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CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE WORST KIND
January 9, 2006
Reviewer: miat22 (Mia T)
... to borrow a phrase, perversely, from a Spielberg flick about benign intelligence.
Munich, with its false premises, phony pieties and outright lies -- Spielberg fantasy wrapped in sober documentary -- is a verisimilitudinous contrivance that is pernicious, especially now, especially here, especially if we understand Spielberg's real motivation.
Truth matters not at all to Spielberg, and courage matters even less. To advance his fallacious argument, he has Golda Meir speak words she never said, never would have said and, obviously, cannot now disavow. Posthumous misappropriation is a preferred tactic of the abject coward.
Munich is less about Meir avenging the Munich massacre than it is about Bush waging the War on Terror. The historical Munich allusion of appeasement, self-loathing and psychologizing that is practiced so fastidiously by the American Left today is key to understanding Spielberg.
The core of his anti-war argument: By fighting back, we become our enemy. Ironically, with Munich, the same can now be said of Spielberg.
Is Spielberg humanizing the terrorist really any different from Riefenstahl humanizing Hitler? If anything, Spielberg is more contemptible. Whereas Riefenstahl symbolizes the naïve actress and director who is induced to deal with devils, Spielberg is self-actuated and aware.
Hollywood is DreamWorks, fantastical and unthinking and solipsistic by definition. 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.
My New York Times Review of Munich
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