Munich

Easily the most controversial film in Steven Spielberg's career was Munich, about the 1972 kidnapping and murder of several Israeli Olympic Athletes and the subsequent covert retaliation towards those responsible. Spielberg's film of those events is a provocative and intense film that will leave the viewer with plenty to ponder at the end. 

During the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany, 11 Israeli athletes are kidnapped and subsequently murdered by members of a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. Avner Kaufman (played by Eric Bana), a Mossad agent of German-Jewish descent, is chosen to lead a mission to assassinate the 11 Palestinian people believed to be responsible for the massacre. At the direction of his handler Ephraim (played by Geoffrey Rush), Avner resigns from the Mossad and agrees to operate with no official ties to Israel as to provide the Israeli government plausible deniability. He assembles a team that includes four other Jewish men from around the world, South African driver Steve (played by Daniel Craig), Belgian explosives expert Robert (played by Mathieu Kassovitz), former Israeli soldier Carl (played by Ciaran Hinds) and Danish documents forger Hans (played by Hanns Zischler). With information from a French informant named Louis (played by Mathieu Amalric), they begin to hunt down the men responsible for the Munich massacre and take them out one by one.

Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner knew they were courting controversy when they decided to make this film, but rather than shy away from it, they leaned into it. The film does not romanticize or glorify what the Mossad agents did in response to the Munich massacre. It's played very realistically both in terms of it's violence, which is explicit and shocking, but also the psychological toll these operations take on the team. They're not afraid to show their characters having doubts about what they're doing and if it's even accomplishing what they want to accomplish. Spielberg keeps the film very grounded and well within the confines of realism. The film is considered fictional, but they operate within the confines of what probably happened. It's a bold way to make the film and makes it all the more impactful for it. They really take the time to examine the nature of revenge and does it really solve anything or does violence just beget more violence? Especially when it only seems to be making the situation worse? Spielberg and Kushner wisely don't provide any easy answers and rather leave it up to the viewer to ruminate on their own. 

The performances in the film are excellent, starting with Eric Bana in the lead role. He does a great job portraying his character and the impact that his missions over the course come to have on him as he grows more and more demoralized as things carry on. Mathieu Kassovitz is great as the explosives expert Robert, who grows weary as well with what they are doing, as well as with the fact that he has been hired to build the bombs they use to take out their targets when his job prior was to dismantle them. Cirian Hinds has a nice turn as well as the oldest member of the group and becomes a good mentor of sorts for Bana's character. Of course, it's always nice seeing Geoffrey Rush in a movie and he's compelling as the group's covert resource in the Israeli government. 

Munich stirred up a lot of controversy when it was released, with several people denouncing the film as anti-Israeli, which shows they completely missed the point of the film. The film goes out of it's way not to glamorize the events it tells and yet at the same time is not entirely denouncing them either. But rather examining the outcome of a response to something like what happened in Munich. How one has to take the time to step back and with a level head plan out the response and ensure that it isn't in fact going to just make things worse. The fact that the film takes the time to really explore the impact of the Mossad agent's retaliation and the effect it had on those agents is what makes this film that much more meaningful.