Munich (Widescreen/Basic DVD)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: A-
I have had a mixed relationship in my encounters with the
work of Steven Spielberg, who began as an edgy, underrated director on TV until
his telefilm Duel became a hit in European theatrical release and after
the megahit Jaws followed, it was the big screen henceforth for the man
who became the biggest star director since Alfred Hitchcock and the most
commercially successful director to date.
A friend who also has issues with him once said that if you are that
successful, then you are doing something wrong and for Spielberg, the battle
between art and commerce has been a fascinating one. Early adult storytelling with The Color Purple (it was the
best of Spielberg, it was the worst of Spielberg) and Empire Of The Sun
had fans, but the critical response was mixed.
Then came his trilogy of even more mature films in Schindler’s List,
Amistad and Saving Private Ryan, but even they had limits, though
they are strong films. However, they
still had some of the trappings that held him back from his best potential as a
bold, uncompromising filmmaker, proven by the commercial films that
followed. That is why Munich
(2005) is that much more remarkable, because even his longest-time critics are
faced with an inarguable work in that it trashes the final vestiges of anything
that made him “the feel good director” in the first place, even when that came
down to predictable standards that at least spelled out a safe ending (Schindler’s
List turns out to be years before the final scene, Saving Private Ryan
is explicitly told in flashback though its opening scenes are still too
painful for many to take) where there is some kind of resolution that conforms
to the booklike Classical Hollywood model.
Eric Bana is Avner, a young man recruited to head an elite
team of counter-terrorists to avenge the nightmarish Black September massacre
of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. They have 11 names and all of them are marked
for execution by an Israeli government that cannot take anymore and feels the
need to send a message that this aggression cannot be tolerated anymore. Avner is recruited by no less than Golda
Meir (Lynn Cohen) who is concerned about the future of her young, vulnerable
country. This team will officially not
exist and have the resources to get the job done.
Spielberg is uncompromising like never before in his
depiction of what Black September did and how Israel responded. To keep the realism and naturalism going, as
well as reach out beyond words, he takes the interesting risk of not using
title cards to make the story clearer, in part also because it seems he feels
that there is no simple clarity to this situation and his is correct. Like Syriana, you must have a maximum
attention span to understand what is going on, but for that the viewer gets a
huge pay-off in what Spielberg is trying to communicate.
Screenwriters Tony Kushner (Angels In America) and
Eric Roth (who has been penning some impressive work since the underrated
thriller Suspect back in 1987) manage to pull together so many issues
and ideas together with such a natural seamlessness that it is a lesson in
great epic documentation and narrative.
That only enhances Spielberg’s mission, making the most extravagant,
grandest statement of his career. With
this film, he undoubtedly joins all the giant filmmakers he has been emulating
and paying tribute to for decades in a work that defies simple explanation and
deeply succeeds in making the kind of big statement most filmmakers only dream
of. There is no happy ending, but an
open-ended conclusion that makes every frame more relevant every day, with
unfinished business ranging from the characters to the filmmaker himself.
Unlike any other Spielberg film, death and mortality haunt
everyone and no one is safe, a most ironic thing since the terrorists and
counter-terrorists are supposedly in control.
The loyalty and reliability of everyone is questioned, from allies to
enemies. Germany still has it in for
the Jews decades later, the U.S. is still trying to have it both ways, elites
in the Muslim power base have their religious propaganda machine in full swing
to find willing solider victims to do their dirty work and Israel is
understandably split between how to handle it all. After the attack, the initial response makes sense, but like some
current U.S. world situations, when is enough enough? When does an operation become a vicious cycle of violence that
takes on a life of its own and how can that cycle be stopped? Those are just the beginning of the very
hard questions Spielberg asks and the boldness of that alone shows a new
cinematic maturity that will give even his staunchest critics a new respect for
him.
