Saturday, February 04, 2006

Spielberg Criticizes Munich Critics



Going to the movies this weekend? In case you plan to see 'Munich' here's some interesting info from James Hirsen at Hollywood Confidential:

Steven Spielberg Calls Critics of 'Munich' 'Extreme'

Steven Spielberg recently let off some steam to German news weekly Der Spiegel, complaining about critics of his latest film "Munich."

"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?" the famed filmmaker asked.

"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," Spielberg shared.

One of the critics of "Munich" happens to be yours truly. I was troubled by the film's historical inaccuracy and said so in my review. I also found fault in the equating of Israeli assassins and Palestinian militants.

Spielberg responded to movie reviews like mine by characterizing the critiques 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 fact 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."

The Left Coast Report is thankful that during WWII most filmmakers weren't trying to "understand" Adolf.

Haven't seen the movie yet but who couldn't say here-here and Amen! to James' last sentence?

4Comment

No comments: