munich

We went to see Munich tonight, and it was good. Interestingly, not in the deep meaning kind of sense. Instead, it was basically Doom set in Europe.

Now, that's anything but a complaint, coming from me. Perhaps I'm giving Spielberg too much credit, but I think that was quite intentional. Sure, there are those cheesy lines of reflection and deep sounding dialogue on metaphysics and self-doubt, but that consumed about 4 minutes of the 4 hours we were there. Ok, technically it's only like 2:40 or something, but I haven't seen a movie that felt that long since 7 Years in Tibet.

I came out of Jarhead watching a movie about nothing feeling bored and apathetic; I wanted my money back. But this one worked. Set against the backdrop of serious historical events, it's a great exploration of violence begetting violence with no end game strategy and wasted dollars and lives littering the road.

I very much liked the ending shot. Not what was in the foreground (I won't give anything plotwise away, of course). The backdrop is what captured my attention. Spielberg had the sense to bring it home to an American audience. The last thing you see after watching money being spent killing people from another place and time is towers 1 and 2 of the World Trade Center rising above the New York skyline. Magnifique.