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I'm glad to see that Steven Spielberg is finally getting the respect he deserves as a director these days because he's really put out some amazing films in the past few years (let's try to forget about The Terminal). And this year alone he has put out two of the years best films - War of the Worlds which was probably the most exciting and visceral film of the year and now Munich which may be the most interesting and skillfully made.Stylistically, this almost isn't recognizeable as a Spielberg film, it looks and feels like a classic 70's political crime drama. Not only are the costumes and settings perfectly designed for its 1970's time period but Spielberg even sets up his shots and paces the film like The French Connection or something from that era.

Spielberg doesn't really take sides when dealing with the politics of this story. We see Arabs murdered in cold blood, a rare sight in a Hollywood film, but we also see Israel's mission of vengeance presented as less than righteous. Unfortunately, there's one scene in the film, a sex scene juxtaposed against the murder of the Israeli atheletes, that is so melodramatic and silly and incongruous with the subtelty that came before it that it almost threatens the integrity of the entire film.

Posted at December 31, 2005 05:11 PM

Especially since Eric Bana makes really terrible sex faces. Otherwise, close to a masterpiece.

Posted by: Cristiane at January 3, 2006 07:40 PM