Posted on 01/22/2006 4:02:16 PM PST by wagglebee
Steven Spielberg hit back at critics of his latest film "Munich" about the targeted killing of Palestinians behind the massacre of Israelis during the 1972 Olympics, in an interview to be published Monday ahead of the picture's German and Israeli release.
Spielberg, 59, told German news weekly Der Spiegel that "Munich" aims to reclaim the debate about the moral costs of the struggle against terror from "extremists" and engage moderate forces in the West and the Middle East.
"Should you leave the debate to the great over-simplifiers? The extreme Jews and extreme Palestinians who consider any kind of negotiated settlement to be a kind of treason?" he said in remarks printed in German.
"I wanted to use the medium of film to make the audience have a very intimate confrontation with a subject that they generally only know about in an abstract way, or only see in a one-sided way."
"Munich", which hit US screens last month, depicts an Israeli campaign to hunt down and kill Palestinian radicals behind the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes and coaches during the Munich Olympics.
The drama ended in a massacre: 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and one German police officer were killed.
The film, which will be released in Israel and Germany this week, looks at the psychological and moral toll the assassinations took on the Israeli agents. It is billed as "inspired by real events" to deflect criticism about its historical accuracy.
"Munich" was blasted by some US Jewish commentators who accused Spielberg of equating the Israeli assassins with the Palestinian militants.
Spielberg dismissed the charges as "nonsense".
"These critics are acting as if we were all missing a moral compass. Of course it is a horrible, abominable crime when people are taken hostage and killed like in Munich," he said.
"But it does not excuse the act when you ask what the motives of the perpetrators were and show that they were also individuals with families and a history.... Understanding does not mean forgiving. Understanding does not mean being soft, it is a courageous and strong stance."
Idiot.
*Bingo* And how about a sympathetic portrayal of Hitler and why he hated, you traitor!
I think this was one of Spielberg's best movies. I'm shocked at the negative reviews.
"Munich" was a terrific film. It should be nominated for Best Picture, and Eric Bana should get the Oscar for Best Actor.
But Hollywood seems to be stuffing the ballotbox for the gay saddle-dwellers.
Munich is a great film. He portrays the Arab terrorists as animals that need to be hunted down and slaughtered and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Mossad do that.
Good flick.
I liked Stevie more when he was making films about fighting the Germans (who clearly were evil).
His films about fighting the Israelis are both irresponsible and deceptive, and the American public has punished him accordingly.
The same idiotic planet as that fool, Tom Cruise.
Birds of a feather...
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