Munich

A Steven Speilberg film based on the incidents of Black September and Munich operation. It is said that it's Speilberg's call for peace. The movie depicts the consequences of these attacks.

"According to some contrary criticisms of the film there were suggestions that politics are warping critics' interpretations of the film. Some critics have claimed an Israeli bias in the movie, as many others complain of Palestinian bias. The review of the film on BBC World News accused the movie of being too impartial, being too balanced and refusing to take a side to the point where it had no clear message. "**
Quoted from wikipedia.

Nowadays, cultures are crashing and the gap between them is getting wider and wider every second, due to the lack of dialogue, giving space to the others to freely express their opinion will help narrowing this gap. This critical appreciation is intended to answer the question: whether Munich is a biased movie or not, from an Arab point of view. In my point of view I see Munich as an Israeli biased movie. Yet it may be considered the first trial to make an impartial movie representing the Palestinian/Israeli struggle. It may be considered the first movie to succeed in drawing the difference between Zionism and true Judaism.

The movie opens with Munich operation and the media coverage for the incidents- notice how the Israeli media lied several times about the safety of the athletes. Anyhow the Munich operation is considered the secondary story developing with the development of the main story. The whole movie revolves around the character of Avner, played by Eric Bana, an Israeli born office worker for Mossad. He is entitled to lead a squad of five members to assassinate the planners of the Munich operation.

The development of the Munich operation with the development of the main story is one of the many points that prove that this movie is an Israeli biased one. The scenes of the operation come every now and then to remind the audience of the reason the squad is killing for, to win the sympathy of the audience. As I mentioned before, the movie opens with the Munich operation, to set the audience's mind to staying on the Israeli's side. Then as soon as Avner is appointed on the mission, the incidents of the operation are displayed once again to remind us (the audience) of the "noble" cause of this mission. Finally when Avner is tortured by his guilty conscious due to the lots of murders he committed, comes the scene of the Munich operation at its climax. The Munich operation scenes were implemented in the movie to prevent the audience from swaying their mind or to have the least doubt in the righteousness of the squad's mission.

In the movie, the Israelis come with handsome faces, mothers, daughters, lovers, dreams, and even doubts about what they are doing. They take every precaution not to kill civilians, and when they do, they feel so bad about it. And to give the Israelis more humanity, they showed a little girl playing the piano who the Israelis then delayed the murder of her father to save her. Palestinians on the other hand are always portrayed as barbarians and terrorists. The movie stresses on the negative points of the Arabs. The first victim Wael Ze'ita said:" I am not an Arab I'm a Palestinian." He said it in a way as if he was ashamed of being an Arab, shedding light on the Arab's selfishness and nationalism. This point was stressed by Ali's statement when he said:" We want to be nations." The second victim, Mahmoud Hamshari, the head of the PLO was portrayed as a barbarian who can't complete a meeting. This is clear by the interruption of his wife during the alleged interview with Robert, while he should have been presented in a better picture as he is a leader.

The trials of Steven Spielberg to make an unbiased movie are clear in the conflict which some of the Israeli squad agents suffer from, emphasizing the difference between Zionism and Judaism. The conflict with in Avner was not clear from the beginning. He is the kind of guys who hate confusion and stillness as described by Carl. He was brain washed from the very beginning, since his meeting with the Mossad officers. He wasn't given the opportunity to ask question and when he did his questions were ignored. The conflict within him reached its climax when the assassinations came back on him and he was a target. At the end he realized the truth that he was just being used in a very dramatic ending scene.

On the other hand Robert was never the kind cold blooded killer. He was a true Jew. He was presented as a toy maker and has a lot of love to children, which was clear from the look in his eyes to the girl while playing the piano. His conversation at the train station with Avner is considered the wake up call to stop all the killings. He believes that righteousness of the soul can never be achieved by assassinations, clear in when he said: "we are Jews Avner and Jews don't do wrong just because our enemies do." Robert represents the true Judaism. He can clearly grasp the fact that that the blood they shed will come back to them.

The ending scene brilliantly draws the lines of the division among the Jews themselves. It also dramatizes the different views of the Jews concerning living in Israel. Ephraim represents the Zionist point of view that states that any Jew out of Israel or doesn't choose to live there is not a true Jew. While Avner represents the point of view of a moderate true Jew. He chooses to live in peace away of the disturbing life full of assassinations. He realized that he was just a tool in the Mossad's hand when Ephraim declined his invitation to "cut bread with him."

Another brilliant scene is the one when the squad and the Arabs were both setup by Louis to stay in one flat. There are lots of significances behind this scene. The whole scene resembles the situation in Palestine. The flat resembles the land of Palestine. The disagreement on the radio channel clarifies the radical difference in the culture and portrays the struggle between both parties, each one of them wants his culture to prevail. But they finally settled on another culture for a compromise. Even the Jewish and Palestinian inhabitants are personified in the characters of Avner and Ali. The conversation that took place between them is an Israeli biased one. Avner is speaking from the owner of the land point of view, while Ali is speaking as if he is the invader. But reality is the opposite of this case.

Trivia:

There are some points that I wanted to point out that caught my attention.

-The stereotypical representation of Steven Speilberg to both the Jews and the Arabs. He portrayed the Jews in the picture of the avaricious stingy person very accurate in money calculations. When the counselor was explaining for Avner about the operational funds insisted on the word "I want recites." He repeated it many times and his conversation was ended by "Bring me recites." While the Arabs are as usual portrayed as blood thirsty terrorists there wasn't a single Arab through out the whole movie who called for peace.

-In minute 30 in the meeting between Avner and Yvonne Clarifies how Zionists exploit and use the Americans. He mockingly held the American dollar and said:" See James Madison." Just to prove to her that he is working for some rich Americans.

-In minute 1:12 Steven Spielberg humorously mentions Ihud Barak portrayed in the form of a lady.

-At the end in the conversation between Avner and his mother, after all the massacres and assassination he committed. She mention the Holocaust, which comes again as an excuse for all these massacres and again win the sympathy of the audience.