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Author Topic:   Munich
NEWSFLASH
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Posts: 5958
From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted December 01, 2005 08:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message
'Munich' To Launch Quietly

The Dec. 23 premiere of Steven Spielberg's Munich will not be accompanied by the usual news conferences, talk-show appearances and print interviews that ordinarily attend the release of a major film, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). Marvin Levy, Spielberg's personal publicist, told the newspaper that the director "wants everybody not to have preconceptions, to see the movie and make up their own minds." The Universal Pictures film recounts the terrorist massacre of Israel's Olympic team at Munich in 1972 and the subsequent efforts of Israel's Massad to avenge the killings.

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fred
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From:Redmond, WA
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posted December 01, 2005 03:35 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for fred   Click Here to Email fred     Edit/Delete Message
Looks good.

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NEWSFLASH
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Posts: 5958
From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted December 06, 2005 09:08 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message
Spielberg Hopes 'Munich' Is a Prayer for Peace

Hollywood movie-maker Steven Spielberg is hopeful his forthcoming terrorist thriller Munich will become a "prayer for peace" to be shared by Palestinians and Israelis. The Oscar-winner is recreating the infamous kidnapping of Israeli athletes by Palestinian extremists at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. While Spielberg accepts the film is sure to stir up controversy, but hopes its gives the still warring peoples food for thought. He explains, "I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today. But it's worth a try. Somewhere inside all this intransigence there has to be a prayer for peace.

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NEWSFLASH
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Posts: 5958
From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted December 07, 2005 09:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message
Spielberg's 'Munich' Is the Best Movie of 2005

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

I don't know which is more amazing: that Steven Spielberg managed to make the best movie of the year in just four months, or that it's his second huge film of 2005.

Either way, "Munich" is a poignant political masterpiece that will no doubt be very controversial.

It's the best movie of 2005, coming in at the last minute to best other terrific entries, including "Walk the Line," "Match Point," "Capote," "Mrs. Henderson Presents," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "A History of Violence" and even "Memoirs of a Geisha."

"Munich" is "inspired by real events," those being the 1972 murders of the Israeli wrestling team in Munich during the Olympics and the fallout that followed.

The filmmaker says "inspired by" and I will take him at his word. There is not going to be an anti-"Munich" campaign in which factual details are matched up to the movie's sequences. This is not "A Beautiful Massacre."

It's certainly mind-blowing, in many ways, that Spielberg made this movie at all.

He released his popcorn movie of the year, "War of the Worlds," in June. He didn't start work on "Munich" until July 15.

The final scene was shot, I believe, around Sept. 22 in New York, with Geoffrey Rush and Eric Bana. That's not much turnaround time.

And yet, as far as I can tell, there are no huge mistakes in "Munich." Even the music is from 1972 — Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" and Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" are from that year. The movie's look, from the sets, props, costumes and hairstyles to Janusz Kaminski's tinted cinematography, is also vintage.

Spielberg, in fact, seems like he's taken a page out of Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney's playbook. He's outdone "Traffic" and "Syriana" at the same time.

If it weren't based on a historic tragedy, you would say that "Munich" was a better version of the "Mission: Impossible" movies. It's hard to put the facts aside, but if you do, "Munich" is very good entertainment.

Bana — who certainly should be nominated for Best Actor — is the convincing and heroic lead. He plays Avner, a Mossad officer chosen by Israeli intelligence to lead an elite squad of agents whose mission is to kill the Palestinian terrorists who murdered the Olympic team.

Bana is enlisted by Geoffrey Rush, and then picks a team played by Daniel Craig (the new James Bond, in a surprisingly small role), Ciarah Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz and Hanns Zischler.

They are all very good, especially Hinds, but there are two standout performances by Mathieu Amalric and Michael Lonsdale as a French son and father at the center of international intrigue. I don't know if either of them are on screen enough, but they might each qualify for supporting-actor nods.

Bana, whose credits include the praised "Chopper" and the reviled "Troy," not to mention a stint as Ang Lee's "Hulk," vaults to stardom in "Munich," whether he likes it or not.

In a complicated movie full of disarming violence and philosophical questions about retribution, Bana's Avner is a guiding light. He is Spielberg's most clearly drawn adult male hero since Indiana Jones — and that includes "E.T."'s Elliott, Oskar Schindler and Bruce, the shark from "Jaws."

