Planning to see "Munich"? Watch "One Day In September" first! (A review) (1 Viewer)

[DeeF]

Don't watch this movie if you're at all squeamish. There are closeups of the burned bodies (and stabbed and shot bodies) of the victims.

This movie is absolutely terrifying.

 

[Jim Robbins]

I haven't yet seen "Munich" but I did see "The Sword of Gideon" which also covers this event. It's a made for TV film from 1986 and on DVD.

 

[Vickie_M]

Have you seen Munich since you wrote this? The movie does not have an "anti-eye for an eye" message. Some of the characters start to question what they're doing, since violence breeds violence breeds violence, but Speilberg presents both sides and lets the viewer make up his own mind. It's really more about what violence does to people who kill for a living. The movie is neither pro or anti-Israel nor pro or anti-Palestinian. It's getting criticism from BOTH sides since it didn't take a strong stand one way or another. I've seen it twice now and I believe it's one of the best movies of the year, and one of Spielberg's best movies. It's very well-made and powerful, and it's a shame that the "controversy" has kept the movie from getting the box office and awards attention it deserves.

I saw "One Day In September" years ago and I'm glad to see it's on DVD. I'll definitely pick up a copy.

 

[Steven Wesley]

Upon Ron's recommendation, I picked this up and very much enjoyed the film. My only complaint would be the lack of identification of talking heads at times in the film. Other than that, it did a nice job laying out the events (and probably getting me a little ticked off regarding the way the German government handled the events).

 

[mikey ra]

On Ron's recommendation, I purchased this last night and watched it with my girlfriend.
Chilling and now we are set to watch Munich this weekend. Thank you for the heads up Ron, it is appreciated.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I would like also to know how the filmmakers found him and the Israeli teams didn’t! Is this guy the one in the middle of those 3 in the press conference?

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Indeed. That’s actually a major screw up. The information is there and at the beginning of the movie it’s working properly (via forced subtitles). However later in the documentary the forced subtitles don’t work anymore. If you turn on the subtitle, you will see that the information is there. Each time a new talking head came on, I turned on and off the subtitles which was very annoying.

 

[Mike Heenan]

Here's what someone said about the Jamal Gashey on another board I visit when I asked the same question of how they found him and not the Mossad:

Initially open PLO channels were used, but led to nothing.

In the end, it was an outside Palestinian source who proved the critical asset. He had grown up with the three surviving Black September members in the Chatila camp. He knew that Jamal al Gashey was alive and that Mossad had merced the other two in the late 70s. The source took the director to meet their families in the camps. The families OKed him. Then it took another six months of the outside source persuading Jamal to speak. The source insisted that the only way for Jamal to escape his past was to confront it.

Jamal cancelled the first two scheduled interviews - both at the last minute. He finally met up in Amman on the third try. During filming, he appeared insanely paranoid, along with emotional outbreaks and long tangents. They recorded 8 hours of him talking, but only 30 minutes of it was usable.

 

[Paul.S]

Thx, Mike--interesting.



Hiya, Vickie! Long time no "see." You may recall that we both sparred with Lee Scoggins over in the Music area in the past.

Thx for your comments. I saw Munich before I made my comments--I wouldn't have made them otherwise. I think we're parsing the same issue differently: one could argue that a "violence breeds violence breeds violence" message is tantamount to an anti-eye-for-an-eye critique.

And the notion that the pic is about what killing does to people who kill for a living is complicated by the fact that the Bana and Rush characters respond so differently to it. Perhaps this was your point--it wasn't clear to me. Obviously there are trained Mossad agents who have less issues with what they do than the Bana character.

And I think that's part of Spielberg's point. It seems to me that Spielberg is primarily interested in the Bana character's dilemma--otherwise he wouldn't be the central character of the story. Having him come to the conclusions he does, yet be rejected upon asking to break bread with another Jew is, for me, a commentary from a conflicted Jew about his place in his "own" community.

Which goes back to my earlier comments about understanding how some members of the 'pro-Israeli'/Jewish community might have problems with the pic.

I agree with your comments about the power and craftsmanship of the pic though and am very happy it got a Best Pic nom.

I wish Universal would clarify what their hi def strategy is going to be. This is one I'll be interested in buying on HD DVD, but preferably Blu-ray.