Twenty years ago this month, director Steven Spielberg released Munich, a historical drama and revenge thriller based on the book Vengeance by George Jonas.
The film dramatizes an account of a mission of retribution aimed against the men behind the murders of 11 members of Israel’s Olympic team at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.
Two decades after its release, Munich feels uncommonly timely in the face of ongoing conflicts in Gaza between Palestinians and Israel.
Now, Watch With Us is taking a look back at Munich to see how it holds up.
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The Movie’s Black September Attack Is Unflinchingly Brutal
Black September was the name of the Palestinian group that carried out the Munich attack on September 5-6, 1972. Early in the film, Munich flashes back to the attack with unnerving detail. Spielberg reportedly attempted to depict the details as accurately as possible, including the fatal wounds suffered by members of the Israeli delegation.
These scenes had to be in the film because they’re the driving motivation behind the campaign of assassinations to eliminate anyone who was involved with the Black September attack. The film does take certain liberties with the way those acts of retribution play out, but Eric Bana‘s Avner Kaufman was based on a real person, Yuval Aviv. One year before he made his debut as James Bond in Casino Royale, Daniel Craig costarred in this film as Steve, a member of Avner’s team.
The Action Is Intense
Spielberg has always been good at depicting on-screen action, especially during the first two decades of his career when he primarily directed adventure, sci-fi and fantasy films. Those skills carried over in Munich, as the violence between Avner’s team and their targets explodes into the streets and beyond.
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This is the kind of violence that doesn’t spare bystanders, and some innocent people are caught up in the crossfire between the two sides. And over time, Avner openly questions the purpose of their mission.
‘Munich’ Humanizes the Palestinian Perspective
At no point does Spielberg’s film suggest that the Black September attacks were justified in any way. But Munich does take the time to offer an alternative perspective from Ali (Omar Metwally), a PLO member who is initially unaware of Avner’s team’s true identities. In the scene above, Ali explains why the Palestinian people continue to fight Israel for the land claimed by both sides. Avner dismisses Ali’s goals for a Palestinian nation and making Israel “disappear” as a pipe dream, but nothing he says can dissuade the other man.
The words that resonate here are Avner’s warning that killing Jewish people will make the world believe Palestinians are “animals,” to which Ali replies, “Yes, but then the world will see how they’ve made us into animals. They’ll start to ask questions about the conditions in our cages.” It’s hard not to see the parallel between those lines and the global sympathy for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the concurrent rise of antisemitic sentiment around the world.
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‘Munich’ Asks Big Questions That It Can’t Really Answer
By the end, Avner is repulsed by the nature of his mission and openly wonders whether he and his team were used for retribution or simply as agents to wipe out Palestinian leaders. He doesn’t get a straight answer for that, and Munich doesn’t offer a resolution or an easy response. Spielberg doesn’t pretend to have the answers because there are none to be had, and the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people seems more unsolvable than ever.
Films don’t exist to chart the course of our lives or make choices for us. But they can make people think and consider the impact of their actions. In that regard, Munich is worth revisiting, even now. It still holds up and remains one of the best — and riskiest — movies in Spielberg’s impressive filmography.
Munich is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
