Munich (2005)
I am classifying Munich as one of those “must-watch” movies. Since I suck at writing , if you haven’t seen the movie, don’t read the review. Well, not like many people actually read my review anyway.
I won’t even pretend to understand Israeli-Palestinian conflict that started from an era before I was born. Before I started writing this, I tried to understand the history of the conflict, but ultimately the scope is beyond what I’m capable of. Like what Ali, a member of the PLO, said in the movie: I have a land that I can call home, how can I ever begin to understand them?
Munich is a movie about the vengeance that took place after the murder of 1972 Israeli Olympic participants. In a classic “violence must be answered by violence,” the Prime Minister of Israeli called for the punishment of those responsible. To this end, Avner (Eric Bana), along with a small team, was sent to rampage across European nations with almost unlimited fundings. They were to bring to task eleven individuals known to be leaders of the PLO. Can Avner, husband, son, and father, do what his country demands of him? Can he do it, without losing his humanity, and his sanity?
The cycle of violence and hatred is propagated so easily in Munich that it is shocking in its simplicity. I didn’t understand the conflict that started the cycle, and I still don’t quite understand why the conflict went on for so long even with United Nations standing as the mediator - but I do understand why there’s so much hatred. It doesn’t take much to hate a group of individuals that are actively murdering your countrymen. How should the Israelis responded when PLO took out Olympic athletes in 1972? Olympic athletes represent the pride of a nation - and to kill them, no one could possibly expect the Israelis to just sit down and say, “I… pardon you.” However, how should the PLO members respond when their leaders and friends were being slaughtered? The cycle wouldn’t end, and it didn’t end with Avner.
Ultimately, Munich is about the Avner’s internal conflicts concerning the whole “violence begets violence.” One of the most profound scene was near the end, when his mother took his hands, and said, “I know it took a lot out of you, but I’m proud of what you’ve done.” When asked if she would like to know what he had done, she declined. I don’t know how to describe it, but one can fathom that most, if not all, terrorist cell leaders, would one day come to the same realization as Avner did near the end of the movie.