An analysis of the 2005 Spielberg film Munich in the context of the Israel-Hamas war and Israeli-Palestinian conflict that identifies universally significant themes of profound current relevance.
Preface: Either With US or Against US
“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. (Applause.)” —President George W. Bush on September 20th 2001 inaugurating the ‘War on trr’ (sic).
This article analyses Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich for its thematic relevancy to the Israel-Hamas War and resurged Palestinian Conflict begun by the October 7th attack; and more essentially, to the globalised ideology of counterterrorism. Before doing so, I outline in this Preface the context in which I interpret the current war and significant themes from the film.
An uncut, feature-length discussion about the movie medium; packed with bonus content—and LOTS of movies.
There’s Something About Movies: Special Edition (packed with bonus features!)
PART 1 Embedded-Archetype Recycling
Introduction
More so than any other medium, the motion picture – also known as film, cinema, and most commonly, movies – has the capacity to convey ideas and themes whilst bypassing the viewer’s awareness of having done so; meaning that even the reception of the content generally remains unperceived, i.e. let alone its affect and techniques thereof. This principle can be observed by the substratum of archetypal themes from which movie* narratives are constructed upon; by the industrial recycling of these archetypes, evident in movies that are differentiated by time and genre; and by the common obliviousness to embedded elements and the pervasiveness of this practice.
*Although most of this article concerns movies, the discussion generally applies to television fiction too, particularly since it has become more cinematic in recent years. Movie narratives, however, are the primary form of embedded-archetype recycling.
I have termed the principle behind this practice ‘embedded-archetype recycling’, where “archetype” refers to a type of character or theme that is ancient, or at least pre-modern (hence being adapted into modern form); where “embedded” refers to the concealment of the archetypes within the overt narrative; and where “recycling” refers to the institutional practice of reapplying these archetypes to the narratives of “new” movies (hence, archetypes pervade the medium irrespective of era divergences and genre differences between movies).
Stepping Stones 