Munich (2005)

Based on the true story of the Black September aftermath, about the five men chosen to eliminate the ones responsible for that fateful day.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Writers:

Tony Kushner (screenplay), Eric Roth (screenplay)

Stars:

Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 70 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Eric Bana	...	Avner
Daniel Craig	...	Steve
Ciarán Hinds	...	Carl
Mathieu Kassovitz	...	Robert
Hanns Zischler	...	Hans
Ayelet Zurer	...	Daphna
Geoffrey Rush	...	Ephraim
Gila Almagor	...	Avner's Mother
Michael Lonsdale	...	Papa
Mathieu Amalric	...	Louis
Moritz Bleibtreu	...	Andreas
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi	...	Sylvie (as Valéria Bruni Tedeschi)
Meret Becker	...	Yvonne
Marie-Josée Croze	...	Jeanette the Dutch Assassin (as Marie-Josee Croze)
Yvan Attal	...	Tony - Andreas' Friend

Storyline

After Black September's assassination of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Prime Minister Golda Meir okays a covert operation to hunt down and kill all involved. A team of five gathers in Switzerland led by Avner, a low-level Mossad techie whose father was a war hero and whose wife is pregnant. It's an expendable team, but relying on paid informants, they track and kill several in Europe and Lebanon. They must constantly look over their shoulders for the CIA, KGB, PLO, and their own sources. As the body count mounts -- with retribution following retribution -- so do questions, doubts, and sleepless nights. Loyalties blur. What does it mean to be a Jew?

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Plot Keywords:

munich olympics | black september | jew | israel | based on true story | 

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Taglines:

The world was watching in 1972 as 11 Israeli athletes were murdered at the Munich Olympics. This is the story of what happened next.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History | Thriller

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Certificate:

18A

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the first film directed by Steven Spielberg to be released by Universal Pictures since The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997).

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Goofs

When Avner walks into Papa's home, he walks towards the kitchen past a table. There is a man standing next to the table talking to someone sitting down but in the next shot, the man standing up is gone.

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Quotes

[first lines]
American Athlete: Hey! Oh! Shame, shame! Closing down the beer garden. 100 meter dash powered by knackwurst and lager.
American Athlete: Where are you guys from?
American Athlete: What is your event?

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Revenge Movies (2014)

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Soundtracks

To Traghoudi Tou Teke
Arranged & Performed by Manolis Pappos (as Manolis Papos)
Courtesy of Extreme Production Music USA

User Reviews

Close Encounters of the Spielberg Kind

I like to swim more deeply in film than Spielberg. So although he makes somewhat effective films, they leave me wondering why they were made.

Well, we know why this, "Schindler" and "Ryan" were made. Its because after skimming a gazillion dollars by amusing us, this man wants to be seen as a weighty, "real" filmmaker. A Kubrick that likes to occasionally have fun. We all know these films to be made on ostentatiously weighty material, so they must be deep.

I had the highest hope for this one, because I know he was stung by how poorly the others were received by people he trusts. So here, he goes back to his method of "Close Encounters" which was supposed to use New Wave techniques and to circumnavigate what was then new ideas about noir. I liked it. It took chances and where it failed it did so interestingly, even in the more ambitious later cut.

This uses standard (meaning later) Spielberg techniques. Despite his vaunted cinematic storyboarding technique, all the emotional content here is spoken. All the emotional reference is off screen. There are violent acts, but these seen deliberately bloodless, like an Indiana Jones movie would have then, something abstract to talk about. The intended effect was to haunt by the reality that punches through the rationalization. The reality here never gets a chance because its all so movieworld.

That's the problem. He wants to make a film that resonates because it hurts, because it ties knots in us. He just cannot. Its still just a script. Consider the last scenes. These are powerfully written. There are a dozen other filmmakers who could have made them work.

We've been through an entire story to set up the haunting ambivalence in our hero. He is finally able to be with his wife and as he makes love to her, the only think he can see are the hostage deaths not fully shown until this moment, charmed into their horror by human touch. This is followed by her gently caressing the face of her man, accepting all that has come before. If I read this by a good writer, I would be crippled for weeks.

But see how Steven has rendered it. All the pieces are there but the cinematic machine isn't assembled. We have gone all this time, and been set up so well for nothing. I am reminded of "Monster's Ball," which is constructed the same way. Its value is all in the very end, where we have Berre sitting on a stoop in a state of bewildered acquiescence. This could have been more. It was far less, a remote poster.

Good script. I intend to read it and imagine the film that could have been.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Details

Country:

USA Canada France

Language:

English German French Hebrew Arabic Italian Greek Russian Dutch

Release Date:

6 January 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Munich

Filming Locations:

Aulich Street, Budapest, Hungary

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,152,260, 25 December 2005

Gross USA:

$47,403,685

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$130,982,129

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dreamworks Pictures, Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

164 min 163 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1