Fascinating but overlong, Steven Spielberg looks to the aftermath of the 1972 Olympic Games’ assassination of 11 Israeli athletes and the search for those deemed responsible.
Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, Mossad agent Eric Bana heads a team of five who are tasked with finding the Black September perpetrators. Acting outside of official Israeli recognition, with Geoffrey Rush the handler, money and time seem to be no object. Over the ensuing few years, Avner and his team slowly achieve their revenge – even if the team itself is also picked off.
It’s big, it’s bold but Munich becomes bombastic and a little too repetitive. As Avner, Bana is good, with his interaction with the rest of the team, his wife (Ayelet Zurer) and mother (Gila Almagor) providing more depth to an agent simply on a mission. Yet, grave and unsettling though it may be, Munich misses much needed sensitivity, leaving the mission’s moral purpose hanging.
Nominated for 5 Oscars in 2006 including best film, director & adapted screenplay
Rating: 53%
Director: Steven Spielberg (1941, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
Writer: Eric Roth (A Star is Born, The Good Shepherd) Tony Kushner (Lincoln, Angels in America)- based on the book by George Jonas
Main cast: Eric Bana (Star Trek, Chopper), Geoffrey Rush (Shine, The King’s Speech), Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel, Wisdom of the Pretzel)
An Opinion or Two 