Steven Spielbergs Munich and Eric Rochants Les Patriotes: Portraying Mossad on Screen - Movie Review Example

Steven Spielberg's "Munich" and Eric Rochant's "Les Patriotes Portraying Mossad on screen Introduction Steven Spielberg's last motion picture "Munich" could be compared to Saving Private Ryan or the Schindler's List. They are all part of a personal effort to present historical events that have occurred in the twentieth century through a dramatization of the events. The comparison ends here. While the Schindler's list and Saving Private Ryan were portraying the horrors of history and shown men who were fighting these horrors, "Munich" can not be considered as a Manichaean presentation of the events which occurred during the 1972 Munich Olympics and supposedly the measures taken by Mossad after. Spielberg decided to take a much more difficult path to express his point of view: the victim becomes the torturer and vice-versa. Mossad has been portrayed on screen in many occasions. Eric Rochant's "Les Patriotes" is an example of these attempts. The movie describes the journey of an 18 year-old Parisian Jew - Ariel Brenner - who immigrates to Israel and joins Mossad. Spielberg has certainly saw "Les Patriotes" as he decided to cast the actor who played Ariel Brenner - Yvan Attal - for a small part in "Munich". In the following essay we will give a complete description of these two movies and we will compare their efforts to be as close as possible to the real historical and political events. "Munich" As Roger Ebert states in his review about the movie (December 23, 2005): ""Munich" opens with a heart-stopping re-enactment of the kidnapping and deaths of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics." The entire world was watching these events in real time on television: from the kidnapping to the deaths of the athletes in a failed rescue mission at the airport. "Munich" actually opens with the statement "Inspired by true events". While the opening scenes are very close to the real events, the movie follows a fictional character - Avner - a young Mossad agent who is appointed to head a clandestine unofficial hit squad - Operation Wrath of God - to seek out and assassinate the eleven men who are considered to be responsible for the Munich massacre. All Israeli portrayed in the movie are fictional except Prime Minister Golda Meir. Avner in his mission is only appointed four team-mates: Robert a toymaker, expert at disarming bombs, now asked to build them; Carl who removes the evidence after every action; Steve the trigger man, and Hans who can forge letters and documents. (Ebert) Avner will also be in contact with a mysterious Frenchman: Louis whose father - Papa - fought for the resistance and is now selling intelligence. Steven Spielberg's source for the story is a novel by the Hungarian-Canadian writer George Jonas: "Vengeance: the True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team". Jonas claims to have received all the information for his book from a mysterious source who claimed to be the head of a Mossad hit team. Many critics have accused Jonas of inventing the mysterious source. As a response Jonas in an edition of Macleans (January 07, 2006) declared the following: Can such tales be believed I think so, though always keeping in mind many spooks possess the imagination of the Baron Munchausen. They recall being in the thick of every battle and winning it single-handedly. Their information being difficult to check reinforces their inclination to tell tall tales, partly to enhance the financial value of their story, and partly to please their interlocutor by telling him what they figure he wishes to hear. Checking by conventional means is difficult. One can try going through official channels, but secret services rarely confirm employment. Cover identities -- so-called legends -- are set up to withstand inquiries. Fact-checking clandestine operations is virtually a contradiction in terms -- if a government agency reveals anything about a covert operation, it's likely to be disinformation. Proof of provenance isn't proof of veracity. Official confirmation or denial of intelligence matters is just about useless. "Les Patriotes" "Les Patriotes" shows a different aspect of Mossad as it is the journey of a man decided to join the Israeli secret service because he feels he has a duty towards his country and a need to have a more meaningful identity. The story starts in 1983. Ariel Brenner leaves his family in Paris and once in Israel, he is recruited by Unit 238, one of the strictest, most constraining and self involving units of the organization. Once recruited, we follow Ariel in his difficult training of all he is supposed to know and master to become a spy. We will then follow Ariel during two operations. The first operation leads him back to Paris where he is directing an operation aimed to stop certain Arab countries from acquiring nuclear weapons. This unsuccessful attempt involves a French nuclear scientist whom Ariel is trying to blackmail to retrieve the plans for a nuclear reactor being built with French technical assistance by an Enemy state. The second operation brings Ariel to be the contact point for a US Jewish Citizen, Jeremy Pelman, who works in naval intelligence. Pelman is spying for Israel and reveals highly classified information especially on the Soviet Union and other military installations for nuclear targeting. Eventually, Pelman is discovered by his government and Mossad abandons him which causes his imprisonment for several years. During all this second operation, we are shown the rising doubts of Ariel regarding his loyalty to Mossad. As for Spielberg's "Munich", opinions are widely divided on "Les Patriotes". On one hand some critics believe that the events depicted in "Les Patriotes" are very accurate and have certainly occurred. On the other hand, others like Dragan Antulov defend that Eric Rochant's movie is "loosely based on the real events" ("Les Patriotes" A film Review. May 9, 2003.) and is only a dark picture of Mossad activities. We will try in the following part to compare the two movies in their intent of portraying Mossad An accurate vision of Mossad While watching movies about significant historical events, it is often important to ask