Munich

Within the story of the 1972 Olympic kidnappings/muders there lies a wealth of storytelling waiting to be mined by the right screenwriter: the planning of the crime, the small bits of trivia leading up to the crime (like when members of the American team helped the kidnappers climb over one of the security fences, thinking they had snuck out to get drunk and were now sneaking back in), the kidnapping itself, the ensuing stand-off, and the eventual botched rescue attempt that resulted in the death of the hostages. Handled correctly, it could be a masterpiece of emotionally-charged cinema. And who better to healm this feature than one of our best modern directors, Steven Spielberg?

I guess that movie will have to wait.

For Munich, Spielberg has chosen not to do a story about the hostages, but rather about the revenge that Israel sought on those who had planned/committed the crime. While not the cinematic meal I was hungry for, Munich looks like it will hold my attention well enough. Eric Bana leads the cast as an Israeli charged with tracking down those who were responsible for the tragic events in Munich and killing them off. No trials, no system involved. Just find them, and kill them. There's some generic moral dilemmas to be had, and because it's Spielberg the movie will probably end with a long trail of the Munich hostages' families laying roses on a monument, or Bana returning home to his perfect wife/child and realizing he has a good life and that the bad people are all gone.

While Munich looks well made, I can't help but wish it were more.

PS - Watch the Oscar-winning documentary One Day in September if you want to feel the real weight of this story.