Hannah and I, with my brother Steve, saw Munich last night. It didn't feel like a Steven Spielberg film, apart from the final third of the film not as good the first two-thirds - a common feature of Spielberg's recent work (AI, Minority Report, War of the Worlds). The film tells a fictional account based on real events of what happened after the murder of 11 Israeli hostages by a Palestinian extremist group at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The message comes across loud and clear that violence begets violence and is unable to bring any kind of resolution, let alone a peaceful resolution where there is conflict. Spielberg has come under criticism for showing that both Palestinians and Israelis have perpetrated violence and morally culable. Violence is destructive and rather than protecting family, home, land, it destroys these things, or at least, fills them with fear. At one point the main characer says home is with his family and that then can be anywhere, it does not need to be in Israel. Maybe when home becomes a piece of land or a building, it ceases to be home. Home can be created anywhere if we are with those we love.
Films like Munich, Hotel Rwanda, Schindler's List, Cry Freedom are important. And it is good to see that such films are getting made. When they are well made they help us understand and learn from our history, especially the horrors of our history.
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