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Anyone seen the movie? For those that don’t know, it’s about the counter-terrorism cell that apparantly operated to kill those who were involved in the terrorist massacre of Israeli athletes at the (I think) 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Interested to hear what others, particularly those with personal Israeli connections, thought of the movie.
Hi Jeff,
Hope all’s well with you.
Haven’t seen the film yet but when the DVD comes out I’ll be watching it with an ex-idf friend of mine. I’ll let you know what we think. I believe there’s some controversy about the source material but by all accounts, whether it’s true or not, it’s a ripping good yarn.
On a related note, I recently had a very interesting discussion with Col. Daniel Reisner. He’s retired now (well as ‘retired’ as any idf veteran gets to be). He was the head of the international law branch at the idf and he knows a lot about the legal aspects of this sort of thing. I think there’s a fair bit of his work in the public domain that you might find provides some insight into the subject.
Having said all that, if you want a good film about israeli lotar ops I’d recommend \”Raid on Entebbe\”
Stay safe,
Al
I saw the movie, hated it. It’s really just three hours of some guys going from place to place, killing one guy after the other. The actor who played the main Mossad guy was such a softie, I didn’t believe that he would ever be selected for such a task. And there is not a lot of Krav Maga, if that’s what you are looking for.
It’s also not very accurate. For example, one fact that is missing is that the real Mossad agents actually killed an innocent guy, mistakingly believing he was one of the terrorists. If Spielberg wanted to question whether or not revenge killings are really worth it, including such a fact may have made sense. Because, as long as the characters keep killing the people they intended to kill, why would they ever feel remorse? But have them kill an innocent person, along with the targeted terrorists, and it would have given them a reason to actually feel bad about their actions.
A far better movie in my opinion, from the other side of the conflict, is the Palestinian movie \”Paradise Now\”. It won the Golden Globe for best foreign film and was nominated for the Oscar in the same category. It questions whether suicide bombings are really the best way to fight the Israeli occupation as it shows two suicide bombers prepare for their mission.
Film for film’s sake, it was a good flick. Well filmed, well acted, great scenes…had that groovy 70’s feel to them. Even the filming technique was straight from the 70’s, with the zoom lens and stuff.
The film was preachy though, and I didn’t care for the ridiculously negative portrayal of mossad higher-ups or the attempt to draw a moral equivalence between Palestinian terrorist activity and Israel’s responses to it.
BTW, Wade makes a cameo near the end of the movie.
Always a discusison point with your buddies/date/wife when you see his name in the credits.
I have not seen the movie and I have only heard much talk about the moral equivalance issue. It is not a documentary; it is a Hollywood story based on a real event so liberties were taken in telling the story. Couple that with the directors worldview and you will know that there is probably going to be a bias.
However I can’t comment either way since I haven’t seen it.
I heard about two other movies that are actual documentaries:
One Day in September and
RevengeAnother movie I saw, to go with the Raid on Entebbe, is called Operation Thunderbolt.
Of course, not much Krav on display in any of those movies either.
I’m not sure what I think of this comment:
\”…as long as the characters keep killing the people they intended to kill, why would they ever feel remorse?\”This would make it seem as if these people were robots with no human qualities, unless they were all sociopaths.
I thought it was a \”well-done\” movie, although the questions of situations that the characters were in are ones I’m glad I’ll probably never have to ask myself.
More I was wondering if anyone could comment on the historicity.
What did Wade do in the movie?
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quote \”Bar-El\:It is not a documentary; it is a Hollywood story based on a real event so liberties were taken in telling the story. Couple that with the directors worldview and you will know that there is probably going to be a bias.Really? You mean it wasn’t a documentary? I want my $7.50 back. 😆
Anyway, as I said, as a movie it’s not too shabby. As a film with a moral message (which it certainly tries to send), I think Spielburg pussied out, biased or not.
Bar-El,
I’m just thinking, from the Mossad’s point of view, why would you send people, who might end up having second thoughts about their mission? You’d want people, who deeply believe in what they are doing, have no sympathy whatsoever for the people they see as cold-blooded terrorists and truly believe in the righteousness of their mission and that the terroristst deserve to die. If there is any chance whatsoever that they might chicken out at the last minute or show feelings of remorse, it could severely jeopardize that mission.
There is one character in the movie (the new James Bond, Daniel Craig), who doesn’t seem to have feelings whatsoever for the lives of the terrorists. That’s the kind of person I think the Mossad would want to send. The only way a person like that might feel remorse about what he is doing is if maybe an innocent bystander gets killed (for example, if they had accidently killed the little girl who went to pick up the phone that had the bomb in it, that could have been interesting for the movie. But then I think Spielberg was afraid to show Israelis killing an innocent person, even if it was accidental).
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I blame it all on you krouts. If you didn’t drop the ball with that rescue thing at the airport… 😆
Cm’on GV, if you’re gonna use the racial slurs, at least spell them correctly, it’s \”krauts\” with an \”a\”! 😉
Yeah, the German police was definitely overwhelmed. I think they wanted to be the big heroes saving the Israeli athletes and then everything went wrong. They didn’t have any special forces at the time, now they do, so they would hopefully do a better job.
On a side note: How come this thread has become so elongated? Am I the only person who is experiencing this? Makes it hard to read.
Actually, I heard the book that the movie was based on has a ton of factual holes in it. According to what I’ve read, the people involved in the actual mission think the book sucks. Not knowing enough about it I can’t say anything for the facts, but the movie in terms of entertainment was good.
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quote \”Giantkiller\:Cm’on GV, if you’re gonna use the racial slurs, at least spell them correctly, it’s \”krauts\” with an \”a\”! 😉Dammit, I always screw that up. 😆
DK, I heard the same thing.
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