Spielberg Talks Munich

Posted on January 30, 2006

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has taken a lot of heat for his new political thriller, Munich. Spielberg talked with the German magazine Der Spiegel about the accusations that the film is soft on terrorism.

Spielberg passionately defends his work and says he would die for Israel. He also says that exploring the motivations of a terrorist is necessary in order to fight them.

SPIEGEL: The main charge against "Munich" is political or, if you wish, ideological: you are accused of morally equating the Palestinian terrorists with their Israeli pursuers.
Spielberg: That is utter nonsense. Those critics are behaving as if we all had no moral compass. Naturally, it is a terrible, despicable crime when, as in Munich, people are taken hostage, people are killed. But probing the motives of those responsible and showing that they are also individuals with families and have their own story does not excuse what they did. Wanting to understand the background to a murder doesn't mean you accept it. To understand does not mean to forgive. Understanding has nothing to do with being soft; it is a brave and very robust attitude to take.
SPIEGEL: Your opponents say that you "humanize" terror.
Spielberg: Do these critics really mean that terrorists are not human beings? I try not to demonize them. Again, this has absolutely nothing to with relativizing their acts or sympathizing with them. But I do believe that it sullies the memory of the victims if we do not ask questions about the reasons, about the roots of terror. My film is not supposed to be a pamphlet, not a caricature, not a one-dimensional view of things. I refuse to give simple answers to complicated questions.

Munich is in theaters now, but really hasn't had the backing of the studio like it should have. Instead, the studio threw its marketing weight behind Brokeback Mountain.

We have to wonder how that marketing meeting went....

Universal Chairman Stacey Snider: "Let's see...gay cowboys or terrorists? Which is more likely to win the Oscar for Best Picture? I'm thinking gay cowboys...Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllanhal in tight jeans are way hotter than Eric Bana playing an Isreali assassin...yeah, let's go with Brokeback."

Marketing Team in Chorus: "Brilliant Boss! Brokeback it is!"

Or something like that.

SCREENWRITING