaliating by ordering the hunting-down and summary executions of the men they believe organised the attack.
The success of this secret mission hinges on five, lower-level government agents being willing to put their lives on hold and go deep undercover in a range of countries for however long it takes without any official protection.
Chief among them is Avner, played extremely well by Eric Bana, whose father was a hero of the secret intelligence agency Mossad. Avner is married with a child on the way and inexperienced as a field agent but hand-picked by Meir for his personal attributes and unwavering dedication.
After establishing an information and supply contact that can be trusted, to the extent possible in the world of international espionage, the team sets about assassinations by gun and bomb across Europe.
While they achieve successes, as the months pass cracks appear with the men questioning the proof of their victims’ guilt, the government’s support for their well-being and the underlying value of the mission in ending terrorism.
These concerns are magnified by the havoc their actions cause in retaliatory terrorist attacks against innocent civilians as well as members of their own team.
Munich is a brilliant recreation of this insanely dangerous period of modern history that examines moral issues and questions that continue to confront us all on a daily basis. The script, by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Horse Whisperer and The Insider) is austere and deliberate with few words wasted.
Behind the camera, Speilberg surrounds himself with talent that has repeatedly proved itself to him personally, including the great Polish cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies), editor Michael Kahn who also goes back to Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark and master music composer John Williams (Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws).
There are many moments of superb tension, filmed in a documentary-style that evokes some of the landmark examples of this genre, such as The French Connection and The Day of the Jackal. When it comes, the violence is sudden, graphic and minus any visual flourishes.
In one of his first international roles, Bana is a revelation as Avner and inhabits the part. The terrific support cast includes Daniel Craig and Ciaran Hinds among the members of Avner’s team and Geoffrey Rush as their Mossad handler.
Among the many scenes that make a lasting impression are those featuring Michael Lonsdale as Papa, the matriarch of a family-based espionage network, Mathieu Almaric as Papa’s son Louis and Lynn Cohen as the legendary Israeli president Meir.
There is one annoy and significant mis-step, the final flashback to the original attack which is juxtaposed with Avner’s emotional release during sex with his wife. It’s a puzzling choice out of kilter with the rest of this carefully mounted and emotionally gripping film.