Ink Blotting - Munich

Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 12:00 AM

Munich

Those critics that aren't in favor of Munich are a diverse group. They stand on their shore of the river of dislike and hurl stones at the movie's premise. They deride the message as murky and unclear. They attack the editing and the plot holes and the particular political lens the movie is filmed behind. And in several cases those reviewers are right. They regard the length of the movie as the director's cut meant for dvd rather than a streamlined story they can easily connect the dots through. But the fallacies within the picture are minor irritants in the pristine face of the message and story being told.

But a few things they don't talk about when they make their accusations against the movie. None of them say a word about the acting. Acting that is, at every instant through every scene, believable. The cast of Munich breathes life into the movie. There is something real in the expression, articulation, action of the characters - and in a movie where people do and say things that are apart from the every day, it is an amazing director that is able to make these people seem real while performing the unreal.

My issue with the movie was that Spielberg did so well with the pacing, action, plot and music that I was seamlessly kept on the edge of overwhelming intensity without surcease. I wasn't overwhelmed at any point, just hovered there - at the brink - understanding that the possibility of failure, death and destruction was a mere heart beat from the character's grasp. And when you would imagine there would be a moment to settle back into your seat the movie would kill one of the central protagonists. And if they weren't killing central protagonists you were made to emote and feel a rapport for the Ôbad guys' Eric Bana's character was crossing off his list with dedication and fervor.

Though the movie is titled Munich very little of the movie actually takes place there. It is what happens there that is of consequence but the title misleads people to think that perhaps the movie is more about those that killed and those that were slain in the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics. When in truth the movie is about none of those people, but instead the consequences of those actions.

Many reviewers seem confused as to the message behind this movie. They state that Spielberg is too unfocussed in the movie, too intellectualized to clearly and concisely state his intention with Munich. It is my hypothesis that Spielberg's purpose was to reveal the roots of terrorism and the escalation of reprisals killing seems to have become between those who seek to keep their homes and those who wish their homes back.

I understood that I was being moved, emotionally and intellectually, throughout the course of the film. There was no clear cut right in this movie and a viewer had to work a great deal to empathize with the "protagonists." Everywhere you looked there was yet another wrong being perpetrated. Munich does not apologize for that however, and then clearly reveals the question residing at the heart of the film. When should someone/a country abandon the values it holds dear in order to protect those values?

Kyle Gould is a University of Calgary Graduate in English devoutly trying to make the 25,000 dollar piece of parchment not just a glorified ink blot. Currently it would serve better as a Rorschach test. Feel free to throw some ink his way at wkkgould@hotmail.com.