A Hora da Vingança

When Psycho was redone, the same camera angles, etc. were utilized as in the original Hitchcock version. Having just seen Munich, The Sword of Gideon inspired a big deja vu. Twenty years later and the great Spielberg could not find a way to improve on Gideon. Gideon's emotion was no less and support from people like Rod Steiger and Colleen Dewhurst is hard to top. The Gideon sets were replicated in the Munich version as well. Interestingly, both movies ran about the same exact amount of time. Bauer's Avner was intense and emotional. If one of these films is to be seen, I'd call it a six of one and half a dozen of the other.

With the upcoming release of Steven Spielberg's film Munich, I think it would be a good idea for many people interested in this subject to go out and find this gem (and little known) film to watch first.

There are a few films out there that I never tire of watching -- this is one of them. This is an intelligent film that doesn't gloss over the inner conflicts that each of the Mossad agents must struggle with while performing a "righteous act" for their country to avenge the murders of their fellow Israelis (the 11 athletes).

Moreover, the incorporation of a very well played Golda Meir and her reverberating quotes really bumps this movie up a notch in my view. The makers of this film could have easily sidestepped the decision makers roles, leaving it as a viewer assumption, but fortunately they did not.

This is not a campy "Delta Force" revenge movie from a Chuck Norris/Steven Segal genre of films. The Sword of Gideon challenges us to ponder the real and complex problems of ethics, righteousness, honor, and duty. I'll be interested in seeing how much of this movie Spielberg leverages in "Munich."

This tense, fascinating film details how men are recruited into the Israeli Mossad to search for and kill those responsible for the Munich Olympics murders. Also, we see how the men are pressured to stay in the group. Great acting and real locations make it all the more compelling. The morality of what they're doing is questioned at several points, and we see some very chilling assasination scenes.

The ending is a bit of a let-down, but then since it is based on actual events . . . I am not Jewish but found this film to be suspenseful and very involving -- a humdinger.

Re the summary of this movie... It is a few years since I saw it, but I do not recall any of the "anti-war" or "anti Israel" sentiment suggested in the summary. Of course one takes movies like this with a pinch of salt from a historical point of view, but the message I got from it was distinctly "Don't Mess With Israel(is)".

This drama about the Israeli secret service's attempts at avenging the terrorist murderings of their Olympic athletes in the '70s might not leave you on the edge of your seat, but definitely makes for good watching, and is worth the rental price. (Rod Steiger makes a good showing as a retired Jewish spy!)

Basically, Israeli intelligence (called Mossad) carries out an assassination campaign against the alleged terrorists with varying success. Made-for-TV action sequences have a tendency to be a trifle stale, but in this movie they actually come across with a sense of realism, if not necessarily "edge-of-your-seat" exciting (unlike Hollywood which, while fun & exciting, is about as realistic as the National Enquirer).

This movie will be much more enjoyable to watch if you have at least some background/interest in modern Israeli history, otherwise it's just typical made-for-TV fare...