Spielberg & Kushner's Munich '72 / Israeli vengeance film

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not really, it was kind of banal,

anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 24 December 2005 10:12 (eighteen years ago) link

Unless this is a much better thriller than I am anticipating it will be from the reviews, I have a feeling I am going to not like this film very much, but low expectations are always good for Spielberg films.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 24 December 2005 17:23 (eighteen years ago) link

it's not much of a thriller at all. it's kind of coldy fascinating though.

ryan (ryan), Saturday, 24 December 2005 17:34 (eighteen years ago) link

i never doubted that the hand-wringing came mostly from the filmmakers. nor do i really mind, it's drama (in a very old-fashioned way a lot of the time), not a documentary

s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 24 December 2005 19:04 (eighteen years ago) link

this was pretty good i thought. it didn't know how to end, however.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 20:58 (eighteen years ago) link

also not much of a ho ho ho holiday cheer.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 21:02 (eighteen years ago) link

but it was either that or the producers and i'd rather eat glass, etc etc.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link

producers was awesome! cant wait to see munich!

howell huser (chaki), Monday, 26 December 2005 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link

The movie was predictably meh, but there is a flashback sequence in this movie that is so laughably bad that I dare anyone (and that means you Armand White) to defend it.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:29 (eighteen years ago) link

strongo pretty otm about the ending... it shoulda just stopped earlier

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:46 (eighteen years ago) link

yeah there were about five points where i was like..."now!"

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:47 (eighteen years ago) link

except ironically if it had ended at any of those five points it woulda felt like a flat ending too.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:48 (eighteen years ago) link

That sex/violence intercutting at the end is even worse than everybody's been saying. And you don't even get to see Eric Bana's ass.

There were a few good moments here and there--the confrontation in the safe house in Athens was pretty hot. Well, till they got to the bit with the radio. Spielberg always fucks it up, doesn't he? I liked all the actors, though.

I saw Pat O'Brien waiting for popcorn at the theatre.

Gogi Ormsby-Gore (Arthur), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:51 (eighteen years ago) link

also: eric bana looks like a very elongated corey feldman

also two: whoever played his wife, fucking hot

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:52 (eighteen years ago) link

haha i would have kinda liked to see oliver stone direct this

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:53 (eighteen years ago) link

hands up who expected to ever see pregnant fucking in a spielberg movie

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:56 (eighteen years ago) link

man the photography is this really knocked me out... i'd always been pretty ambivalent as far as kaminski's stuff went... but wow.

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:57 (eighteen years ago) link

thankfully he didn't rock any of that blown-out blue-steel bs.

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:57 (eighteen years ago) link

was traffic's real legacy making everyone sick of all that blue?

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:58 (eighteen years ago) link

i gotta admit there were a couple shots in there that kinda made me go "wow" under my breath

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:58 (eighteen years ago) link

i like spielberg, but then i am a big cornball.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 22:59 (eighteen years ago) link

i am glad he exists, because i am glad movies like this can be made on that kinda budget, and can get to the 14 multi-plex, and that people will actually go see them.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:00 (eighteen years ago) link

god, the previews beforehand really hammered home the fact that, yes, i am about to watch a movie about israel/palestine in a mall with a tgifriday's attached to it.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:01 (eighteen years ago) link

american dreamz...wtf?!

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:01 (eighteen years ago) link

totally! and well... dude has skills! on display!

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:02 (eighteen years ago) link

i also never really expected spielberg of all people to make a movie where the final note is more or less "israel... not so much."

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:03 (eighteen years ago) link

it's kinda the anti-saving private ryan in that way

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:03 (eighteen years ago) link

between this, the chinese food, and the crushing guilt from my mother, i had a very jewish christmas this year.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:04 (eighteen years ago) link

that's a good quote for the print ad!

s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:06 (eighteen years ago) link

this christmas, get carbombed with spielberg.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Monday, 26 December 2005 23:08 (eighteen years ago) link

jess where did you see it?

Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 15:44 (eighteen years ago) link

i was in d.c. over the weekend; it's playing at the regal in chinatown. i dunno when it's hitting bmore.

u saved me (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 27 December 2005 16:05 (eighteen years ago) link

very, very great.

mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 5 January 2006 05:13 (eighteen years ago) link

i'd also like to second the american dreamz wtf.

mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 5 January 2006 05:14 (eighteen years ago) link

this was really good

latebloomer: Grab my puffy nipples and make a wish. (latebloomer), Thursday, 5 January 2006 14:53 (eighteen years ago) link

I thought it was pretty great. More entertaining than I was expecting. I was expecting a lot of brooding and moral agonizing, and there was a little of that, but much more spy-movie thriller action. I liked how he kind of explored all the shades of moral grey by testing the audience's ability & willingness to accept "collateral damage". Ie., is the mission still just if it requires killing innocent little girls? What if the innocent little girl is spared but the hot newlywed bride gets blinded? And so on.

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 January 2006 15:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Hmm... I guess I should have put a *SPOILER ALERT* on that post.

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:19 (eighteen years ago) link

The first third was brilliant: a weary and destroyed Golda Meier ordering the kidnappings; the dinner-table conversations of the crew. The second third, with that marvelous actor who played Papa showikng Eric Bana to his country estate, was like the work of, I dunno, Eric Rohmer or minor Jean Renoir: scintillating country-house drama. Excellent.

The final third was a disaster. A crushing disappointment.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Yes, I liked that country-house scene too. It seemed very odd that someone in the underworld would invite a client to meet their entire extended family, especially when they weren't even sure about his allegiances or mission (although by that time, I guess they had him pegged as Mossad). I mean blindfolding him on the way there doesn't seem like such tight security when he's going to be able to recognize all your relatives. It seemed implausible, but in terms of providing vivid and incongruous imagery it was great, I guess. I think the idea was to show that tribalism is not just a Middle East phenomenon.

I'm not sure why you thought the ending was such a crushing disappointment. It seemed to me that the film kind of just petered out. A few more members of the team died, he got called back, he retired... maybe not the most satisfying conclusion, but hardly seemed like the stuff of a disaster.

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:50 (eighteen years ago) link

The rightly-criticized crosscutting between sex and kidnapping was in horrid taste.

Also: the Papa family's Manchurian Candidate-style omnipotence didn't ring true either. It seemed as if Spielberg and his writers found a pat solution to an immensely complex problem.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't see what's in bad taste about the flashback scene. He was having nightmares about what happened in Munich all through the movie - why is it unthinkable that he might think of it during sex?

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Because he's coming as the horror peaks?

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:02 (eighteen years ago) link

And this is bad because? I still don't get it, unless you think the filmmakers were trying to make some point about violence being a form of orgasmic release. That might seem a bit didactic - but the film doesn't really force that interpretation upon us.

o. nate (onate), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:04 (eighteen years ago) link

It's bad because there's little connection between the sex and the kidnapping -- tonally and morally.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:09 (eighteen years ago) link

I didn't think it was in bad taste, it was just bad. I was waiting for Bana to fling his arms out to the side and start making airplane noises, the angle was that bad.

Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (miloaukerman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:14 (eighteen years ago) link

the sex scene towards the end was rather awkward, but it didnt ruin the movie or anything.

latebloomer: Grab my puffy nipples and make a wish. (latebloomer), Friday, 6 January 2006 02:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah I thought this was very great. It has stuck with me. The sex scene didnt bother me so much.

deej.. (deej..), Friday, 6 January 2006 02:49 (eighteen years ago) link

i kinda liked the sex scene because it had such an over-the-top ken russell vibe to it, i was like "really, spielberg? really?"

s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 6 January 2006 07:05 (eighteen years ago) link

i did feel like the sweat was going come out of the screen and splash on my face

latebloomer: Let's just say I do for bullshit what Stonehenge did for Rocks (lat, Friday, 6 January 2006 07:39 (eighteen years ago) link

and goddammit, the guy sitting next to me had the worst B.O.

latebloomer: Let's just say I do for bullshit what Stonehenge did for Rocks (lat, Friday, 6 January 2006 07:40 (eighteen years ago) link


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