Tuesday, January 03, 2006
I saw Munich !
Salam,
So I decide to sneak out and go see Munich on my own. I went there solo, I was like it's Monday and no one would be there, IT WAS PACKED!!!
The way I saw the movie is that it was SURPRISINGLY balanced! And for the first time it tackled the true essence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict without taking sides. He for the first time humanized the targets (Palestinians) and showed them as the real people they are, mind you, the book (vengeance) that the movie is based on was published in 1984 and talks about some of those Palestinian targets have nothing to do with Munich.
The movie also talks about how there are no saints in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, both have their hands filled with blood, "Israel wasn't created by being nice"(a quote from the movie). And at one point they were arguing should they shoot the bodyguards or not, because their targets are the 11 men only, and Steve(one of the assassins) said nothing matter to me but the Jewish blood, while others in his group argued that is the unethical thing to do.
I'm so happy to find such just and balanced movie created by the most famous Jewish director of all time.
I always Liked Spielberg, but now I have a much higher respect for the man.
Check his site out:Spielbergfilms
On a totally different note: check this TRAILER out (American Dreamz).
Salam
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3 comments:
Just to add some controversy to the mix, check out these two links:
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2005/12/spielberg-on-munich-humanization-of.html
(Talks about how Spielberg's Munich humanizes Israeli killers and dehumanizes Palestinian civilians).
http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/2005/12/what-spielberg-left-out-said-reveals.html
it is interesting how when the comercial for this movie came out arabs and muslims were upset because they thought it would make them look bad, but the movie actually represents this terrible cycle of violence and does not praise one side over the other. In fact, some stories reported that Speilberg lost his Israeli citizenship over this movie because it did not make the israelis look great.
Lulu,
Interesting articles, but Spielberg did mention the note that those Palestinian target might have nothing to do with Munich more than once and the assassin at the end was asking if there were any single prrof that they did it to justify his killing, and none was given to him. And the book says most of them have nothing to do with Munich.
About portraing Palestinian as terrorist and dehumanizing them, I got news for you, that is an established sterotype about us. But Spielberg to his defense shows the root of our behavior (when the head assassin and the Arab fighter were conversing at the safe house about the palestinian-Israeli conflict).
But again some people might see it differently, I saw it a clear image to the conflict specially to the Americans.
Linda,
I have to agree with you, it was very balanced.
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