PhantomKnight Goes Spielbergian

Okay.  Buckling down to finally finish this thing because I have ideas for other review series that I want to do.

The culmination of Spielberg’s “Post-9/11 Trilogy”, Munich sees the filmmaker operating at a level of filmmaking that some would say he hasn’t been able to match since. And I feel like I’m on fairly safe ground in agreeing with that. Not that he hasn’t made any films of strong quality since then, but there’s just something about Munich that seems to convey a level of absolute power and craft that I feel even his stronger efforts since haven’t quite been able to capture in one way or the other (although The Fabelmans and elements of West Side Story jump out). Lots of people say that Munich has been Spielberg’s last great movie, and…well, I’ll just personally say that it remains his last true A+ effort for me nearly twenty years later. But why is that? What is it about Munich that makes it stand out to me, still, in that way?

Frankly, I think it’s the level of passion infused into the storytelling on Spielberg’s part. In the same way that Schindler's List was Spielberg therapeutically dealing with his feelings on the Holocaust, Munich is him grappling with his feelings on terrorism, acts of violence perpetrated against specific groups of people and the value -- or lack thereof -- of the cyclical violence that follows. It’s clearly a film borne out of a desire to express frustration and other feelings that Spielberg has, but the key to its success is that he knows when and where to pull back and not have the film veer over into overly preachy territory. Plus, it’s a movie that works enormously on multiple levels. As just a thriller, it's completely gripping and suspenseful with masterfully-coiled tension throughout. And as a pure drama, it's completely compelling and emotionally resonant, with powerful explorations of its themes and characters. You can feel every ounce of passion that Spielberg is pouring into this thing, and the end result is a masterwork from a director operating at the top of his form.

Even by Spielberg’s already-high standards, the level of craft on display in Munich is pretty incredible. Touching back on the film’s thriller aspects…I’ve seen this movie multiple times now, yet there are still sequences in this thing where I catch myself holding my breath a little. The whole sequence where one of the target’s daughter unexpectedly puts herself near a phone bomb stands out in particular, but there are many more scenes throughout where Spielberg commands the craft and genre with as much skill as another master of the form, Alfred Hitchcock. From the staging, the editing, the use of John Williams’ great score…again, it’s easy to see why people would point to this as Spielberg’s last truly great film, because what he achieves here has a precision that, even this late in his career, is impressive. The scenes are of violence all hit, but the film never sensationalizes it or plays it as entertainment. The gravity of it all is always kept at the forefront.

And that’s also due to the phenomenal performances of the cast, all of which convey the moral and emotional complexities that the material demands, and are thus all the more powerful. Eric Bana, especially, gives perhaps the performance of his career as Avner, and communicates his character’s gradually deteriorating state of moral conviction and certainty, as well as descent into paranoia, with impressive conviction. The film’s final third is very powerful because of this. Getting back to Spielberg’s command of craft for just a moment, the sex scene towards the end feels like a particularly striking touch from him, and indicative of a lot of bold choices that he makes with the film as a whole. And the final scene puts a button on what the film has been doing thematically in a simple, understated, yet impactful way.

Munich is one of Steven Spielberg’s very best films, and I say that with all the conviction in the world. It’s bold, striking, resonant, and the work of a master at the top of his form. The fact that it doesn’t seem to be as widely discussed nowadays as one of his best seems like a crime, because it absolutely deserves to be.

Also, I only ever committed to his directorial efforts.

For as bad as this movie is, I'm amazed that I've seen it as many times as I have. At first, a lot of that had to do with me trying to convince myself that this movie really wasn't that bad. "It's an Indiana Jones movie, and Spielberg is back directing it, how bad can it be?" Man, was I stupid back then. While Kingdom of the Crystal Skull definitely isn't Steven Spielberg's worst movie, it's absolutely the worst of the Indiana Jones franchise, and one where Spielberg's lack of passion about the whole thing is all too apparent in the final product. Where once there was energy and excitement, there is now a debilitating sense of boredom permeating throughout the whole movie, and 'boredom' should NOT be a word you associate with Indiana Jones.

But...where's the passion? The sense of adventure and discovery? Somewhere where not even Indy itself can excavate it. I blame George Lucas for this movie more than I do Spielberg, but still...he went along with it. And yet, a lot of Kingdom of the Crystall Skull reverberates with the hollow echo of defeat, because not even good ol' Steven could make this material work.