The Last Amazon is a big movie fan. She’s always up for movies and will literally watch anything as long as it is in a big room with lots of popcorn. Going to the movies with the Last Amazon also means having to be early enough to watch the previews. Miss the previews, and she will do a slow burn and no one in their right mind wants to sit beside the Last Amazon while she does the slow burn. Yesterday was movie day and we were stuck between Walk the Line and Munich. Johnny Cash just doesn’t do it for the Last Amazon -wrong teenager.
I was debating with The Last Amazon on whether to see Spielberg’s Munich yesterday. I have read so many reviews from both sides of the political spectrum that I am suffering from review overload. A number of fellow bloggers whose opinions I respect overall were boycotting the movie on principle. I understand the principle, and overall I am in agreement that one should never appease, glamourize or glorify terrorists. But I wanted to watch Munich because it is part of world history that I remember clearly and distinctly. Until Alzheimer's kicks in - there is just no way your going to muck with my memory of Munich Massacre.
I was just a ten year old girl in 1972 but I was devoted to watching the Olympic coverage. I was held spellbound and then horrified by the tragedy that was played out live before the eye of the world’s news cameras. To this day, I find that I cannot sit down and watch any Olympic coverage without remembering Munich. And it all comes flooding back to me as if it was yesterday.
In 1984, I was given a book as a good-bye present by an Israeli fighter pilot who traveled all the way from Tel Aviv to win my heart. In the end, I said no to marriage but he left Toronto with my heart and gave me a book in return. I am not sure the exchange could ever be considered kosher but the book was a compelling read. I lent it out shortly after I finished reading it to an acquaintance and never got it back which established my life long rule that you can only read one of my books sitting on my sofa under my direct supervision. The book that ended and started it all: Vengeance by George Jonas.
I am not going to bother with dealing with the issues of whether Vengeance was based on a true story or not. The Mossad deny it. The Palestinian terror masters deny it. But they all would - wouldn’t they? And, so what? It’s a gripping story and George Jonas does know how to write a narrative with all the skill of a the master craftsman that he is. Munich was real and Black September terrorists were real, and the architects of the Munich Massacre did die one by one under mysterious circumstances.
The Last Amazon’s last appeal for Munich went along the lines of one should always make up one’s own mind based on the evidence and not another’s opinion of the evidence, and so, I let her appeal carry the day only because I really wanted to see Munich as it is part of world history that I witnessed in my lifetime. It was not some distant event from centuries ago that I read in a history text. I was alive and I do remember. Oddly enough, Munich was only the third film I have watched in a movie theatre in its entirety in the last ten years that I did not nod off to sleep at some point watching.
I cried right from the beginning. I could not watch the hostage taking and the killing of the Israeli athletes without those memories of things long ago and the horror of it and remain detached. I know it was only a film but behind the celluloid image was underscored by the reality that this actually transpired. Nowhere did Spielberg illustrate the moral gulf better between the two sides better than when he juxtaposed Israeli families huddled around the television broadcasts terrified, brokenhearted and tearful in the dark while Palestinian families gathered around their television sets celebrating and cheering on the carnage in the light of day.
Spielberg never romanticizes the terrorists but neither does he dwell on all the acts of carnage perpetrated by Black September against humanity. For this, he doesn’t win any friends from all sides of the political spectrum. Here’s a point I will debate with anyone. Golda Meir was not Israel’s most resolute Prime Minister and/or leader. She did not find her nettle until her spine was literally pinned against the wall. As proof, I give you her leadership leading up to the Yom Kippur War as evidence of her ability to waffle, and waffle dangerously.
At one point, Spielberg has the Israeli Mossad team share a safe house with Palestinian terrorists under the tutelage of the Russian KGB. This gives rise to probably the most controversial point in the movie but to deny the Palestinians a voice in their own tragedy is to deny that we share a common humanity with them. And we do, whether or not we are comfortable with that fact or even possess a desire to share a common humanity; but we are told that we are all made in the image of G-d. While their plight is of their own making and the logical consequences of trusting that others will act in their own best interests does not make the betrayal any less tragic. There’s an irony in the plight of Palestinian Arabs and it is this; that Arab Israelis fare far better at the hands of Israeli Jews than they do in the refugee camps in the land of their alleged brethren. One day I would like to see a filmmaker tell that tale but it is just not going to happen, which in itself, should be a source of shame and an unwritten taboo even to discuss.
One of the premises of the movie is that it asks us if there can be honour in war. It’s a moral question and each of us must answer it in our own way but too often the truth lies with the fact that we sleep safely only because rough men and women are ready to act in any way necessary to ensure that our everyday reality does not enter into the realm of waking nightmares. Does it make it moral or right? I have no clear idea, but I am grateful that there are those who willingly undertake that burden on my family’s behalf.
The Last Amazon loved the movie though she felt the last half hour was the weakest point in the movie but I am not sure that I concur. Sometimes there are moral burdens willingly undertaken that can overwhelm even the noblest or stoutest of human hearts. On the way home in typical teenage fashion she insisted on discussing the possibility of attending university in Israel and expressing a desire to join the Mossad. And what course of action did I think she should pursue to make herself a desirable candidate to the Mossad? So much for Speilberg’s Munich being an appeasement or an Ode to Modern Terrorism.
2 comments:
Now I would like to read the book. I don't remember anything from that time as I was only 2 during the 1972 Olmpic games.
I would like to Thank you for your great Blog over the past year. Your Blogging has inspired me to read more, and to take a chance in myself.
"The Last Amazon’s last appeal for Munich went along the lines of one should always make up one’s own mind based on the evidence and not another’s opinion of the evidence,"
Very wise woman. If I may, I'd also add that we should also be aware that we may not even have access to or be aware of "all" the evidence on any subject or dispute as well. If we have decided to make up our mind, our mind should be open enough to reality to consider new evidence inspite of how emotional our made up mind has become with our decision to "make up our mind" at some earlier point.
I recall Munich myself - I was 9. But I don't know enough about it, nor have I seen the movie.
Hope you had a great New Year, Kateland and I wish you prosperity and success, however you define that, in 2006!
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