[***] Metacritic - Munich: MPAA RATING: R for strong graphic violence, some sexual content, nudity and language. Starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Geoffrey Rush, Ciarán Hinds, Hanns Zischler, and Mathieu Kassovitz. Steven Spielberg directs an international cast in Munich, a gripping suspense thriller set in the aftermath of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munch Olympics. This dramatic exploration inspired by true events follows a secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and kill the 11 Palestinians suspected to have planned the Munich attack -- and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who led it. Received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director (Spielberg).

[***] Mercatornet - W. Park - "Munich": Steven Spielberg has made a controversial but thoughtful film about Israel's eye-for-an-eye payback for the murders of its athletes at the 1972 Olympic games.

[***] Commentary - Spielberg’s "Munich": To Time magazine, Steven Spielberg’s Munich is a "masterpiece." It has "all the virtues we’ve come to expect when he is working at his highest levels." To Newsweek, Munich is "a superbly taut and well-made thriller... staged with a mastery Hitchcock might envy." Unexpectedly welcome, Newsweek adds, "is the tone, the point of view, the morally complex weight Spielberg brings to bear on this story."

But to Variety, it is precisely the "morally complex weight" of Munich that drags it down: "the story’s thrust repeatedly stalls as all sides of an issue are didactically propounded." While the "beautifully made pic will spur newsy media coverage,... members of the general public will be glancing at their watches." This last prediction would appear to be borne out in the, by Spielbergian standards, less than stellar ticket sales.

Libertaddigital - La michaelmoorificación de Spielberg: La última película de Steven Spielberg, "Munich", situada en 1972-73, termina con los dos personajes principales en Brooklyn, recortados contra un plano de Manhattan en el que aparece la silueta de las Torres Gemelas del World Trade Center (pista: las mismas que destruyeron 19 salvajes una treintena de años después). Todo el filme de Spielberg es una progresión hasta ese plano, pretendidamente simbólico. El terrorismo es una respuesta a un contexto de injusticia original, responder al terrorismo es incitar a una multiplicación de sus efectos, la solución estriba en el entendimiento mutuo y otros clásicos del Diálogo de Civilizaciones.

Filasiete - Cartón-piedra: La factura es buena, aunque se nota que Spielberg sigue en crisis y ha perdido inspiración. Las secuencias de sexo que sirven de contexto a la remembranza de los crímenes de 1972 causan vergüenza ajena, son puro e impresentable morbo, ganas de llamar la atención como un vulgar principiante. Los actores están bien y el casting es excelente, pero sobrevuela -de manera casi permanente- una sensación de cine artificioso, inseguro, incapaz de asomarse al interior de los personajes, quizás por el sencillo motivo de que esos personajes son de cartón-piedra.

Der Tagesspiegel - Die besiegten Sieger: Tony Kushner, Drehbuchautor von Steven Spielbergs Film "München", über den globalen Terror und seine zivilen Opfer : "Das Problem ist doch, dass es über die Hintergründe von München 1972 und die Folgen keine zugänglichen Akten gibt. Jeder Informant erzählt immer nur seine jeweilige Version." [signandsight.com: Tony Kushner, who wrote the scenario to Steven Spielberg's film "Munich", defends himself in an interview with Peter von Becker against accusations that he was sloppy in his research. "The problem is that there are no accessible documents on the background to the events in Munich in 1972 and their aftermath. Each informant only tells his own side of the story.]

Der Spiegel - Steven Spielberg's Controversial New Film: The War on "Munich": Spielberg, ironically, is accused of being insufficiently Manichaean, and the charge threatens to ossify into conventional wisdom before the movie's audience can get to theaters to see how misguided it is. As New York Times media columnist David Carr wrote in his awards-season blog, "'Munich' finds itself in a seemingly endless spanking machine."

Deutsche Welle - Spielberg's "Munich" Redraws Line Between Fact and Fiction: "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," he told newsmagazine Der Spiegel.

Guardian - Munich: fact and fantasy: Steven Spielberg's new film is based on the Walter Mitty tales of a former El Al gate guard.

Guardian - on Spielberg's Munich: Steven Spielberg's powerful new movie Munich deals with the aftermath of the massacre at the 1972 Olympics - and the escalation of world terrorism since. But can the film do justice to such a complex story? The Observer's veteran correspondent Neal Ascherson, who was present at many historic moments later dramatised, looks at what is to be gained and what is, inevitably, lost

Repubblica - "Munich", terrorismo e vendetta. Tutti i dubbi di Spielberg: Si è detto, non senza spunti polemici, che Spielberg è giustificazionista verso i palestinesi: e lui ha risposto di non credere all'escalation delle armi ma alla trattativa, aggiungendo di essere pronto a dare la vita per Israele. Eppure la sensazione che il film lascia è quella che non ci sarà mai scampo, che le reciproche ostilità e paure sono troppe perché si riesca a far tacere le armi. Forse Spielberg non voleva, ma il magone con cui si esce dal film è questo.

Yahoo new - "Munich", preghiera per la pace in Medio Oriente: ''Una preghiera per la pace in Medio Oriente''. Steven Spielberg parla per la prima volta di 'Munich', atteso suo ultimo film sull'attentato ai Giochi Olimpici del 1972 a Monaco. O meglio sulla 'vendetta', pianificata dal servizio segreto israeliano per riscattare l'uccisione degli undici atleti israeliani da parte del commando terrorista palestinese. ''Non credo che cinema e libri possano risolvere la situazione - ha dichiarato il regista al 'Times', in quella che dovrebbe essere l'unica sua intervista prima dell'uscita del film -, ma vale comunque la pena provare. Il vero nemico non sono ne' gli israeliani, ne' i palestinesi, ma l'intolleranza che regna nei loro paesi''.

