I donno. 11 people got killed by terrorists thirty years ago. AQI is making that a monthy occurance, right here and now. There something about the dissonence with which the culture treats these events that bothers me. I mean, where's the movie about the man who died trying to vote last week? Eh, maybe it takes 30 years, and in 2035 that generation's Speilberg will make 'Bagdad'.

Its amazing how differently people view the prism of what happened in Munich. If 11 American atheletes were killed at a Tokyo olympics 30 years after the war, the would be maybe a tiny comparison to how Munich resonated with Israelis and their supporters. The context of Germany and the Holocaust is critical to this. The way the Germans and Olympic committee brushed the whole affair off is as well. The fact that the captured terrorists were released (almost certainly intentionally if you believe many of those involved) cannot be forgotten. Its true, many people have died in far worse massacres, but what makes Munich seminal is its symbolism. It proved that despite all the rhetoric of Europes sorrow for the Holocaust, there was and is still a deep thread of suspicion if not outright hostility towards the jews. It might be argued the Munich was the beginning of the new age of appeasement and moral relativism that has encompassed much of Western politics and culture, particularly towards the Palestinians. Munich was a wakeup call for the Israelis, the Americans, and anyone else who thought all the factors that made WW2 such a tragedy were dead and buried.

And to others, Munich was Israel getting what they deserved.

Seth one of the athletes was an American Citizen (dual citizenship). You may view this as "no big deal" but Munich represented the deliberate targetting of wholly innocent people on purpose for the expressed view of terrorizing them. That's all that was behind it. You can draw a direct line between Munich, the murder of Leon Klinghoffer (celebrated in an Opera written by Philip Glass!) and the rest of the terrorist chic and violence worshipping by Liberals (Norman Mailer's comment that the wreckage of the WTC was more beautiful than the towers comes to mind) ... and 9/11.

The road to 9/11 started with Munich. The film itself suggests strongly that America deserved 9/11 as the Israelis "deserved" Munich.

This was also the Olypmics, where politics didn't matter & all that mattered was the sport & competition. The cold war raged on but Americans ans Soviets battled in boxing rings, ice rinks and wherever else. Even when we fought in Vietnam or Korea, the olympics still happened and the focus was on the games themselves & not politics.

Seth, Munich was a vivid experience of my childhood - as was Steven Spielberg - and I tried to explain its significance to me in this post at lgc: Munich Through a Glass, and Darkly. We have to show the killers that our memories are as long as theirs. Longer, even.

Wow, powerful post Glen. That is exactly how i feel about the matter.

And yet, Judea Pearl has a thoughtful, if perhaps a tad optimistic, appraisal of the film.

Can't for the life of me figure out what all the fuss is about. "Munich" is a copy/remake of a film called "Sword Of Gideon" made in the mid 80's.
Guess what makes it special is that Spielberg made this one. Nothing much new or different, better special effects, I guess.