Munich

This past Sunday, I took the time to see a great film, Munich. If I had seen it sooner, it would definitely have qualified to be in my top 10. This is a deeply moving movie that does a great job of taking the time to show how seeking revenge can affect both sides. Like all the great Spielberg movies of the last 15 years, Munich was filmed by Janusz Kaminski. There is a smoky, realistic quality to how all of these are filmed that I like. Deepak Chopra wrote a great review on Huffington Post that I excerpted here:

"... Steven Spielberg's deeply sobering film about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympics draws a trail that leads directly to the attacks of 9/11. This is made clear in the final scene, set across the river from Manhattan, which features the World Trade Center towers in the background. The film suggests that our eye-for-an-eye approach to terrorism began in Munich 30 years ago.

It also shows, with sickeningly convincing brutality, how tragically that approach has failed. The message is that we are still on the road of endless violence and that the War on Terror, no matter how many jihadists are killed, will become our own paralyzing nightmare.

... It's possible to see equality between Arabs and Israelis, not in terms of right and wrong, but in terms of two opponents equally victimized by hatred. Israel and the Arab states have contributed to the sorrow of the world by carrying the hugest weight of that sorrow themselves. Insofar as right-wing factions in this country drag us into a war against evil, we will also be victimized, and our claim to be civilized will weaken bit by bit.

By films' end Avner succeeds in killing many of his assigned targets, only to realize with anguish that every single one was replaced by someone worse. This is happening now, only instead of a single Osama whose face is known everywhere, we are fostering millions of faceless enemies. We have no idea how many of them will become terrorists, but we can be certain that the stranglehold of hatred is growing tighter. Spielberg's disturbingly dark film is therefore more about our future than about our past."

Hopefully, when people see this film, they think just a little bit about our current situation. That's what all good films do ... make you think about yourself and the world that you live in. And just maybe, you try to change things.