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The battle of 'Munich'Spielberg film provokes anger in some quartersBy Todd Leopold  Mathieu Kassovitz, left, and Eric Bana star in Steven Spielberg's "Munich." ON CNN TV Watch "Showbiz Tonight" on CNN Headline News at 7 p.m. ET weekdays.
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- Steven Spielberg has called his new film, "Munich," "a prayer for peace." But -- probably much to his dismay -- the film has provoked war, a war of words if not of deeds. "In his depiction of reality there are no people so committed to a murderous ideology that they are impervious to the sort of compromise and dialogue Spielberg puts such great faith in," wrote columnist David Brooks in The New York Times. "Because he will not admit the existence of evil, as it really exists, Spielberg gets reality wrong." "Why should I admire somebody for his ability to manipulate me? In other realms of life, this talent is known as demagoguery," wrote Leon Wieseltier of Spielberg in The New Republic. At the heart of "Munich" are questions of morals and ethics, set in motion by an Israeli plan to exact revenge on the Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Is the plan appropriate? In killing terrorists, are you creating more terrorists? Does revenge weaken the soul, and if so, is it worth it anyway? How far should one take violence to maintain a country? A civil society? Is the world civil at all? These are the kinds of questions that recur in holy books, in philosophy classes, in any consideration of laws, deeds and society. "Munich," with a script co-written by "Angels in America" playwright Tony Kushner, offers no easy answers, telling the story from the point of view of a secret Israeli assassination squad but playing things down the middle -- which is one way the film has left itself open to attack, well chronicled by Salon's Michelle Goldberg. "Munich" straddles a line between reality ("based on true events," the movie says) and drama. It is a work of fiction, not a documentary, which also has left it vulnerable. But as art, as a movie, the film has fared better with critics -- most of them, anyway. " 'Munich,' through the unromantic oddity of its assassins, does something all too rare: It immerses us in a suspense that's logistical and, at the same time, anxiously humane," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman "A thought-provoking, highly charged inquiry into the political, moral and historical ramifications of terrorism and the effort to combat this scourge," said The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt. The film also made Roger Ebert's, Newsweek's and the American Film Institute's 10-best lists. But both The New Yorker and The Village Voice gave it careful pans, and it wasn't nominated in the best drama category of the Golden Globes (though Spielberg and the screenwriters earned nods). Obviously, this will not be a movie for everybody. Eye on Entertainment takes a look. Eye-opener"Munich" stars Eric Bana as Avner, recruited by the mysterious Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush) to be part of a secret Israeli squad set up to kill the Munich assassins. Avner, along with his cohorts Carl (Ciaran Hinds), Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), Hans (Hanns Zischler) and Steve (Daniel Craig), become men without a country; as far as Ephraim and Israel are concerned, they are off the books (except for the receipts they are constantly, and amusingly, told to get). Avner finds a contact named Louis (Mathieu Amalric), a defiantly unaffiliated source who supplies information on where the Palestinians may be. But, Louis makes clear, he and his family play no favorites; they help whoever they want, as long as the price is right. Eventually, as they travel from country to country, Avner and his colleagues can't figure out what -- or who -- to trust. They're not supposed to kill anyone but the Munich assassins -- family is off-limits -- but the longer they go, the sloppier they get. Avner's own experiences begin to make him paranoid. He has a wife and a new baby. Is he doing the right thing, and if so, for whom? The script, credited to Kushner and Eric Roth ("Ali," "Forrest Gump"), bears Kushner's stamp of weaving philosophical and historical references with occasional dark Jewish humor. One can sense the presence of "Angels in America's" angry angel -- and its thoughtful rabbi. How all this will play to America -- particularly one facing its own war on terrorism -- is anyone's guess. But it already has the country talking. "Munich" opens Friday in selected cities, with an expansion in January. On screen , the latter the recipient of lukewarm reviews.On the tubeSound wavesPaging readers.) It's out Tuesday.Video center
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