johnhildreth

". . . next time you're at a gig, watch the musician's eyes and check out when their eyes either close, or roll up into their head. What's happening here? What's happening is, we are all running liquid software programs between our ears . . . and when the RAM gets full with a musical task, the brain dumps the vision software."

Bob Brozman

Munich by Steven Spielberg

I think it’s safe to say that this is one that many critics will laud and many viewers will dislike.

I also think this movie will come to reside alongside the director's other dark horses, which include Sugarland Express, 1941 and Empire of the Sun. It has more in common with these earlier works than it does his films of more recent decades (Jurassic Park or Minority Report) in that it is not a blockbuster, it includes nary a known actor, and there are no easy answers. Munich is masterfully photographed, brilliantly cast, and the re-creation of early 1970s Europe, America and the Middle East is utterly convincing. Yet given that those items constitute the more palatable qualities of Munich, there is little else about this film that mainstream moviegoers will enjoy. It’s violent, unpleasant, difficult, confusing and runs too long. There is little in the story that is compelling in the traditional movie-going sense.

And there is hardly any music.

But, I have a feeling that there is a reason for all of this. I don’t think this film, coming in at nearly 3 hours, would have made it off the cutting room floor if Spielberg hadn’t had a reason. Further, had the movie been cut down to two hours, I don't think it would have improved. The message of violence begetting violence will not be news to most, yet there is an unsettling kind of mystery to witnessing this re-enactment of such willful killing and intrigue. It’s hard to come to terms with how the business of the world is often conducted (no matter what a country claims to stand for). In this sense alone, the rare instance of a Spielberg feature receiving an R-rating from the MPAA fully earns it.

Maybe Munich seems interminable because its message is interminable. It’s not Spielberg’s best, but I get the feeling that is not what he shoots for with each successive film. Art is rarely that simple.

J

Regarding this business of angry rhetoric and violent riots in response to cartoon caricatures of muslim religious icons . . .

Anger is being misdirected. Wrath is not due the publisher of a Danish newspaper, nor those of any European papers, nor neighborhoods populated with Christian believers; rather, it is due those who have successfully worked to transform the perception of Muslim life into one of violence, intolerance and vengeance. This is how the rest of the world is coming to view Islam. Further, many Islamic leaders have unwittingly re-inforced this perception.

It is because of those who practice violence and terror in the name of Islam that the cartoon exists in the first place. Seeking to halt those who cultivate terror will reveal an end to this madness. Muslims turning to anger and violence as a means of addressing their world only empower the radical element -- it is how they wish you to behave.

Concerning European publishers: there is no good reason to apologize for a political cartoon caricature. To do so is to grant an angry mob dominion over your business and your principles.

Societies who wish to exist in the global community must come to accept everything that goes with it. How many Islamic publications lampoon western ideals and Judeo-Christian religious icons? And are they forced to apologize amid a furor of violence and rhetoric?

As a society, you don't have to agree with the rest of the world. But you cannot expect them to agree with you all of the time either.