Munich

As promised, I watched "Munich", the next offering from Netflix, this week. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, who called it "historical fiction". So, if you have made an in-depth study of the events surrounding the massacre, don't write to him correcting his facts. Chalk it up to "artistic license."

In 1972, after the eleven olympic Israeli athletes were kidnapped and massacred in Munich, by a group called "Black September", an assasination squad made up of five Mossad agents was formed, led by a young Mossad office worker named Avner. One of the other agents was played by Daniel Craig (Zowie! Check out those piercing blue eyes. But, I digress). They were to track down and assassinate the people who planned the massacre. It became known as "Operation Wrath of God".

But, first, they have to sign a renunciation of Mossad, so their superior can claim no knowledge of them or their activities ("I know nossing! I see nossing!") in case they are caught or killed. Golda Meir meets Avner once, tells him she knows his father, says he looks like his mother, thanks him for what he's about to do, leaves the room, and forgets she ever met him.

Then, things begin to pick up. The squad romps and stomps all over Europe, tracking down and killing one terrorist after another, and as far as I could tell, not one local police force got involved in the fun. The squad is limited to Europe. It seems there are other squads searching in the middle east and Mossad didn't want them tripping over each other.

This is a violent movie. That was an understatement. Lots of bombs go off, blowing lots of people to smithereens. There is a tad-bit of nudity, but it is equal opportunity nudity, if you will, because first, they show a nude dead man, and then, a nude dead woman. There is a little "language", but not as much as you might expect, or maybe it is just drowned out by the bombs going off.

There is a judicious use of sub-titles, which resulted in the putting on and taking off of my distance vision glasses. With sub-titles, my choice is either the glasses, and sitting in my recliner, or sitting on an ottoman with my nose pressed against the screen with my reading glasses on, so I usually just turn the movie off. But, there weren't enough sub-titles in this movie to be annoying.

I did enjoy the movie, even though I couldn't watch and read at the same time, as I tend to do. This one took concentration.

Next week: "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers".