Last night after a nice dinner my wife and I went to see Munich, hardly a romantic movie, but we both enjoyed it very much. The deep symbolism is in the end of the movie, has anyone else seen this movie?
Very good camera work, and acting.
The movie is about a group of Israeli men who are hired by the Israel gov't to kill the conspirators in the Munich terrorist killings. The movie starts with the event itself, with Palestinian/Arab men taking the Israeli Olympic Athletes hostage, and then killing them after a failed escape.
The men that are hired go into Europe to kill the founders of this terrorist organization. Things go well at first, there are some very tense scenes throughout this film. Then they begin to get caught up, tangled between different spy agencies and wind up killing a KGB officer on a mission that goes awry in Beruit. Suddenly the hunters become the hunted, all while still needing to "finish the job." Most of the killings are bombs, such as a bomb in a phone, under a bed, and in a television set. Many times when they kill a member of this terrorist organization there is a retaliation against Israel, letter bombs, kidnappings things like that.
Slowly some of the men are found and killed by other assassins. The main character and only one other out of the group remain as they take on their final mission which ends up in failure and they almost get killed.
The main charcter moves to New York where his wife moved to after he took his secret agent job. He lives in fear, because many of the organizations he worked for and against now know his real name and whereabouts. The movie kind of finishes a little open ended but the symbolism is striking.
In the end of the film the main character is meeting with the Isreali gov't official in a park in New York. He is asking the official if the actions he committed just made him become what they were fighting against, and was it really the governments plan to kill the terrorist organization or just put in new leaders. His actions, on behalf of Israel have just echoed what the arab terrorists did, and did nothing to stop further terrorist attacks, but spur more of them.
When the conversation ends, the men part ways, and the camera follows the main character for a bit and then pans out, across the river and in the distance is the World Trade Center Buildings, and then the credits roll.
Its deep, I know it's just a movie, but it puts the Israel/Arab thing into a different light, and (at least to me) suggests that terrorist attacks against America might have been building for many years, dating to mid-cold war because of our alligances with Israel.
Its the impression I got in the end of the movie, again, has anyone else seen this movie?
Ursus, the acutal "suspense" is in many of the scenes and what unfolds, I hopefully didn't give too much of that away. The overall impact is taking what happened over the whole movie, and then the final screen shot of the World Trade Center.
The fact that people are discussing this movie on a Sports Message Board is testament to the power of the film. Being older than the average poster on here, I remember the actual event and how riveting it was then, despite not having 24 hour cable news networks and the internet. One thing people shoul dkeep in mind is Spielberg made it very clear that this movie was "inspired by real events"., that does not mean every event is the factual truth. That being said I think it is a powerful movie and surely lends itself to some healthy debate about the whole world of terrorism and how to combat it.
I actually thought the WTC scene at the end was a little heavy-handed. It worked emotionally ... I'll be the first to admit that, but it just seemed a touch gratuitous.
Kinda like the closing scene in Spider Man where he swoops by the American flag in a movie that leaned heavily on "Don't F--- with NY" themes in the shadow of 911.
I get a little uneasy when films exploit our emotions over 911 ... but I'm torn on the issue. Of course, one of my own short stories does the exact same thing, so I can't come down firmly on this point without being a complete hypocrite.
Most definatley, the inspiration was obviously from the kidnapping, torture and death of the Israeli athletes. They showed a lot of news clips and used actual footage.
They used the real names of the conspirators, and probably did their best to portray their deaths in a similar matter. All the other inbetween stuff I'm sure is all speculation. The characters, their families, their jobs, what happened to them, and how they actually worked.
I get a little uneasy when films exploit our emotions over 911 ... but I'm torn on the issue.
Before the movie started there was a preview for "Flight 93" about the 9/11 hijacked plane that crashed in Penn. I don't know what they're planning on for this film, or how its going to be portrayed but I felt a little uneasy watching it, and to me, it just seemed too soon.
I get a little uneasy when films exploit our emotions over 911 ... but I'm torn on the issue.
Before the movie started there was a preview for "Flight 93" about the 9/11 hijacked plane that crashed in Penn. I don't know what they're planning on for this film, or how its going to be portrayed but I felt a little uneasy watching it, and to me, it just seemed too soon.
There is already a movie about this. I watched it a couple days ago on A&E. It was full of interviews with survivors. They recounted the calls, what they were told, what took place. It was hard to watch, but at the same time you couldn't stop watching it. Here is a link to A&E about it
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