Munich spoiler: does not show picturesque scenes of Munich
If I was only allowed one word to describe the film Munich, that word would be "stressful". It's the only film I've ever left thinking, "God, I need a drink."
If the same people who allowed me only one word to describe the film Munich suddenly got generous and allowed me a second word, that word would be "upsetting."
It's not just that the point of the movie was all too clear in the killers-killing-killers non-stop parade of violent (and varied) deaths in an Escher staircase of revenge. And it wasn't just that every single one of the graphic killing scenes wrenchingly humanized both victims and killers through their everyday-lives goodness, no matter how evil their past or future acts. It was that these points were made over and over again for three hours. It was relentless and stressful and...shattering.
It says a lot (though not much good) in a film where one graphic, bloody death blurred into the next that one scene was more horrifically haunting than any of the others¹, a scene that I still can't get out of my head six hours later; a scene that even tops the slow-stabbing scene from Saving Private Ryan.
I can't recommend this movie, but I'd encourage you to go to see it. I'm glad I saw it, but I envy the people who haven't and won't. I disagree with the good reviews and I disagree with the bad reviews. I suppose that all of these internal arguments are strong cases for the kind of movie that critics love to call "compelling", but all I know is that I can't go to sleep because the scenes of the bloody shootings, stabbings and explosions of all-too-human political killers won't leave my head.
¹ keyword for those who've seen it: houseboat.
UPDATE: I should also give an actual spoiler alert for the comments. Nothing big, but if you haven't seen it and don't want to know anything...read at your own risk
13 comments:
I had to talk a friend of mine out of seeing this on Xmas Day. THANK GOD. If the effect is anything like Private Ryan, I cannot see it. I've never had a filmgoing experience like that -- a row of my guy friends and me all sobbing uncontrollably. Damn Spielburg.
I never saw Private Ryan because I can't handle war movies. I should have realized before going to see Munich last night that it was also a war movie, although of a different ilk. I can't even say whether I liked this movie or not. If someone asks me what I thought of it I would use all the words you described, but wouldn't have a recommendation either way.
Having just come out of seeing Syriana, I may be a fool, but I want to see Munich next. MY biggest concern is that Speilberg has a tendency to get Disney-fied at times and simplify the storyline for the masses, which I find irritating. I'll have to get back to you after I've seen it.
I'd definitely be curious to hear what you (or anyone) has to think about it, Cube.
I think that it compares in a lot of ways to Private Ryan. I think that Munich is very even-handed, though I know a lot of people disagree, and I thought that Private Ryan, while having a little more of an agenda than Munich, still wasn't as biased as a lot of people thought it was.
If you think of "Disney-fied" as the tacked-on beginning and end of Private Ryan, then Munich is not Disney-fied at all.
I thought Munich was an excellent film and one that proves that when Speilberg is "on his game", there's almost no one better. To make a movie about the effects of killing/murder/violence/vengence, I think he was really left with no choice but to show things so graphically. Disturbing, very, but not exploitive. That said, as is the case with so many other of his films, the ending here didn't really work for me. (I'm thinking of the penultimate bedroom scene, not the actual final scene.)Too often Speilberg endings are a blight on an otherwise excellent film, aren't they? (And no, the problem here certainly isn't that the ending is Disney-fied!)
As Tad said after the movie, that final bedroom scene was a real turn on.
"Darling, I...hope this doesn't bother you, but I fantasize about other people when we're making love. Specifically, the Israeli hostages as they're being massacred in the helicopters. I just can't...perform otherwise."
Oh dear. I don't know if I want to see this now. I've got time to decide though, right?
Okay, seriously (and, again, spoilers ahead)....I didn't think that most of the violence was gratuitous (aside from the houseboat scene which I did feel was unnecessary) and I definitely agree with Christian that it was necessary to make the point that Spielberg was trying to make.
I actually wasn't that bothered by the bedroom scene. It seemed a little ridiculous at first, but I understood that point that he was completely obsessed with the Munich incident and his role in its revenge. Mostly, I thought the re-enactment of the final massacre at the Munich airport was as chilling as anything else in the movie.
The more I think about it, the more I liked it, but...it was just so hard to take. I really did keep running so many of those scenes through my mind and feeling newly shocked as though I was watching the movie all over again. It's just a lot easier to talk about Spielberg's mastery of suspense and tension when it's the shaking water glass in Jurassic Park instead of wondering whether a ten-year-old girl is going to be accidentally blown up by a bomb.
I'm avoiding spoilers, so I haven't read the previous comments and I don't know if this has already been addressed, but...
I remember the slow-stabbing scene in Savin Private Ryan, but only after you mention it. It's not something that springs readily to mind when I think about that film. I was much more affected by the en masse slaughter of kids storming the beach. The slow-stabbing thing was much easier to tolerate. It's hard to explain, but maybe when there's an understanding between the killer and the victim right before the moment of death, it's a lot more acceptable. There's a strange but powerful intimacy involved, and the killer can't come away unaffected (like he might, relatively, if he was in a bunker firing a machine gun in yet another huge battle). I guess what I'm trying to say is that meaningless slaughter is horrific, but if it's face to face there is going to be some meaning there. Not that it's okay, but it doesn't bother me as much.
That's interesting, because I would say the exact opposite, as, I would imagine, so would anyone involved in war. At a distance and with lots of people involved (think the views from the German bunker in the beach storming scene), or from a bomber high above cities, it's almost like it becomes a game. You see something moving, you shoot at it, it goes down. It's hard to humanize it.
One-on-one, there's no way to escape that. You're looking at another human being, you can see the look on their face, see their desperation, and yet you still have to end their lives. This is what made all of the deaths in Munich so difficult: that this is not some make-believe monster that's being killed; it's a human being who, in spite of the horrible things they may have done, has still lead a life, one that's about to end.
Anyway, the reason I found the stabbing scene so disturbing had really nothing to do with the closeness of the people. It was the fact that it was almost sensualized, that the German is lying on top of Mellish, and as he pushes the knife into his body and both realize what's happening, he smiles, looks into Mellish's eyes, shakes his head and says, "Shhhhh..." There's no sense of putting Mellish out of his misery, no sense of just doing a job (like on the beaches): it's actual joy in taking a life.
This is almost made worse in Munich by the fact that there is no joy. But there's no avoiding what they're doing at any point: ending another person's life.
I did go see the film last night. It didn't make much of an impression on me, but that may be due to the fact that I had just seen Syriana, so maybe I was O.D.'d on the Middle East and assassinations. I thought the film could have benefitted from stronger editing, that it ran on too long, that some scenes were repetitive in pounding home the points. Spielberg has a way of making you feel guilty for not liking his movies, and for some reason, I don't.
I'm sure that shooting at an approaching army from atop a hill is easier for those doing the shooting, but the fact that it becomes almost like a game is exactly what disturbs me about it. The bigger deal killing is to the killer, I would think the less likely the killer is to want to keep it up.
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