Munich

7.5/10. Saw this yesterday afternoon at the Alhambra in Bern.

Like many of Steven Spielberg’s serious efforts, Munich arrives at the end of its thematic and emotional arcs and its story long before it actually ends. Pretty much everything in its final half hour has been recycled from earlier in the movie. An exception is the reenactment of the climax of the Munich hostage crisis, which is disturbing for all the wrong reasons.

Otherwise, the movie generally succeeds at being an action/thriller with some big ideas in its head. The assassination sequences are deftly executed (with the exception of the final one), it’s full of sharply-written dialogue and engaging performances, and it does make its point (although a similar point was made ten years ago in Les patriotes).