Critics agree: Munich will give audiences something more than popcorn to chew on.


Homepage Full Production Notes Critics Spielberg is no friend of Israel You never want to be labeled a fan of Israel in today’s Hollywood. Munich widow blasts Spielberg Mimi Weinberg: With Jews like Spielberg we don't need enemies. Spielberg film 'good for Israel' Gila Almagor says thriller about Israeli assassinations of Munich 1972 massacre perpetrators will improve country's image. Spielberg Speaks: Israel entitled to strong response Spielberg tells Time Magazine ahead of release of upcoming movie about Munich Olympic massacre. Interviews Eric Bana talks Audiences will be challenged by the complex moral issues that it raises. Daniel Craig talks "We're all kind of directly responsible for you know, most of the pain that goes on in this world." Reviews Critics agree One thing critics agree on about Steven Spielberg's Munich: it will give audiences something more than popcorn to chew on. Best film of 2005 A film of uncommon depth, intelligence, and sensitivity, Munich defies easy labeling. Variety Review As Steven Spielberg ponders the pointlessness of tit-for-tat retaliation between Israelis and Palestinians... Hollywood Reporter Steven Spielberg successfully enters Costa-Gavras territory with "Munich". Olympic orphan depicts dad in Spielberg's 'Munich' For aspiring Israeli actor Guri Weinberg, the big break in Hollywood was mixed with heartbreak.	Critics agree: Munich will give audiences something more than popcorn to chew on One thing critics agree on about Steven Spielberg's Munich: it will give audiences something more than popcorn to chew on. Whether they can swallow it is another matter. "Mr. Spielberg has been pummeling audiences with his virtuosity for nearly as long as he has been making movies; now, he tenders an invitation to a discussion," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. Although her review mentions some of that discussion -- much of it angry -- that the film generated even before its release, she nevertheless remarks, "It would do a disservice to Mr. Spielberg to linger too long on the preemptive attacks on the film: more than anything, Munich is a slammin' entertainment." Still, Spielberg's point of view of the Arab-Israeli strife in general and Israel's hunt for the Palestinians who assassinated the Israeli Olympic team in 1972 in particular is at the heart of the movie, as critics dutifully point out. - Manohla Dargis, New York Times Roger Ebert, who calls Spielberg, "the most successful and visible Jew in the world of film," notes that the movie has been attacked by Palestinians and Jews alike. "By not taking sides, he has taken both sides," Ebert writes in his Chicago Sun-Times review, which concludes: "As a thriller, Munich is efficient, absorbing, effective. As an ethical argument, it is haunting. And its questions are not only for Israel but for any nation that believes it must compromise its values to defend them." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Lou Lumenick in the New York Post worries that the attack on the film by some notable Israelis "might keep audiences away from one of the year's most thoughtful and entertaining movies." - Lou Lumenick, New York Post Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer predicts an Oscar nomination for Spielberg. "Munich, he writes, ricochets all over the place, but it hits its target dead-on." - Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer Ty Burr in the Boston Globe describes it as Spielberg's "finest film in years ... a stunningly well-made international thriller and a drama of deepening moral quicksand." - Ty Burr, Boston Globe And Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times writes that Spielberg's broad purpose appears to be to encourage its audience to "recognize that killing that starts out in righteousness can end up in madness" and that the film amounts to "a desperate plea for peace." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Film's Naysayers But the film's naysayers make their case forcefully as well. Steven Hunter in the Washington Post writes: "The problem with Munich is simple: It asks hard questions and finds easy answers." Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News judges the film a "failure" and concludes: "One admires Munich for its look and ambitions, but at 164 minutes, it feels like the longest movie of the year, and one with greater impact on your behind than on your intellect." And Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal faults Spielberg for bending over "every which way to be even-handed" and writes that the movie is "for better and worse, a vivid, sometimes simplistic thriller in which action speaks louder than ideas."