Following his half-hearted update of War of the Worlds, movie mogul Steven Spielberg puts away childish things to get back to serious filming with Munich. It's a brutal and engrossing account of a covert Israeli hit squad, commissioned to exact revenge on the 11 Palestinians suspected of planning the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

A Mossad agent named Avner Kaufmann (Eric Bana) is handpicked by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) to lead the counter terrorism group, which includes a driven South African mercenary named Steve (Daniel Craig); Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a Belgian toy maker who also makes bombs, an expert forger named Hans (Hanns Zischler) and Carl (Ciaran Hinds), the person responsible for making sure the targets are clean and collateral damage will not become an issue. Though the government denies knowledge of the squad's existence or actions, Avner must occasionally report to a hard line official named Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush).

One by one, the targets are found and taken out. But as the "assignment" progresses, so does the fallout. Retaliation attacks begin to mount, while the moral ramifications of the group's work begin to take its toll on Avner and his team.

These days, if you make a film that is either based on real-life events or one that deals with politics (Fahrenheit 9/11) or religion (The Passion of the Christ), controversy will be smothering your project before a single frame is shot or shown. Not surprisingly, Munich is the latest film under such attack. Depending on whom you talk to, Spielberg's film has been accused of being pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian and vice-versa. Members of the Israeli government have also protested that the film distorts facts, and a forthcoming book that claims Israeli hit squads killed the wrong people is guaranteed to fuel the fire.

Like Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ, is Munich truthful and accurate? If George Jonas' book Vengeance (the movie's original title) is to be believed, then the answer is yes. Since Munich is not a documentary and is "inspired by real events," as the opening title card proclaims, Spielberg and company could be expected to take dramatic license with events and characters in order to forward the plot. In regards to the major details of the story, I am certain that Spielberg and company stayed true to what happened (the director apparently consulted the real life Avner during the film's production).

Does the film take a side? Definitely, but it is neither Israeli nor Palestinian. It is anti-terrorism. The thoughtful and layered screenplay by Eric Roth and Tony Kushner goes out of its way to condemn not only the act of committing terror, but also exacting revenge. It also goes out of its way to give everyone an even hand to explore both sides of the conflict through characters that are dimensional, fleshed out and believable. There are no heroes in Munich, only victims, sufferers of a cycle of violence that will never end unless someone on the outside peacefully intervenes.

Munich is also Spielberg's best work since Schindler's List. His low-key and focused approach allows the script's power to take center stage, and his vivid recreation of the Munich Olympics massacre and Hitchcockian staging of the hit squad's assassinations that follow are reminiscent of the gritty, intense, documentary-style thrillers made by the likes of Costa-Gavras and William Friedkin in the late 1960s and early '70s.

With his usual team of pros by his side, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, editor Michael Kahn and composer John Williams, Spielberg delivers his most mature film yet, one that sneaks up on the viewer and knocks them out without resorting to a cinematic bag of tricks, cheap manipulation or heavy-handed pretentiousness.

Eric Bana delivers an award-worthy performance as the conflicted but dedicated Avner, while Craig, Kassovitz, Hinds and Zischler offer excellent support as his fellow team members. Rush delivers another great performance as the government hard ass that may or may not be entirely trustworthy, and Mathieu Amalric and Michael Lonsdale are terrific as two men who sell Avner and his team vital information while possibly selling them out to their enemies as well.

Munich does share common ground with another of this year's controversial dramas, George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck. While both are set in the past, they prove to be just as relevant in today's world. Both also address the truism that those who don't learn from the past are condemned to repeat it. With that in mind, it is no small coincidence that the World Trade Center prominently figures in the film's final shot.

  share:  Facebook | Digg | del.icio.us | more