ourselves if it really happened like it is shown on screen. Sometimes, it may even cause large waves of discontent against a director - we had recently an example of this discontent with Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ and his representation of Jews role in the crucifixion. As far as the description of Mossad is concerned, "Les Patriotes" seemed to have convinced more than Spielberg's intent. Philip French in a review of "Munich" states: "Some things, however, don't entirely convince. The Mossad background, for example, doesn't ring true in the way that it does in Eric Rochant's 1994 thriller Les Patriotes" ("Munich" The Observer. January 29, 2006) Not only on the representation of Mossad, but also on the relation with true historical events linked with Israel, "Les Patriotes" seemed to be more accurate. Ariel's first operation is related to the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in June 1981. Israel used F-16s purchased with US help "for defensive purposes only". The bombing caused controversy in both the US and Israel when it was discovered that Israel had no evidence of Iraqi capability of producing weapons-grade plutonium. (Thompson, J. "Spy film with a twist" May 25, 1995). The Israeli spy Pelman is directly connected to Jonathon Pollard, who worked in US naval intelligence. He supplied Israel with an important amount of secret information before he was unmasked in November 1985. The information that Pollard revealed has a very strategic importance for Israel. For example, in May 1982, three weeks before Israel invaded Lebanon, Pollard supplied the entire intelligence on US technical data about the air defence systems in Syria. With this information, The Israeli Air Force equipped with electronic counter measures, was able to destroy the Syrian Air Force and more than 70 missile launchers. Pollard also supplied data gathered in US embassies in Middle Eastern countries, US nuclear targeting data on the location of Soviet military targets, information on Soviet air defences, codes for US diplomatic communications and the US intelligence's annual review of the Soviet strategic arms system. Once discovered, Pollard was sentenced in March 1987 to life imprisonment in the US and naturally the entire scandal was covered up.(Thomson, 1995) As we have seen earlier, the information given in "Munch" can not be entirely corroborated by any source. George Jonas himself states that it is impossible to have a confirmation of these events, as obviously they were conducted by secret service. An in consequence, "Munich" has been criticized for this aspect as the entire story relies on alleged events and sometimes omits certain aspects of History as French reminds us: "What they are not confronted with, and goes unmentioned, are the genuine blunders like the July 1973 murder of an innocent Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, a case of mistaken identity that led to several Israelis being given surprisingly lenient jail sentences in Norway."(French, 2006) The true question is whether Spielberg's intention was to portray the real events and real aspects of Mossad or simply raise other question and bring the audience to wonder about the actions of a State. What is necessary evil This could be a perfect catch phrase for "Munich" and what are the consequences of these actions on men who decided to serve their country and felt it was the best thing to do. As Michelle Goldberg points out in Der Spiegel, Golda Meir impersonates the dilemma of a country compromising its own values to defend what is believed to be a defendable cause: "Some people say we can't afford to be civilized, I've always resisted such people. Today I'm hearing with new ears." (The War on Munich, December 20, 2005) Conclusion Our interrogation on the accuracy of portraying Mossad in "Munich" and "Les Patriotes" brings us to a wider question about historical movies. Accurate or not, why does this need to watch our own History staged on screen The answer is awfully simple and relies on a common belief: History is repeating itself. Israel destroying a Iraqi nuclear reactor with no specific evidence of its use for military actions, terrorist acts leading to barbarian counter strikes, the question of necessary evil and its justifications. Spielberg's and Rochant's movies were not an attempt to describe Mossad as accurately as possible but a quest to answer present questions with past answers. Avner's contact, Ephraim asks him towards the end of the movie "What have you learned" This question actually directed to the audience leaves us without a satisfactory answer. Maybe, just like Avner, we are wondering if our actions were not creating even greater evil. Work Cited Page Antulov, D. ""Les Patriotes" - A film review" May 9, 2003. Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-10002784/reviews.phpcritic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=1136878 Clinton, P. ""Munich" a masterpiece".CNN.com Decemeber 23, 2005. Available at: http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/23/review.munich/index.html Ebert, R. "Munich" Chicago Sun-Times. December 23, 2005. Available at: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20051222/REVIEWS/51214004 Edelstein, D. "Death of a hit man" Slate.com. December 22, 2005. Available at: http://www.slate.com/id/2133050/ French, P. "Munich" The Guardian. January 29, 2006. Available at: http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_Film_of_the_week/0,,1697168,00.html Goldberg, M. "The war on "Munich"" Der Spiegel. December 20, 2005. Available at: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,391525,00.html Levy, E. "Les Patriotes" Variety.com. May 23, 1994. Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-10002784/reviews.phpcritic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=1136878 Thompson, J. "Spy film with a twist" Green Left weekly. May 25, 1995. Available at: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-10002784/reviews.phpcritic=all&sortby=default&page=1&rid=1136878 Travers, P. "Munch" Rolling Stones. December 8, 2005. Available at: http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/_/id/7520701/rid/8936749/rnd=1145253835078&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1483 Read More