Munich

We watched a DVD of "Munich" a few nights ago. It is a compelling, dark and brutal thriller. The film portrays a murky world, where you are never quite sure who your allies are and who your enemies are. In fact the same people can be both your enemies and your allies at the same time. However, the movie is no more dark, murky and brutual than the facts of the actual story. The movie is not brutal in the sense of overt violence. There is violence in the movie, however it is more brutal to the emotions. I felt wrung out by the end of the movie. It is a very "un-fun" movie, but then again the actual story is an "un-fun" story.

"Munich" is also a movie of contrasts. It will show a touching and tender scene between a family and then a brutal scene of terrorism. It will show the warmth and comraderie between a team versus the rage one feels towards the enemies' terrorist acts. One of the most striking contrasts is between good and evil. Yet it is not clear what is good and what is evil. While the film follows the Israeli team, it points out that both sides are comitting terrorist acts against each other. Both sides are causing great destruction and pain to the other side. Even the Israeli's admit that they are setting aside their moral values to commit these horrible acts, in a never-ending cycle of terrorism.

Like "Melinda and Melinda" and "The Weatherman", this movie has a strong feeling of helplessness. "Munich" illustrates the frustration of fighting terror. You can stop individual terrorists, but that does not stop terror. Another terrorist will pop up to replace the one that you stopped. Somehow, the helplessness ruined the other two movies, but I think "Munich" is an excellent movie in spite of it. What is different? I am not really sure. Maybe the two previous movies presented the helplessness as a common theme in most people's lives, where this movie presented terrorism as isolated events that affect a few people. The terrorist acts are committed in large cities where most people continue with their daily lifes. Hmm, maybe I can identify with some of the characters in "Melinda and Melinda" and "The Weatherman", but not with terrorists in "Munich"? Again, I am not sure why, but the feeling of helplessness did not ruin the movie for me.

We have finally seen all of the movies nominated for Best Picture of 2005. I would say that this film deserves the nomination, but not the award for Best Picture. I still think "Brokeback Mountain" deserves that award. Both are powerful movies that address important issues. "Munich" is a bleak movie filmed in bleak colors. "Brokeback Mountain" was filled with expansive and dramatic landscapes. In "Munich", I only felt compassion for one character and the attachment was not especially strong. In "Brokeback Mountain", I felt a strong emotional attachment to a number of characters. As I read back through this paragraph, I realize that these are not reasons that one movie is better than the other, but reasons that I enjoyed one movie more than the other. So I guess the real answer is that both movies are great, I am not sure if one is better than the other, however I enjoyed "Brokeback Mountain" more than "Munich".