Two years ago I was looking for interesting stuff to read for my long plane trip to New York when I ended up finding a website which had tons of articles and stories on terrorists and killers. I started printing some stuff including information on Black September, Munich, Carlos the Jackal and tons of articles on all the terrorist attacks that occurred in the 70s and 80s. Some I had heard of before some were completely new to me. In any case I got the printouts binded them into a book form and took them with me to read during my trip. They stories and articles proved to be very interesting to read and I found the Munich event very disturbing yet very exciting.. it felt like driving by a big car accident. What I found really interesting in the story is how Israel and the Mossad spent years after the event slowly and carefully tracking down every high ranking official that was responsible for the Munich event and assassinating them. When I heard Steven Spielberg was going to release a movie about Munich I couldn’t wait to watch it and two nights ago I finally did.
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack.
Munich was really fun to watch. You always hear about Mossad all the time in the news and stuff but you never really see them in films. You always see the CIA, KGB and MI6 portrayed in movies but never Mossad and so to finally see them was a really nice change from the usual intelligence agencies. The movie takes place after the Munich event and it follows Eric Bana who plays a Mossad agent leading a 4 man team in an attempt to assassinate the masterminds behind the Munich event. The movie started off REALLY good, like I was enjoying it as much I would enjoy an episode of my favorite tv show, 24. The movie has a lot of buildups and they are all to the assassination scenes. Each assassination needs research, a new safe house, planning, a new method of killing etc.. and as a viewer you are taken along to witness these steps up to the “grand” assassination moment. Once one of the targets is killed the process is repeated over again. The problem with the movie is that its nearly 3 hours long. Once again I would like to point out that I don’t have a problem with long movies! I refused to watch any of the Lord of the Rings movies until the extended versions came out which were around 40 minutes longer then the already long regular version. I like long movies.. when there is a reason for them to be long. Munich however didn’t have a reason to be this long. I think 30 minutes could easily have been chopped off at the end when the assassinations were over and things were just dragging. Still though the movie was really great and subject extremely interesting. This is why I am giving it a 4 out of 5.
21 replies on “Review: Munich”
sweeet! Im gonna go check it out! Havent been to the movies in two-three weeks! I have also been feeling like crap the past week.. but thats thanks to a stomach flu! Im sick of staying home and work is piling up! But a movie sounds good!
hey mark did u watch it on dvd?
was it a clear copy?
i downloaded the dvd screener copy off the web. very very good copy.
sweet.. im guessing torrent then! torrentspy?
having terrorists stories and article and having them in a binder and traveling to NYC ?
you are one hella crazy dude , a laptop make them give you the eye , now a binder on terrorists and you mostly had a digital camera
man if you were cought the DA would have had a happy day
i did think about that but i think i did it because i liked the idea that i looked very normal and “western” yet I was Lebanese, on my way to NYC and I was reading stories about terrorists and airplane hijackings. Its like i was hoping to get caught or something lol
Mark, its not about your face or how you look , dont forget that one of the crew who smashed “the hijacked plane on 9/11” was lebanese also 🙂
becareful man, heheh
sounds like a cool movie 😀 must check it out :p
Mark! living life dangerously! lol
You know Munich is banned in Lebanon? How demented is that? I really want to watch it. Guess I’ll just get a pirated copy once they’re out…
Munich is sadly a one sided part of the story. The Mossad killed a lot of Palestinians who had nothing to do with the hostage situation and a lot of their work was retaliatory and random, I would have loved a story based on feedback from both parties involved. I love spielberg’s work but he is very pro-jewish and that ruins a lot of his political movies.
No wonder its banned in Beirut. A lot of palestinians died and the film glorifies their killing instead of showing why more innocent people died.
I will watch it tonight as I have read the story the film was based on.
This movie doesnt show the mossad killing a lot of palestinians, this movie shows them killing a handful of terrorists that were behind the munich event thats all. Its not pro jewish, its just a bad guys vs good guys story and its obvious who the bad guys are. Palastinians took the atheletes as hostages and killed them all, I don’t think anyone can say that what they did was good.
Mark
Thanks for the review, i havent gotten a chance to watch it yet, but will try my best soon.
Keep an eye to an interview with terrorist #1 in the film in the next episode of Jameedkast. (www.jameed.net)
great movie, u guys should chect out SYRIANA
i thought it was great
mark what you say make spielberg look more pro-jewish ( not that i care , he is jewish after all ) for example he doesn’t show you the random killing , he doesn’t show you mossad killing people who had nothing to do with the munich
it just showed you mossad hunting down terroist and killed them , it shows you the mossad as good guys and paint all Palastinians as terroists
oh and about your look , you are lebnanse , lebnanse = hizbollah , and denying that would help you much you would get shiped to Gtimo and we wouldnt have heard of you ever since
this movie is so haraaam yaw. OMG JEWZ
Mark, I gotta say… I like your taste in movies and I downloaded a few movies you reviewed. BUT The Devils Rejects is waaaay to sick.
Forza actually although Speilberg doesn’t show the killings of innocent palastinians it IS mentioned in the movie. There is one scene where the Mossad agent is having a political talk with a Palastinian guy and the Palastinian guy tells the Mossad agent about all the killings of innocent civilians after the munich event and how refugee camps were attacked and over 200 died but no one cares…
fatality: Lol you want sick you NEED to download Ichi the Killer 🙂
If you liked the movie, you will definitely like Budapest too…cause that’s where some of it was shot last summer 🙂
I love getting patriotic 🙂
Munich shows how disillusioned the Mossad became with their own hate. After all it shows that nobody wins in these situations since murder at the end of the day, is murder. There are several instances in the movie where the Mossad are questioning their purpose.