Steven Spielberg
Munich

THE REVIEW

1972. The Munich Olympics end in a bloodbath. The 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team taken hostage are killed by their captors, men from the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September, shortly before the latter are themselves suppressed by the German military.

One nation mourns its dead, another rejoices.

Avner, a Mossad agent, is summoned by Prime Minister Golda Meir herself. He is given a task. Revenge. Israel must show its strength against the Palestinians. Israel can only rely on its own forces. Israel will win this war.

The young Israeli leaves Israel, his home where he leaves behind a seven-month-pregnant wife. His task is clear. Kill — together with four other team members — the 11 members of Black September in Europe who organized the Munich massacre. Rome, Paris, Cyprus, Valencia, Amsterdam. The terrorists fall. Men who seem ordinary, or even intellectuals, are revealed by Mossad intelligence to be dangerous terrorists.

But the Palestinians do not stand idle. Three of Avner's team members are killed. More personal vendettas follow those officially sanctioned by the Israeli government. When will the revenge ever end?

The idea of breaking the main story with the chronicle of the kidnapping, which always reminds us of the sometimes elusive reason for such a bloody outburst, is excellent.
Spielberg returns to the history of the Jews after "Schindler's List". But this time the children of David are no longer seen as pure victims. They are both victims and perpetrators who create with their own hands the evil that will make them suffer. The reflection he leads on revenge, on the continuous retaliation between the two nations, is extremely deep. From what the author tells us, revenge leads to madness. To the loss of reason. To closing oneself off. With revenge, the paths of dialogue are lost. A clear example of Spielberg's idea is the dialogue between Avner and a young Palestinian (who didn't know he was standing before an Israeli) member of Black September: Avner's arguments are those used for millennia by anti-Semites, and the Palestinian embodies the Jew prevented from returning to his homeland, exactly as after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by Titus and the subsequent Diaspora.

It must be said, however, that the artistic side is somewhat lacking. The photography, striking in two or three instances, generally makes the film heavier. A more daring approach would have produced a more heartfelt film. The actors, especially Eric Bana and David Craig, not forgetting the Mossad officer, fully embraced their roles.

Personal note: one of the best films about Israel in recent years. It's films like this, like Waltz with Bashir, that make me want to leave, to reach Haifa or Tel Aviv, or Jerusalem, and to breathe Israel. Breathe in the motivations for such massacres; breathe in the fear of ordinary people. See the young people my age leave for military service for 3 years, branding them with a militarism that will never leave them. Understand the Arabs of Israel, future (and already present) victims of apartheid.

Live.