A 2005 Steven Spielberg movie receives a fair accuracy score from a counterterrorism expert. Steven Spielberg’s best movies cover a wide range of genres, from the Holocaust drama Schindler’s List to the science-fiction adventures in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg gained widespread recognition for his direction of Jaws, which was the first of many box office successes Spielberg would direct in the ensuing years, with the Indiana Jones trilogy and Jurassic Park among his many movies that became immensely popular.
1998’s Saving Private Ryan proved to be another Steven Spielberg World War II movie that became a critical and commercial hit. In the 2000s, Spielberg continued to direct a rich variety of movies, with the historical drama Lincoln and his remake of the musical West Side Story being among the most critically acclaimed. In 2022, Spielberg’s The Fabelmans was released, which is inspired by the filmmaker’s youth, where his passion for making movies began.
Steven Spielberg’s Munich Is Assessed For Its Accuracy
It Is Based On A Real Story
The 2005 Spielberg movie Munich is evaluated for its real-world accuracy. The story revolves around Israel’s Mossad hunting down and assassinating those involved in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The cast includes Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds, and Geoffrey Rush. Munich had a worldwide gross of $131 million, only $47 million of which was made domestically, against a budget of $70 million (via Box Office Mojo), making it one of Spielberg’s lowest grossing movies.
Munich received five Academy Award nominations.
In an Insider video, former CIA counterterrorism officer John Kiriakou reveals how realistic Munich is overall. He explains the events of the 1972 massacre, how Israel responded, and what happened to all the individuals involved in the massacre. While there is one significant way that Munich dramatizes how the Mossad hunted down the terrorists, Kiriakou gives the movie a relatively high score since it is mostly rooted in factual information. Check out his comments below:
So Munich tells the true story of the attack against the Israeli Olympic team in Munich in the 1972 Olympics. This was an attack carried out by a Palestinian terrorist group called Black September, and they killed every single Israeli athlete.
What we saw in that clip was the Israeli team killing one of the terrorists responsible for the 1972 Olympic Massacre and the Palestinians escaped while the Israeli government set out to hunt them down one by one all over the world and killed every single one of them but one. There was one who died of old age, but they got every single one of the others. It was not one Israeli team that went all around the world. It was multiple Israeli teams over the course of years.
On realism, I’d give it a seven [out of 10] because the core, the structure of the film was completely based in fact. They sexed it up a little bit. It was essentially real.
Munich Is An Underrated Spielberg Movie
Kiriakou’s analysis of Munich is a reminder of what the movie does well. While Munich is usually not included in discussions of Steven Spielberg’s best movie scenes, it is an underrated chapter in the acclaimed filmmaker’s career, and one that is often overlooked. This is likely due to the movie’s poor box office performance, especially at the domestic box office. Nevertheless, Munich is a well-made movie with a strong cast that tells an important story. It should receive more recognition for its realism and as another quality movie in Spielberg’s filmography.
Source: Insider, Box Office Mojo
Munich is a historical drama centered on the events following the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. The film follows a group of Mossad agents, tasked by the Israeli government, to locate and eliminate those responsible for the attack carried out by the Palestinian group Black September.
- Release Date
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December 23, 2005
- Runtime
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164 Minutes
- Cast
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Eric Bana
, Daniel Craig
, Ciarán Hinds
, Mathieu Kassovitz
, Hanns Zischler - Writers
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Eric Roth
, Tony Kushner