In many ways, I felt like Spielberg had been working his way up to Avner in his last few central characters: Tom Hanks in "The Terminal," Leonardo DiCaprio in "Catch Me If You Can" and Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds."

There will be plenty of debate over whether Spielberg favored the Israelis or demonized the Palestinians in this movie. But the terrific screenplay by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth goes a long way to solve these problems.

The Israelis are shown as conflicted by their task; the Palestinians are made multi-dimensional through their own explanation of what went on. Spielberg doesn't attempt to address the entire Middle East conflict, just to deal with this moment in 1972.

And there are the trademark Spielbergian touches, too: Avner often stares longingly into a kitchen store window, where all the appliances are pristine and life is perfect. It's where he meets Louis (Amalric) to get information, but you know the whole time he's thinking of his beautiful wife and newborn baby.

The 1972 kitchens — avocado-colored dishwashers, etc — make the perfect antidote to the bloody killing going on all around him.

"Munich" is for real. It joins "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan," "Amistad" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" on Spielberg's "serious" film list.

The 2005 Oscars are all his for the taking.

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indiedan
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Posts: 6022
From:Santa Monica
Registered: May 2000

posted December 13, 2005 10:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message
Spielberg Slammed Over 'Munich' Movie

Steven Spielberg's movie about the 1972 Munich Olympic Games has been slammed as "superficial" and "pretentious" by Israel's consul-general in Los Angeles. Munich follows an Israeli hit squad's hunt for Palestinian terrorists holding Jewish athletes hostage. Eleven of the athletes were killed when a German rescue attempt went wrong. But Ehud Danoch fears the film delivers an incorrect moral message, by comparing the Mossad secret service agents with the terrorists. He says, "As a Hollywood movie, I assume that it will be defined as a well-made film, but from the standpoint of the messages it sends, the messages are problematic. This is an incorrect moral equation. We in Israel know this. There is also a certain pretentiousness in attempting to treat a painful decades-long conflict by means of quite superficial statements in a movie." Spielberg has also been attacked by Jewish author Jack Engelhard - who accuses him of being "no friend of Israel." The Indecent Proposal writer says, "Jews pioneered Hollywood. If, as our enemies say, we own Hollywood, well, here's the plot twist - we have lost Hollywood, and we have lost Spielberg. Spielberg is no friend of Israel. Spielberg is no friend of truth."

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indiedan
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From:Santa Monica
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posted December 20, 2005 09:20 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for indiedan   Click Here to Email indiedan     Edit/Delete Message
Spielberg Hires Political Advisor


Steven Spielberg has recruited one of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's advisers to help him promote his movie about the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack. Spielberg's film, Munich, follows an Israeli hit squad's hunt for Palestinian terrorists who held Jewish athletes hostage. Eleven of the athletes were killed when a German rescue attempt went wrong. Although still to be released, the movie has attracted criticism and been accused of historical inaccuracy. So Spielberg hopes Eyal Arad - who helped plan the recent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza - will help soften its release in Israel. Arad, who has arranged a screening in Tel Aviv for widows of the murdered Israeli athletes, "We are talking about a film that has generated a lot of interest. Naturally that sort of interest can entail some negative reactions as well as positive reactions."

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NEWSFLASH
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Posts: 5958
From:Hollywood, CA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted December 20, 2005 12:57 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for NEWSFLASH   Click Here to Email NEWSFLASH     Edit/Delete Message
Spielberg Acts To Counter Israeli Criticism of 'Munich'


After Ehud Danoch, the Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, slammed Steven Spielberg's upcoming Munich as "superficial" and "pretentious," Spielberg is reportedly attempting to "mollify" current and former agents of the Mossad, the Israeli secret service, and court other Israeli officials, Daily Variety reported today (Tuesday). (In an earlier review, the trade paper also condemned the film.) According to Variety, Spielberg has offered to screen the movie to Meir Dagan, the current chief of Mossad, and to agents who worked for it at the time of the events depicted in the film. The publication further reported that producer Kathleen Kennedy and screenwriter Tony Kushner arranged a screening for two widows of Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. One of the women, Ilana Romano, was quoted as saying, "Munich handles the terrorist attack and the plight of the Israeli victims with great accuracy."

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