MUNICH: THE MOVIE

Okay, the Renaissance Man has now seen one of the films nominated for Best Movie Oscar.

It should not win, but it is not as bad as some people have said. It does have a lot of faults and, to the Renaissance Man, it shows all the signs of having been made in a hurry.

There is no problem, in the Renaissance Man's view, with the portrayal of the protagonist (and some of his team members) as troubled by what they are doing. We would not want our heroes to be psychopathic killers who blow up people without a twinge of conscience. That is the big difference between our side and the terrorists.

The problem is that the film is simplistic. Basically, they get the locations of their targets from Louis, and his family (whoever they are) and then go blow up the target. Period. Then, on to the next one. The moralizing seems to be less heartfelt than a rather weak attempt to instill more of a story into the picture.

A more interesting story would be the family from whom the Israelis get their information. Who are they? How do they know this stuff? How did they come to be? Why does the father have sympathy for the Jews?

From a character point of view, the only interesting person in the film is Louis' father. It would have been interesting to see the relationship between he and Avner develop a bit more.

Three Stars