Munich movie doesn't look good

Calev Ben-David is not optimistic about Munich, Steven Spielberg's upcoming movie on the aftermath of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. He's particularly distressed that no one associated with the film interviewed surviving participants of the attacks.

What I really suspect, Steven, is that you are using Munich as a means of commenting, in your own way, on the situation of the United States in a post-9/11 reality. But by setting those concerns against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you will cleverly sidestep having to contend with the kind of overwhelming backlash you would face if your movie made any direct politically charged controversial statements about America's own current war on terror.

For example, I certainly think it unlikely that you would have made a movie about a terror attack against American citizens without first having consulted, or at least taken into account, the concerns of the surviving family members of the victims. Yet that is exactly what you have done with Munich, earning a rebuke on Israeli television from Ilana Romano, whose husband, weightlifter Joseph Romano, was among those slain at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Via Currency Lad. More on Munich here.