To especially make this film after 9/11 and other
insanities that followed is not something any one playing it safe does. As a result, Spielberg received more vicious
criticism and attacks upon himself and his work than in all of his other films combined. Israeli insiders condemned it, Black
September survivors though he should have consulted them about it (!) and a
media heavily slanted in the direction of The Bush Administration unusually
ignored the film as some media insiders may have felt in undermined the
catastrophic Iraq policies with Abu Ghraib, failures in Afghanistan and the
ultimate failure of not letting any kind of civilized democracy take hold in
The Middle East when the chance was there because perpetual war is the policy
instead of any solutions that would put lives ahead of war profiteering. Yes, Spielberg has never been bolder,
gutsier or more cutting edge and over the next few years, this will become more
and more apparent as the film continues to show up on HD and other venues.
Cheers also go to an amazing cast of many unknowns, who
gave exceptional performances where it counted, as well as new James Bond
Daniel Craig showing he is a better actor than credited for, Geoffrey Rush as
Avner’s semi-contact and Michael Lonsdale as the mysterious patriarchal contact
who seems to be enough of his friend in this cold, cold world. Lonsdale is one of the great French
character actors who has been top rate for decades in films including Francois
Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black, John Frankenheimer’s amazing Ronin
and as the ultimate pompous stuffy rich James Bond villain Sir Hugo Drax in
Lewis Gilbert’s gloriously outrageous Moonraker. The casting is flawless.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is shot
exceptionally well by Spielberg’s latter day cinematography partner, Janusz
Kaminski, A.S.C., who has been accused since their earliest work of simply
controlling the amount of light in each frame in oversimplified ways as part of
their narrative strategy. Prior to
Kaminski, Spielberg liked to celebrate light outright as if it was godlike in
scenes, but also had a strong corollary with the idea of the light that comes
from a film projector. The new alliance
has had its ups (Schindler’s List taking commercial monochrome stock and
finding a strong narrative use for it) and downs (A.I., Minority
Report, The Terminal, which were all problematic in their own ways)
but here, they are on the money all the way.
The team combines the period look, documentary approach
and that of the Spy Thriller into a remarkably striking combination that shows
they know the connection between films like Sidney J. Furie’s The Ipcress
File (1965) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1971) as well
as why the James Bond films were more than just commercial films (a series
Spielberg has referred top as the greatest movie franchise ever) and brings it
all together with one of Spielberg’s more complex uses of color and light. Michael Kahn’s editing is some of his best
too. The standard DVD transfer here has
problems capturing all of this, though it is as good as this format is going to
be able to do with the detail and Video Black challenges such superior shooting
call for. Never has Spielberg spoken so
clearly, thoroughly and visually well in any of his films.
The only sound mix here is available in Dolby Digital 5.1
EX, which might be the only thing that would fit on this basic edition with one
disc holding a nearly three hour film, but this does not capture all the
nuances of the exceptional soundtrack mix.
This is one of John Williams’ best scores in many years and though
Spielberg is always going for exceptional sound design, the detail and
character here is particularly exceptional because it serves his most complex
narrative to date. In one way, it is
the next logic step in the kind of sound you would get in the great thrillers
of the 1960s and 1970s, but it also expands the cinematic space in clever ways
we do not get enough in multi-channel mixes in general. This version is good, but when the HD-DVD
version offers Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital True HD, or even DTS or DTS
HD, what is missing will be more apparent.
For this basic version, only an introduction by Spielberg
is included. As he addresses the film
briefly, you can see that even he knows the burden and task of the film is the
most tremendous he has ever taken on.
A special edition Standard DVD set was also issued and those extras will
eventually surface on the HD-DVD version we will look at upon its release. In the meantime, if you missed Munich,
it is a must-see film to catch up with and no film has ever lived up to the
Spielberg legacy more. If he had any
concerns about that legacy, Spielberg can let it all rest on this film, because
it is the masterwork of all films to date.
- Nicholas Sheffo
