Early in the morning of the 5th September 1972, Palestinian terrorists broke into the athlete's village at the Munich Olympics. The terrorist group known as Black September stormed the Israeli apartments, took 9 hostages, and shot two men dead. Whilst the games went on around them, the terrorists demanded the release of hundreds of prisoners from Israeli jails as well as the release of two Germans being held in Germany. Israel refused to bend to the demands and later that night the remaining hostages were all killed in a bungled rescue bid held at Munich airport.

Several years after the attack, the author George Jonas was approached by a man claiming to have been the head of an Israeli team that had been ordered to track down and kill several men thought to have been involved within the Black September movement. At first he thought that these claims were unlikely, but after confirming aspects of the mans story with research of his own, he believed that there was possibly truth. This was published in the excellent book, 'Vengeance' upon which this film is based. I would recommend reading the book before seeing the film as you can get an idea of what is happening and Jonas has helpfully added references to his work alongside parts that he was unable to confirm. (My review of his book can be found http://www.ciao.co.uk/Vengeance_George_Jonas__Review_5587449)

Avner (Eric Bana) is a low level Mossad agent is approached by a senior member of the agency (Geoffrey Rush) to head up a small covert team to undertake retaliatory attacks on those who financed and planned the Munich attacks. Under the orders of Golda Meir (the then Israeli leader), Avner meets the rest of his small team who are all skilled in different aspects of the job. Carl (Ciarán Hinds) is the clean-up man who ensures that nothing linking the Israeli's to the attack is left behind. Steve (Daniel Craig) is a driver, Hans is an expert in forging documents and Robert is there for explosives. It soon becomes clear that they have been chosen because not only they are good at their jobs, but also due to them all originally being from other countries, they are expendable and deniability is assured.

Although some of the aspects of this film may have been exaggerated to increase the intensity and it is plausible that Avner would choose to forget certain things, the film does seem to be possible. I'm not sure of Steven Spielberg's motivation for making this film but there are obvious parallels with the morality of the war on terror today as shown by the doubts of the team. The link is no more obvious than in the closing credits when a skyline shot of New York is shown with the WTC towers digitally placed back into the shot to remind us that terrorism is not dead and neither is the fight against it.

This DVD is somewhat disappointing when it comes to extras. There are only two and these are an introduction by director Steven Spielberg and then a min-documentary called, 'Munich, the Team, the Mission'.

Eric Bana - I was pleasantly surprised with Bana's performance as, with the sole exception of Black Hawk Down, I have generally not been a fan of his work. He plays the character of Avner very well, almost as if his uncomfortableness in playing the lead carries over to the characters unease in being in charge.
Daniel Craig - The new James Bond was very impressive in Layer Cake but was underused in this film I felt. He played his character quite well but his South African accent was a but poor.
Ciarán Hinds - I wasn't aware of this actor this time last year but he has been in several things that I have liked recently and he is extremely believable as Carl, the clean-up man. He is somewhat detached from the team and he does this very well.

Cast:
Eric Bana - Avner
Daniel Craig - Steve
Ciarán Hinds - Carl
Mathieu Kassovitz - Robert
Hanns Zischler - Hans
Geoffrey Rush - Ephraim
Michael Lonsdale - Papa
Mathieu Amalric - Louis