MOVIES: Munich (Steven Spielberg, 2005)

At the 1972 Munich Olympics, eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage and murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Spielberg tells us the story of the Israeli agents charged with hunting down and killing those terrorists.

The movie has taken some criticism for being anti-Israeli, and too sympathetic to the Palestinians; its critics say that it draws a moral equivalence between the killings committed by each side. I think this criticism is nonsense; Spielberg gives a Palestinian character the chance to state his case, but the Israelis are certainly the movie's heroes.

But even when killing can be justified in the name of revenge or self-defense, it exacts a high price on those who carry it out, and Spielberg shows us how that price is paid by the head of the Israeli team, Avner (Eric Bana). Like the rest of his team, Avner is not a trained killer -- their first few targets are killed in slightly bungling fashion -- and he is somewhat reluctant as the process begins; as he gets better at his job, though, he develops more enthusiasm for the task.

Violence, even when justified, inevitably begets more violence, and eventually Avner and his team find that they have become targets for assassination themselves. Fearing for his life, and those of his family, Avner begins to disintegrate, sinking into paranoia.

My biggest problem with the movie is that the philosophical questions Spielberg wants to explore don't quite mesh with the style of the movie, which is essentially a standard-issue thriller. All the obligatory action scenes are there -- our heroes risking death in their own explosions, an innocent young girl who may become an unplanned victim, and so on -- and the high-adrenaline rush of those scenes mixes poorly with the attempts at thoughtful, significant dialogue.

Eric Bana is very good, capturing every shade of Avner's constantly shifting emotions. Lynn Cohen makes a strong impression in her brief appearance as Golda Meir, and Michael Lonsdale steals his few scenes as Papa, the mercenary who supplies information to Avner and his team.