Munich
Starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush
Written by Tony Kushner & Eric Roth
Directed by Steven Spielberg

I bow down to you again, Mr. Spielberg. Once again Steven Spielberg dazzles us with his talent and leaves us in awe. With Munich, Steven Spielberg gives us visceral, intense action and a story that makes us really feel, think, and question. Munich is art and history at its best.

The story begins with the 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy that involved eleven Israeli athletes being taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. The movie then shows us the aftermath when a team of five is formed, led by a man named Avner (Eric Bana, with a powerful performance), a low-level Mossad techie-turned-assassin -- who’s mission is to assassinate the people supposedly behind the kidnappings, one-by-one. Together the five track down and kill the men, while dealing with other distractions like the CIA, KGB, and PLO. After like the sixth killing, Avner, who has a wife and baby girl, and appears to be quite peaceful if you ignore all the killing, begins to question if what they are doing is right or not and what it means to be a Jew.

The action sequences in Munich are on par with that of any John Woo film and the quality of the filmmaking is equal to what Spielberg did on Schindler’s List. That is what I call a film! A historically relevant storyline with hyper-violence. That is Munich. The film also does not take any specific political side and lets the audience see the world view they want to see and presents a few questions for them about it. Munich, definitely one of the best films of 2005.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: Munich. Steven Spielberg. Need I say more.

The Bad: Confusing at times if you are not familiar with the subject matter. Also a little long towards the end, clocking in at 144 mins.

The Law: Watch Munich for its wonderful execution and entertainment value.