“Munich” did poorly on the field workplace, particularly by the requirements of a Spielberg movie, however then, what did the quantity crunchers anticipate? It was launched within the anxious, skittery years of George W. Bush’s warfare on terrorism, when America was simply over 4 uncooked years away from the assaults of Sept. 11, and right here was a movie giving airtime to the viewpoints of terrorists. Mr. Kushner was attacked on the time for perceived Palestinian sympathies. Reflecting on the movie’s reception, he has mentioned that film critics helped save the movie by steering the dialog, many times, again to the worth of artwork.
The worth of artwork is at all times what I acknowledged in “Munich.” However once I revisit the movie now, I’m not in search of assurance; I don’t consider there’s any available. I don’t search for hope both. If that’s obtainable, I haven’t but discovered it, both on the film display or within the headlines or from the mouths of commentators. What I’m on the lookout for — what I feel many people are on the lookout for — is a passion of perception and an understanding of the ache of residing with ethical grayness that the very best artwork can present. And that’s what I discover now in “Munich.”
I not have the movie-critic phrases to explain the haunting results of the movie. However there’s a second on the finish that was thought-about, oh, I don’t know, presumably cheesy on the time and positively surprising. Avner, having efficiently accomplished his vengeful mission and now residing in Brooklyn together with his spouse and little one and nonetheless reeling from the toll his assassination task has taken on his soul, meets up together with his Mossad handler, Ephraim, performed by Geoffrey Rush, on a stretch of Queens waterfront. The 2 males discuss. Regardless of their variations concerning the place of Israel of their hearts, Avner invitations Ephraim, a fellow Jew, to dinner in his residence. Ephraim declines. And as Avner walks away, the digicam pans matter-of-factly throughout the skyline, the place the dual towers of the World Commerce Heart nonetheless stand.
In 2005, with recollections of Sept. 11 nonetheless recent and only a 12 months after pictures of prisoner abuse in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib jail have been made public, the picture lower like a knife of grief. The message was unmissable: Violence begets vengeance begets violence, and the highway to additional tragedy stretches to the horizon. That highway results in proper now: Israeli hostages who’re nonetheless in mortal hazard and untold 1000’s of Palestinians lifeless.
At first sight, the glimpse on the finish of “Munich” of a skyline that not existed reopened a uncooked wound. It was presupposed to. It nonetheless does.
So I watch it once more. And recite the Kaddish by coronary heart.
