'Munich' makes you think

Saturday night I saw the movie "Munich," Steven Spielberg's epic inspired by the events which began in September 1972 when 11 Israeli athletes were captured and later killed at the Olympic Games in Munich, then part of West Germany. Simply put, the film is a fast-paced thriller that stands on its own as cinema but also provokes thought at the larger world and geopolitics.

On one level the movie was interesting because, being born in 1974, I did not experience the events at the Olympics that year. One should not use a fictional movie "inspired" by real events as a hitory text, but still I gained a great deal of general knowledge about the politics and issues of the time.

Beyond the historical information, the movie prompts viewers to think not only about what happened more than 30 years ago but also how that set in motion a series of events since then. The movie's main theme is articulated early in the film by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: "Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values." The young Israeli state finds itself in a conflict of whether to pursue a violent solution to the violence it experienced in Munich. At one point a character asks if it is right for violence to beget more violence.

Fast forward to the 1990s and 2000s, and one finds the Middle East tackling the same problems. Recently, Israel determined that the solution to ending the violence against its people was to stop negotiating for peace and to unilaterally move to protect its citizens and Israeli interests by attacking the insurgents and building a wall to separate Israel and Palestine. While some of the violence has been reduced, the wall and attacks also promted new attacks. Interestingly, these were major projects implemented by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who this week suffered a debilitating stroke, effectively ending his political career if not his life. The question remains who will emerge to continue his plans or to change course, writing the next chapter of the saga that started with Israeli statehood and continued in Munich in 1972.

Spielberg's movie achieves a balance in thought-provoking film. As a Jew himself, and as someone who has done much through his film career to advance the case for Jews, Spielberg could have been expected to portray the Israelis in sympathetic light. However, while the movie certainly shows the athletes as the victims, Spielberg shows how everyone is a victim and that everyone must now look over his or her shoulder in the world we live in.

This is exactly the kind of film that should be seen and discussed around America, especially in communities like Wenatchee with limited cultural opportunities. There is a market for smart cinema in the rural areas of our country, and we need to support it.

Finally, I appreciated the eagerness demonstrated by the older couples sitting behind me, but people should become at least moderately educated before attending a historical film, and they should also refrain from commenting during the screening. It is extremely annoying and disruptive to overhear questions and comments while trying to listen to a number of important bits of information on screen.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.