Product Description

During the 1972 olympic games in munich 11 israeli athletes are taken hostage & murdered by a palestinian terrorist group known as black september. In retaliation the israeli government recruits a group of mossad agents to track down & execute those responsible for the attack. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 02/05/2008 Starring: Eric Bana Ciaran Hinds Run time: 164 minutes Rating: R

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5688 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2006-05-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 164 minutes

Amazon.com
At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it’s built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner (Eric Bana) to lead a team of paid-off-the-book agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one (in reality, there were several teams). It’s physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team’s handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), over information Avner doesn’t want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, and the deeper moral questions of right and wrong come into play, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family’s safety may be in jeopardy.

By all rights, Munich should be an unqualified success--it has gripping subject matter relevant to current events; it was co-written by one of America’s greatest living playwrights (Tony Kushner, Angels in America) and an accomplished screenwriter (Eric Roth); it stars an appealing and likeable actor in Eric Bana; and it was helmed by Steven Spielberg, of all people. While it certainly is a great movie, it falls just short of the immense heights such talent should propel it to. This is due more to some questionable plot devices than anything else (such as the contrived use of a family of French informants to locate the terrorists). But while certain aspects ring hollow, the movie as a whole is a profound accomplishment, despite being only "inspired by true events," and not factually based on them. From the ferocious beginning to the unforgettable closing shot, Munich works on a visceral level while making a poignant plea for peace, and issuing an unmistakable warning about the destructive cycle of terror and revenge. As one of the characters intones, "There is no peace at the end of this." --Daniel Vancini

Customer Reviews

A second viewing later and I've fallen in love with the characters and story
I first saw the movie when it came out in theaters in December 2005, and was ultimately forgotten by me, until I decided to buy it on DVD two and a half years later and watched it again. And I found that the movie was highly enjoyable, entertaining, and something that I could easily watch again and again just for the character interaction.

Sometimes it seems ridiculous to base politics and beliefs off what is seen in movies, but this wouldn't be the first time it's happened to me; before seeing the movie, I saw Israel as the wrong party in the Middle East, having stolen Palestinian land, and then leeching US assistance in oppressing Palestinians just because they lived in Israel 2,000 years ago. After this movie, I can't see either side as bad. It's a conflict beyond black and white whose basest participants are nowhere near anything resembling Stalinist or Hitleresque evil people they are made out to be by their enemies via propaganda or extremist ideology.

The opening sequence of the movie is done in amazing fashion that makes you feel as though you are watching the news and hearing about the events unfold in real time with your supportive Muslim family and your tense, frozen-stiff with terror Jewish family, while you also get very beautifully shot and gory scenes of the Black September terrorists breaking into the Israeli athletes' hotel room in Munich, where the fighting and conflict is so well-directed, you feel as if you were one of the Israelis, and that if you just stayed quiet and followed orders, you would make it out alive.


What ultimately happens is already well-known, but still hits painfully, and with the simultaneous reading of the Israeli names of the victims on the news with the Palestinian names of those who planned the botched kidnapping listed off by Mossad high command.

Every character that is come across in the film is interesting, and has innate chemistry with whomever else they're talking to. Eric Bana as Avner is perfect in the role, being highly sympathetic even as he is indeed a terrorist. Ciaran Hinds as Carl plays the father-like figure to Avner and the rest of the group, like a rock holding the makeshift family together. Daniel Craig as Steve is the quintessential hothead who seems the be the prototypical terrorist in that he is driven purely by hatred for the Palestinians, yet is still well-rounded in that he is a believable, likeable person, without any characteristics that seem wildly out of character for him. Matheiu Kassovitz as Robert is the makeshift bombmaker, who manages some minor humor that is in no way out of place or inappropriate.


Even their enemies in the conflict are keenly humanized without being overly apologetic, from Abdel Wael Zwaiter in Rome, who is clumsily killed while trying to talk and reason with a highly nervous and tense duo of Avner and Robert, Hussein Al Bashir's brief conversation with Avner in the Cyprus hotel balcony before the bomb under his bed blows him up, and nearly kills Avner and two civilians in the process, to Louis's intentionally bunking the four Mossad agents in an old apartment with a group of Palestinians at the same time, the two groups forced to keep their identities and intentions a secret or else risk exposing their plans to the enemy.

This sequence also has some lighter, and yet in the broader context most deeply disturbing, moments, such as Steve and a Palestinian silently fighting over what music to play on the radio, before mutually settling on an American station (I forgot what type of music), and Avner arguing Arab/Israeli politics with the Palestinian group's leader, with the Palestinian's conclusion that the reason to fight the Israelis over Palestine is that a home is more important than anything else.


Like with most any movie involving a makeshift "family" between comrades, there's always the series of events that leads to its dissolution, and for viewers like me, a sense of that time being the best time of their lives, and the (survivors') lives afterwards being bleak and emptier without the comradery. Indeed, even Spielberg said of the character of Avner "I don't think he'll ever find peace".


For the negatives, I think the biggest downpoint of the movie would be the poorly-explained, completely fictional and unimportant French connection involving "Louis" and his whole amoral spy network of secret information and connections that seemingly works everywhere with everyone from terrorists to first world countries, in a sort of "Quantam" ("Quantam of Solace") sort of 'apathetic godly overseer' type role. While at the very least the conversations had with Avner and the old man (forgot his name) at the head of the family, I didn't find it to be all that necessary, and would have spoken more for Mossad's intelligence capabilities if the information on their targets had come from Mossad instead of from an unnamed, barely known, seemingly unstructured independent French organization with eyes all over the world and no real desire to do anything with it but sell information to the highest bidder.


While there are flaws, it's definitely a movie both tragic and enrapturing, grittily shot and realistically depicted, with intense chemistry between virtually everyone involved that makes it worth multiple viewings and owning.

3 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line:

A movie that captures perhaps better than any other the weariness of being an assassin far from home, Munich sometimes feels too long (especially during the scenes in America) and ends inconclusively, but supplies so much good material that I can recommend it without reluctance.

Really enjoyed it!
My only regret on this film is that it is very slow going. I enjoyed the thought of the film, and the original live events that underlie the film are incredibly interesting.

However, the film itself runs very slow, and is hard to follow. I love the premise behind the film, and Spielberg writes a wonderful script, but it is very hard to give a film like this five stars. That being said, it is definitely worth the money!

Enjoy!