Munich (2005)

Editor's Note A thought-provoking surprise from famed director Steven Spielberg, MUNICH explores the aftereffects of the brutal terrorist attacks on the Israeli athletic team at that German city's 1972 Olympic games. Loosely adapted from the book VENGEANCE by Hungarian George Jonas, the script was largely written by the provocative, award-winning playwright Tony Kushner (ANGELS IN AMERICA), who lends an incisive intelligence to the dialogue. The film begins with the violent sequence of the terrorists carrying out their attacks on the Israelis; a bloody and gruesome sequence that is deftly and beautifully handled by Spielberg and his brilliant cinematographer, Januzs Kaminski. Back in Israel, we meet the handsome and charming Avner, deeply in love with his beautiful, pregnant wife. Domestic bliss is short-lived however; immediately following these "Black September" attacks, Avner (THE HULK's Eric Bana), the son of an Israeli hero, is summoned by his country's famed secret service agency, the Mossad, to carry out violent retaliations against those Palestinian terrorists allegedly behind the Munich massacre. Commanded from afar by prickly government agent Ephraim (the inimitable Geoffrey Rush), Avner and his team of handpicked men--pugnacious South African Steve (Daniel Craig), goofy ex-toy maker Robert (French actor Matthieu Kassovitz), morally conflicted Carl (Ciaran Hinds), and terse professional Hans (Hanns Zischler)--must deal with some shady, nefarious international figures as they track down their Palestinian prey. Their mission takes them everywhere, from the villas of Rome to a seedy hotel in Cyprus, and with each successful kill, Avner's iron will begins to dissolve, and guilt and doubt begin to take hold of his conscience. Strong performances (particularly by the magnetic Eric Bana), gripping action, moral complexity, and a political urgency make the film not only consistently entertaining, but enormously important. Kushner and Spielberg work together to make it clear that the past informs the present, and the lingering final shot should leave viewers with much to think about.

	Geoffrey Rush
	Daniel Craig
	Gila Almagor
	Eric Bana
	Ayelet Zorer
	Ciaran Hinds
	Marie-Josee Croze
	Hanns Zischler
	Mathieu Kassovitz
	Kathleen Kennedy - Producer
	John Williams - Composer
	Michael Kahn - Editor
	Januzs Kaminsky - Director of Photography
	Eric Roth - Screenwriter
	Barry Mendel - Producer
	Colin Wilson - Producer
	Steven Spielberg - Producer
	Tony Kushner - Screenwriter
	Steven Spielberg - Director

Entertainment Weekly
"[S]pectacularly gripping and unsettling...A grave and haunted film....A movie that has the vision to dramatize a startling reality..." -- Grade: A 02/01/2006 p.58

USA Today
"This is a smart and often tense work....It's definitely powerful enough to make you wish he'd head in this direction more often." 12/23/2005 p.1E

Los Angeles Times
"MUNICH is no small thing. No film by Steven Spielberg ever is, but even for this avatar of Hollywood filmmaking this is something apart, the most questioning, provocative film he's ever made." 12/23/2005 p.E1

Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's Top Ten Films Of The Year -- "Steven Spielberg's brilliant political thriller is a work of spectacular and unsettling excitement..." 12/30/2005 p.114

Uncut
"[Spielberg] has completed the process begun with simpler SCHINDLER'S LIST to become a truly adult director, with this, his bravest film." 02/01/2006 p.94

Sight and Sound
"[T]here's something deeper at play here....[A] brave and timely new film....MUNICH works as a secret-agent thriller in the mould of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, THE BOURNE IDENTITY and, in particular...THE DAY OF THE JACKAL..." 03/01/2006 p.68

Premiere
4 stars out of 4 -- "Eric Bana's performance of understated anger and torment, as a Mossad agent leading a team of assassins in Europe, is worthy of a true movie star." 06/01/2006 p.105

Total Film
5 stars out of 5 -- "[A] tense, vigorous, thought-sparking thriller that applies the spare efficiency of great Hollywood storytelling to the prosaic, ethical examinings favoured by master political filmmakers like Costas-Gavras..." 07/01/2006 p.113-114

Rolling Stone
"[A] timely rumination on the moral implications of responding to terrorism with equally bloody vengeance." 06/15/2006 p.102