Munich Slammed
A harsh review of Steven Spielberg's Munich over at The New Republic. [Registration required, but use bugmenot, whynot?] I haven't seen the film, but this passage seems to capture the essence of Spielberg's work in the last decade:
The film is powerful, in the hollow way that many of Spielberg's films are powerful. He is a master of vacant intensities, of slick searings. Whatever the theme, he must ravish the viewer...Spielberg knows how to overwhelm. But I am tired of being overwhelmed. Why should I admire somebody for his ability to manipulate me?
<<< Stephen Gaghan on Huffington Post Bunny Suicides >>>
Though I kinda wish he'd been a bit more specific with some of his points, that review was definitely worth the read. His criticisms described pretty much what I was afraid of when I saw the preview, and without reading carefully enough to be sure of this, it kinda crossed my mind that the reviewer was trying in his writing to do the thing he says Spielberg didn't, that is to find some kind of even-handedness without just setting up simple, non-commital equivalences.
(It was pretty clear from the preview that the movie wouldn't be any kind of indiscriminate flag-waving, and so I was eagerly hoping it wouldn't do exactly what it sounds like it did- that's the last thing we need now, and from some of the quotes I saw in the Time article, Spielberg believes he is doing something more than just making a movie.)
When I was young and I saw Schindler's List, it wouldn't have occured to me to be critical. But of the movies I saw later, I think I'd take the Pianist or Life is Beautiful over Schindler's pretty quickly, to draw a comparison.