Posted on 01/04/2006 4:35:41 AM PST by Mia T
THE 'MUNICH' ALLUSION:
THE DANGER OF SPIELBERG AND THE AMERICAN LEFT
What was Spielberg thinking? Was he thinking at all?
Hasn't he read bin Laden's comments about The War in general or his comments about The War and clinton in particular? 2
Why doesn't he realize that the terrorist's impetus is precisely the "Munich" syndrome of appeasement, self-loathing and psychologizing that is practiced so fastidiously by the American Left today?
And why doesn't he see 'Israel' as simply the terrorist's metaphor for us all, for western civilization in its entirety?
If Spielberg and Kushner were to hear bin Laden, were really to hear him, they would begin to understand that it is not Israel, not George Bush, but they, the American Left, who are bin Laden's aiders and abettors. 3
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1.
In the film, an actress playing the prime minister of Israel Golda Meir sees the answer clearly: Strike back! If the terrorists respect no limits in their war against the Jewish people, then the killers and those who direct them should not feel safe anywhere either. She orders her intelligence service -- the Mossad -- to track them down in their European havens and kill them.
HUMANIZE THE TERRORISTS?
If such an order seems vaguely familiar to American audiences, it should. The comparison between Meir's order and the reaction of President Bush when he told rescue workers at ground zero that those who brought down the towers would soon be hearing from Americans is more than obvious.
That sort of blunt threat wasn't well-received in those quarters where our conflict with fundamentalist Islam is seen as a function of America's alleged sins against the world. Rather than seeking out Al Qaeda, some sages told us to look in the mirror if we wanted to see the real bad guys. And that is precisely the message that Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner (who shares a writing credit with Eric Roth) seem to be making about Israel in "Munich."
It should be noted that the film has already come in for justified criticism for being primarily based on a book whose primary source was a fraud. Vengeance by George Jonas purported to tell the tale of a disillusioned Mossad agent, but it turned out the man was just a cab driver with an Israeli accent, and not an ex-spy. But even if we discount this, the film still fails its subject matter. That's because the goal here is not merely to wrongly argue that the battle against Palestinian terror is as criminal as anything the terrorists have done; its purpose is also to humanize the terrorists....
But the problem with this film isn't just an obsessive refusal to be judgmental about terrorism or the tedious speechifying that overwhelms the action. There's something even more insidious at play here.
The main character, the Israeli agent Avner (played by Eric Bana), doesn't just loose his marbles because of a mission whose efficacy might well be debated. Spielberg's Avner rejects not merely a policy but Israel itself, which he abandons for the apparently more humane confines of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Spielberg even uses an image of a still-standing World Trade Center to punctuate a scene in which Avner rejects Israel to lead us to falsely think 9/11 might have been avoided had America also abandoned the Jewish state.
That "Munich" would have such an anti-Zionist denouement (in contrast to "Schindler's List," which tearfully concluded with the playing of the song "Jerusalem of Gold") is unsurprising due to Kushner's involvement.
Though primarily known for his extravagantly praised plays about the plight of gays suffering from AIDS, Kushner is also a hardcore left-wing Jewish critic of Israel. He has edited a book of anti-Israel essays, and even told Ha'aretz that Israel's birth was a "mistake" he wished had never happened.
As for the director and prime mover of this project, in the years since the release of "Schindler's List" and his subsequent contributions to Holocaust remembrance projects, Spielberg has become something of a secular Jewish saint. As such, he's apparently worried enough about his image to employ former Middle East peace envoy Dennis Ross to spin for "Munich," in addition to Eyal Arad, a leading Israeli public-relations torpedo who also works for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
They may well succeed but if there was ever a movie that ought to provoke outrage, it is "Munich." The film concludes with a bizarre scene in which the disillusioned Avner daydreams (fantasizes?) about the actual events of the massacre while having sex with his wife. As their coupling reaches its conclusion, we see the bound Israeli athletes slaughtered by their Arab captors.
By this point, a weary audience that has been subjected to many other obvious and heavy-handed clichÈs so familiar to Kushner's work is forced to wonder whether Avner now sees himself as one of the killers. At the same time, the audience is also being asked to see Israel and the war on terrorism as forces that are literally screwing the world.
Perhaps the fact that "Munich" is such poor entertainment will do more to limit the damage it does than anything said by its critics. But it would be a mistake to let this film pass without a response from those who care about the survival of both Israel and the West.
