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January 10, 2006
MUNICH, BY SEQUENCE
Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | Munich In Sequence0:00 - The Movie Starts
The opening title is not without meaning. Munich is just one name of one of the world's cities. Munich is not just about Munich from its first image.
ACT ONE
1:00 - The Munich Sequence
Both the invasion of the Munich residence halls and the reaction to the hostages taken is done simply, quickly, and masterfully. If you were to watch the film again now, you would be shocked by the specific reflection of the ugliness with the mining disaster of last week, as national television news teams tell the world that the hostages have all survived… and at Mossad, they ask somberly, "Who is telling the families? (pause) Then someone should tell them."
8:40 - We Meet Avner
He watches events unfold on TV, sitting with his dog and pregnant wife.
9:00 - Who Is Dead… Who Will Be Targeted?
Perhaps the single most controversial thing in Munich occurs quite offhandedly. As the Israeli national anthem, the HaTikvak, plays over images of the dead Israeli athletes, a pile of photos of alleged terrorists builds, a body for a body, on a Mossad meeting table.
Right-wingers have read this as a stylized case for moral equivalency, that the terrorists that will be murdered are equally guilty as the unarmed, unprepared athletes who were murdered after being taken hostage.
But I don't see that this holds any water at all. It seems pretty clear that this imagery is about establishing the story to come. 11 lives for 11 lives. The dead athletes certainly get the best of the emotion here, names said proudly and displayed on Chyron with the HaTokvah blaring. It seems to me a willful act of aggression to read it as a moral equivalency. Moreover, it debases a rather powerful visual metaphor that Spielberg created so the film is not some textbook of history.
The sequence ends with the wife expressing concern for her husband, who works in some unnamed role in the government, and him, which clearly upset about what's happened, already looking past it. "What now?" "Now we're going to have a baby."
10:15 - The Golda Meir Sequence
Without a lot of speaking, we know what decision Golda Meir is faced with. She compares the decision to Adolf Eichmann's trial and execution. "You don't want to share this world with us, then we don't have to share this world with you."
"Ambushed and slaughtered again… dead Jews in Germany…"
Prime Minister Meir, played brilliantly by Lynn Cohen, has a great speech here about the choice of how to respond to being attacked. It is not a speech about whether the attack had any valid cause in the first place. In fact, there is no place in Munich that, in my opinion, questions whether any of the Israeli athletes deserved to die. Meir makes up her mind… "Forget peace for now. We have to show them we're strong."… and then explains why she feels cornered into a decision she doesn't want to make.
And she does what few leaders do… "I made my decisions… the responsibility is entirely mine."
12:50 - Avner Is Asked To Take The Mission
"Family matters." Meir establishes that Avner is family, to some degree - talking about mother and father and his own service to her - and then after he seems to agree to the mission, subtly says "goodbye" to someone she may not see again.
15:50 - Avner Meets His Handler, Ephram
16:49 - Avner And His Wife Have Sex I
Many months pregnant and they are still sharing focused, completely intimate sex.
After the sex, a discussion. Avner was, somewhat, abandoned by his mother at a kibbutz as his father was went missing. "Now you think Israel is your mother."
This is not typical dialogue. It is clearly stylized… clearly a deeper chat, even though the actress throws away some of her accusations as though they've had this talk 1000 times. She loves him and she will take all she can take, but "I'm not the hero's nice wife."
18: 12 - Avner Give Up His Life To The Operation
"The hard thing will be not punishing yourselves by getting caught or getting killed."
21:53 - Avner's First Munich Daydream
At the end of the daydream/memory, Avner gives up his last vestige of his real life by removing his wedding ring.
23:50 The Bank
25:40 The First Meeting Of the Team
"I joined the Mossad 10 minutes ago… I want to kill every one of these pigs, but…""He sells antiques…" "Right here in Frankfort… it's a front."
"I make toys…. Toys in Brussels… for bombs, I have to go to night school."
"It's strange, isn't it, to think of yourself as an assassin."
"Think of yourself as something else then."
"As soldier… in a war."28:00 - Trying To Find The Targets
The "stoned girlfriend" seems to be rambling in German, but she reaffirms what the movie is really about…
"Free will inevitably causes wrong… the blind anarchy of capitalism. You have to be prepared to reconsider right and wrong."
The "Marxist" girl negotiates a tough cash deal for information.
30:14 - Avner Moves One Source Closer To His Main Source of Information
The meeting is in an open square café… yet Spielberg is already establishing the paranoia to come, using a wide establishing shot from a rooftop across the street to set the scene, pan down and then zoom in… as someone watching this group might do.
As the scene ends, another establishing shot from a distance and a camera zoom in… all that's missing is the click of a shutter.
32:25 - Drawing Straws For The First Mission
32:55 - Establishing And Then Murdering The First Target
Pretty basic thriller stuff, beautifully executed.
Avner and Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz) end up at the target's apartment building before he gets there. As he waits and they approach from behind, the cord underneath the glass-enclosed elevator comes down, making a kind of a noose for a moment.
"Are you Wael Zwaiter?" "Yes, and who are you?"
They draw. He tries to work his way out of the situation. They are shaky. Avner keeps asking, "Do you know why we are here?" Zwaiter never answers that question. But he is shot anyway. Milk and blood mix on the floor.
The cleaner cleans up.
38:45 - The Group Reconvenes In A Public Space To Assess The Kill
"That old Pesach story. The angels are rejoicing because the Egyptians have just drowned in the Red Sea… and God said to the angels, 'Why are you rejoicing? I just killed a multitude of my children.'…"
"The angels respond to God. They say, "God, we are celebrating because when the people hear what happened to The Egyptians, they'll understand your point."
"Which was?"
"Don't fuck with the Jews."
End of ACT ONE
Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | Munich In SequenceDecember 28, 2004 - Movies You Should Have Seen, But Didn't
December 29, 2004 - The Ten Worst
December 30, 2004 - The Ten Best
January 3, 2006 - Reflections On A New Year
January 6, 2006 - Sundance Preview
January 5, 2006 - The Business Of 2001, Pt 1
