Yes, well...I am sure the Israelis are sleeping much more soundly this evening...
Since München hasn't exactly been boffo box office here in the good ol' US of A, Señor Spielbergo has gone to Germany (or its non-union equivalent, a phone call to Germany) where it opens on Thursday.
Naturally, an interview with Spiegel was called for.
SPIEGEL: You are celebrated enthusiastically by the critics, and you have also been slammed. But rarely has a director been attacked and vilified so personally for a film as you have now. You have been called a blind pacifist, even a traitor to the cause of Israel.
Spielberg: Fortunately, the people who write that kind of thing are a small but very loud minority. It saddens me to see how narrow-minded and dogmatic some of the right-wing fundamentalists here in the USA are. I thank God that people who are important to me see "Munich" quite differently. Liberal American Jews, for example, but also some families of the victims from that time in Israel. They have embraced the message of the film.
Congrats to observant Jews everywhere from this reactionary Catholic! You are now officially part of the vast you-know-what.
SPIEGEL: The main charge against "Munich" is political or, if you wish, ideological: you are accused of morally equating the Palestinian terrorists with their Israeli pursuers.
Spielberg: That is utter nonsense. Those critics are behaving as if we all had no moral compass. Naturally, it is a terrible, despicable crime when, as in Munich, people are taken hostage, people are killed. But probing the motives of those responsible and showing that they are also individuals with families and have their own story does not excuse what they did. Wanting to understand the background to a murder doesn't mean you accept it. To understand does not mean to forgive.
Understanding has nothing to do with being soft; it is a brave and very robust attitude to take.
SPIEGEL: Your opponents say that you "humanize" terror.
Spielberg: Do these critics really mean that terrorists are not human beings? I try not to demonize them. Again, this has absolutely nothing to with relativizing their acts or sympathizing with them. But I do believe that it sullies the memory of the victims if we do not ask questions about the reasons, about the roots of terror. My film is not supposed to be a pamphlet, not a caricature, not a one-dimensional view of things. I refuse to give simple answers to complicated questions...
Due to time constraints, we now move ahead to further action...
SPIEGEL: In your film, the man with the codename Avner has growing doubts about his liquidation missions. At the end, this causes him to fall out with the Israeli secret service. In your opinion, was the whole thing, given Golda Meir's blessing as the "wrath of God," a mistake?
Spielberg: I believe that Israel's prime minister had to respond to the monstrous provocation of Munich: Jews were being killed in Germany, and that at the Olympic Games. She could not let an act with such historical implications, such a gross transgression by the Black September movement, go unpunished. Munich was a national trauma for Israel. So in principle I think she did the right thing.
SPIEGEL: Only in principle?
Spielberg: A campaign of vengeance, even though it may contribute towards deterrence and preventing terror, can also have unintended consequences. It can change people, burden them, brutalize them, lead to their ethical decline. And even Mossad agents do not have ice water flowing through their veins.
The best ones do.
SPIEGEL: A campaign of vengeance may be understandable, but it is not a solution, despite the short-term satisfaction it brings?
Spielberg: Exactly. Violence usually engenders violence...
Not if it is done correctly, Señor.
Oh yeah, you're probably wondering about that dramatic headline I got from Spiegel's English language site. This is just a lesson in headline writing for you journalism students out there.
SPIEGEL: How would you describe your attitude to Israel?
Spielberg: From the day I started to think politically and to develop my own moral values, from my earliest youth, I have been an ardent defender of Israel. As a Jew I am aware of how important the existence of Israel is for the survival of us all. And because I am proud of being Jewish, I am worried by the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the world. In my film I ask questions about America's war on terror and about Israel's responses to Palestinian attacks. If it became necessary, I would be prepared to die for the USA and for Israel.
Meanwhile, back in Israel...
New Kerala: Yawns, not yells, at Spielberg's 'Munich' in Israel
After months of fending off pro-Israel pundits who accused his movie ''Munich'' of overly sympathising with the Palestinians, director Steven Spielberg has found a new foe in the Jewish state: bored critics.
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