on Bad Films

Now that I'm in school and (at least supposed to be) studying, I won't have much time for movies or leisure reading--but I did manage to see Cache (Hidden) & Munich.

Cache was. . French and pretentious. The cinematography was great and the acting superb but the plot was one of those trying-to-be-intelligent, very affected and self-conscious thrillers that never resolves itself. An ode to moral relativism.

Still, Munich would have to score far worse. The music was plain bad, the acting not very convincing, the story utterly cliched, and the movie itself so unbearably long. I did not, however, see this as a particularly anti-Israel movie, though certainly its portrayal of Israel was less than sympathetic. As far as I could tell, the film did not draw moral equivalencies between Palestinian terror and Israeli assassination. Yes its focus is not on the terrorist killings of 11 Israelis at the 1972 Munich Olympics, but rather on their aftermath, i.e.: Israel's response-the decision to hunt down and kill all 11 Palestinians responsible for the massacre. When a movie is this bad the message is really anyone's guess, so here's my guess: Munich is an attempt at portraying the internal conflicts faced by men with dual loyalties--patriotism and the human conscience. This is the stuff of good, powerful films. But make no mistake, this film is more hype than reflective. In resorting to the most cliched forms of overwrought melodrama the movie reveals an utter lack of subtlety and fails to meaningfully communicate tensions and emotions that are real, powerful and not contrived.

So much for the movies. I'd rather be on the beach. Oh, and the movie did make me miss Israel. . . and Europe. Start thinking summer plans. Now that would be a terrible distraction.