LAT-Calendarlive - Kenneth Turan - "Munich" Review: "Munich" is no small thing. No film by Steven Spielberg ever is, but even for this avatar of Hollywood filmmaking this is something apart, the most questioning, provocative film he's ever made. A director who once proclaimed "I dream for a living," Spielberg has literally thrown himself into the murkiest, most divisive of real-world conflicts. Though he's never yearned for controversy, he's sure to antagonize elements of his audience, especially those who lionized him for his treatment of the Holocaust in "Schindler's List." Aided and abetted by screenwriters Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, he's made a film that demands to be seen as much for its place in the world as for whether it succeeds.

NYT - Munich - Review: An unsparingly brutal look at two peoples all but drowning in a sea of their own blood, "Munich" is by far the toughest film of the director's career and the most anguished. Mr. Spielberg has been pummeling audiences with his virtuosity for nearly as long as he has been making movies; now, he tenders an invitation to a discussion.

NYT - Seeing Terrorism as Drama With Sequels and Prequels: "There's no peace at the end of this," warns Avner, the morally anguished Mossad assassin, as Steven Spielberg's new film, "Munich," draws to a close. And by "this" he means the targeted killings that Israel is said to have begun after 11 of its athletes were murdered at the 1972 Olympics by members of the Palestinian Black September offshoot of Fatah. But Mr. Spielberg, in collaboration with his screenwriters, Eric Roth and the playwright Tony Kushner, also has a different "this" in mind. The camera pointedly settles on the period's skyline of lower Manhattan, showing the World Trade Center in sharp relief.

Ynetnews - Opinion - Arabs will hate 'Munich': Let's set aside the criticism from Israelis and Jews that the film isn't tough enough on the Arabs or Palestinian terrorism, or that the film focuses on Israeli assassins and portrays them as being vengeful and cruel. Rather, let's focus on the Arab reaction.

Ynetnews - Opinion - Spielberg is no friend of Israel: "In Hollywood today, where David is Goliath and Goliath is David, you never want to be labeled a conservative or a fan of Israel. Hollywood is all about being trendy and Israel is not the trend. You won't get invited to the right parties and you won't win any Oscars if your heart bleeds for a nation that is always on the verge of being wiped off the map"

Aol news - Spielberg Film Draws Israeli Criticism Before It Opens: Steven Spielberg's new film, "Munich," about Israel's reprisals for the slaying of its athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, has not opened yet but already many Israelis are convinced that the world-famed creator of "Schindler's List" has missed the point.

Alternet - The Morality of 'Munich': Spielberg's startling new film, 'Munich,' is an incisive argument against the use of violence to resolve the Mideast conflict.

WSJ - Munich: Steven Spielberg wants you to know one thing about "Munich," his just-released, semi-historical, instantly controversial account of Israel's efforts to avenge the massacre of its athletes at the 1972 Olympics: "I worked very hard," he says, "so this film was not in any way, shape or form going to be an attack on Israel." So why is his movie raising such hackles among Israelis and those generally known as the "pro-Israel" crowd?

Bookworm Room - The road to Munich Hell is paved with good intentions: I finally got around to listening to Terry Gross's Fresh Air interview with Tony Kushner (who wrote the screenplay for Munich). Terry Gross did a very good job asking him lots of questions based on the controversies surrounding the movie. I don't have a transcript, but I did take notes, and I thought I'd do a little, not really fisking, but analysis of what Kushner has to say.

American Thinker - The Mentality Behind the Screenplay for Munich: Kushner is trying to say that he's giving the Mossad agents the moral high ground insofar as he is presenting them as people of conscience. However, it doesn't seem to occur to Kushner that people of conscience might quickly resolve their doubts, precisely because they do distinguish between right and wrong.

The New Republic - Munich is nothing more than a thriller: When Spielberg first announced "Munich", which begins with the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games in 1972 and then traces the retribution against the responsible Palestinian terrorists, he was also announcing difficulty. The project obviously involved political and moral daring. But the very difficulty of the subject, we could hope, might summon the best of Spielberg, which would mean thematic and cinematic fulfillment. Which is what some of us waited for.

Opendemocracy - "Munich": Spielberg's failure: Hollywood deals with "counter-terrorism" in Steven Spielberg's new film about the aftermath of the Palestinian seizure of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Good theme, bad film, says Stephen Howe.

The New Yorker - Munich: Normally, I love any film -"The Dirty Dozen" being the template- in which a number of disparate die-hards club together to whack a common enemy. Spielberg himself embellished the genre in "Saving Private Ryan," and I had high hopes for his band of brothers in "Munich." And what do we get? The Friendly Five.

Roger Ebert - Munich: Steven Spielberg's "Munich" is an act of courage and conscience. The director of "Schindler's List," the founder of the Shoah Foundation, the most successful and visible Jew in the world of film, has placed himself between Israel and the Palestinians, looked at decades of terrorism and reprisal, and had one of his characters conclude, "There is no peace at the end of this." Spielberg's film has been called an attack on the Palestinians and he has been rebuked as "no friend of Israel." By not taking sides, he has taken both sides.

The Star / Los Angeles Times - Munich co-writer responds to his accusers: In the film, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is presented not as a matter of religion versus religion, or sanity versus insanity, or good versus evil or civilization versus barbarism or Judeo-Christian culture versus Muslim culture, but rather as a struggle over territory, over geography, over home. We've followed the lead of many Israeli historians, novelists, filmmakers, poets and politicians who have recognized and described the Israeli-Palestinian struggle this way - as something tragic and human, recognizable (Tony Kushner).