You don't have to insist that everything Israel or America does to fight terror is wise to understand that the war they're fighting is just. Judging the murderers and those who fight such criminals as morally equivalent is not wisdom. It is, as Steven Spielberg has now shown us, the ultimate obscenity.
Immoral equivalence |
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The clintons' photo-op trip to Israel this week was punctuated yesterday by the above statement, which was shameless, self-serving, stupid, anti-Semitic and perilous... even by clinton standards.
To fully appreciate the context of the clinton trip and statement, one must understand that both are:
It is not surprising that the clintons chose Israel to deliver the opening move. Israel is at once the clinton failure focal point and potential sore point in '08. Israel--and, as a Jew I am ashamed to say, the Jews-- have always been an easy mark for the clintons.
Continued Jewish support is essential if clinton is to pull off the ultimate mulligan, a do-over presidency and legacy, if you will.
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clintonism and the theology of contempt
by Mia T, November 2000 (sometime before the-first-Tuesday-after-the-first-Monday)
Let us hope that the rabbi's question was merely rhetorical. . . Let us hope that Rabbi Potasnik, and by extension, New York Jews, are not as credulous and obsequious and passive as they appear. . .
The simple answer to the rabbi's question is that the corrupt, self-serving, anti-Semitic, power-hungry harpy cannot be trusted.
Weren't we to never forget?
The Holocaust must remain, for Jew and Gentile alike, a constant reminder that mass credulity and obsequiousness and passivity are necessary for the demagogue to prevail.
To remember that six million Jews died in the Holocaust is to understand that centuries of anti-Semitic attitudes made this horror possible. We must ask ourselves what role our society played through the centuries that in any way contributed to the atmosphere that made such a genocide even thinkable.
Which brings me to the clintons and clintonism. . .
Senator Patrick Moynihan proffered one of the more incisive operant definitions of clintonism -- "defining deviancy down."
Defining deviancy down, indeed.
clintonism has made personal and public perversions, personal and public predations, not merely thinkable, not merely acceptable, but de rigueur. Watch us spin.
clintonism is the theology of contempt. Not only toward "f***ing Jew-bastards," or "dumb n***ers" or "extra-chromosome right-wingers" but toward any of us whose ideas are different from those of the clintons, Gore, and their acolytes.
So the real question to be answered is this:
with its theology of contempt?
What fair-minded, clear-thinking person would vote for hillary clinton or Al Gore?"
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In order to turn this Hollywood problem around, people capable of critical thinking must take on the entertainment industry (an industry that is unthinking by definition) IN ITS OWN VENUES.
bump
Interesting take.
In itself, not that pernicious. But Spielberg makes his arguments with his wishful thinking and lies as the premises. Imagine, for example, putting words in Golda Meir's mouth that she would never have said (and can not now defend).
Munich is disinformation of the worst kind kind (to borrow a phrase, perversely, from a Spielberg flick about both benignity and intelligence).
Interesting take.
I see you've edited my corruption of his name.
In itself, not that pernicious. But Spielberg makes his arguments with his wishful thinking and lies as the premises.
Wishful thinking and lies are not incompatible with the liberal view.
This might interest you -
bump
Another FINE MASTERPIECE!
Saw Syriana, George Clooney flick, and no one in the theater "got it". Everyone walked out after movie was over muttering things like "I don't understand it at all". And we saw it in Pasadena, Calif. Got email from friend in DC who said she didn't get it either.
All I got from it was AMERICA BAD, OIL COMPANIES BAD.
I get SO TIRED of that propaganda coming from Hollywarped. We had lunch in Hollywood Sat. and you should see the loonies there. Why does ANYONE look up to those weirdos?
AFTERWORD
MUNICH: A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE WORST KIND
(please see post 38)
very insightful. bump
CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE WORST KIND To mitigate its danger, people capable of critical thinking must take on Hollywood... and must do so in Hollywood venues. The printed word, sad to say, no longer carries the day. |
also:
AFTERWORD
MUNICH: A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE WORST KIND
(please see post 38)
THE 'MUNICH' ALLUSION:
THE DANGER OF SPIELBERG AND THE AMERICAN LEFT
(Please see post 60)
WAR AND TREASON AND THE NEW YORK TIMES
(Please see post 65)
COPYRIGHT MIA T 2006
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