Munich: The Mission - The Team (2006) (V)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Genre:

Documentary | Short

Cast

Kathleen Kennedy	...	Herself
Barry Mendel	...	Himself
Tony Kushner	...	Himself
Steven Spielberg	...	Himself
Rick Carter	...	Himself
Lynn Cohen	...	Herself
Ciarán Hinds	...	Himself
Hanns Zischler	...	Himself
Daniel Craig	...	Himself
Mathieu Kassovitz	...	Himself
Eric Bana	...	Himself
Ayelet Zurer	...	Herself
Geoffrey Rush	...	Himself

Runtime:

13 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

Universal Studios Home Video

Trivia:

This making-of is featured on the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD fr Munich (2005).

Movie Connections:

References "Angels in America" (2003)

Just the piece of the puzzle I was looking for

On the regular and rental editions of the Munich DVD, this is the only extra feature and it's a welcome one. Maybe it's just me not paying attention like I used to, but while I was completely caught up in the film, I kept wondering what exactly was supposed to be some of these guys expertise (apart from Eric Bana). Sure, it's obvious which one of them is building the bombs and Ceasar from Rome is the clean up guy (because Geoffrey Rush mentioned it beforehand) But what were the other two guys doing? James Blond is mostly seen driving a car, but so is the other guy. Lucky for me, this short subject explains it all.

The first half is concerned with the historical background of the mission: who was behind it, who were targeted, the involvement of Israeli leader Golda Meir and how all the different points of views could best be represented in the screenplay. Appearantly people had been struggling with this script for 10 years before the very well read Tony Kushner (who plugs his own Angels in America) took a stab at writing about a 5 man team of assassins without resorting to the "obvious sociopath" clichés.

Steven Spielberg explains he basically cast Eric Bana while watching Ang Lee's Hulk with his kids, then decided to find another 4 actors with looks and acting techniques as far away from Bana as possible (a lesion learned from "1941", where he had two black haired men in uniform fighting over the same girl). During subsequent interviews we learn more details about each team member than than we did in the movie. This is the way the roll-call breaks down: Avner (Eric Bana), Yekke Jew, team leader/assassin; Carl (Ciarán Hinds), German, clean up; Steve (Daniel Craig), South African, transportation; Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), French, explosive expert and Hans (Hanns Zischler), German, document forger.

The two disc version of the movie is packed with more feature's on editing, recreating the era and survivor's memories (no mean feat considering the extremely short production schedule that was kept in order to release the film in time for Oscar consideration). But for me, this one alone was a helpful addition to an impressive film and a reminder that, with DVD extra's and IMDb, all answers to life's questions are available at your finger tips.

8 out of 10