Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Spielberg Film a Surprise to Mossad

Hat tip to Rory. Steven Spielberg appears to be more liberal than Jewish with his latest film debacle about the revenge taken against members of Black September following the Munich massacre. Common sense would lead a person to research the script via those involved. According to this article, neither members of Mossad nor the Israeli government even knew such a film was being made. But that's not all. Guess what the film is based on?

Entertainment reports say the film, provisionally titled "Vengeance " and due to reach cinemas in December, is based on a book of the same name whose account of one of the most painful chapters in Jewish history has been widely discredited.

Widely discredited?! Lovely. That's what he wants to use as his basis for the film? Of course this doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be bad, does it?

In the preface to "Vengeance," author George Jonas declares himself a supporter of Israel. But according to at least one member of Spielberg's cast, Daniel Craig, the screenplay is a less-than-flattering portrayal of Israeli tactics.
 
"It's about how vengeance doesn't ... work -- blood breeds blood," Craig told entertainment magazine Empire.


This has stink on it up one side and down the other.

15 Comments:

At 4:59 PM, Blogger MaxedOutMama said...

That does reek to high heaven. Of course, it will play well among certain circles, who ztill want to blame Israel for all the trouble with Muslims.

Sometimes, Esther, I wonder how on earth people can be so blind as not to look at events in Iraq and admit the truth - Israel's offense is not its existence and not its Jewish inhabitants. Israel's offense is that it gives rights to all and lets its citizens vote. Israel's offense is being a democratic state in the midst of dictatorships. Israel's offense is being a successful democracy that made the desert bloom.

Israel's offense is the implicit reproach its form of government presents to the oppressive regimes surrounding it. Without the drumbeat of hatred Israel would shine like a beacon of hope to all of those who now live in oppression - so Israel must be forever reviled, despised and maligned.

Every bomb in Iraq, detonated to blow up buses and cars occupied by Iraqi Muslims, proves the case for Israel as nothing else ever could. This insurgency in Iraq is the desperate onslaught of a dying and insanely oppressive ideology. It has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do freedom and its opposite.

 
At 5:02 PM, Blogger Esther said...

MoM -- that comment was AWESOME! You got it right and said it beautifully. Thank you! :)

 
At 5:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Spielberg just follows the trend.
He always wished to be popular and "progressive".
BTW this film is a second take on this novel.
The novel, Vengeance was written by George Jonas.
The film was titled "Sword of Gideon" (1986).
It was pretty bad.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092038/

 
At 6:16 PM, Blogger CJ Srullowitz said...

If the film is not honest, it will, lulei demistafina, show in the final product. I'm not "worried" about such things. Spielberg has had several bombs; we just don't remember them.

 
At 6:44 PM, Blogger Deadman said...

Maxed Out Mama did say it well. As far as your comment, Cloo Jew, what bothers me about this is that it is more of the same bullshit from "progressive" American Jews, who think they've cornered the market on morality and how Jews, and especially Israelis, should react in the face of a constant onslaught of terror. Trouble is, Spielberg isn't picking up the shredded remains of his child off a street in Jerusalem....

 
At 8:57 PM, Blogger Batya said...

I guess he doesn't really watch/listen to the testimonies of the survivors.

 
At 10:23 PM, Blogger Esther said...

cloojoo, I sure hope this bombs if it is indeed as we suspect. And thanks for stopping by and commenting. :)

felis, I'm sure this will be too.

Mark, I hear ya. Spielberg seems more about hating Nazis than loving Jews. :(

muse, i'm almost certain you are correct.

 
At 10:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is the progressive Jews who seem to want to love everyone but their own country who have me most in knots. I've a relative like that. Can they really be so blind as to the intent of Arab nations that they can endorse concessions as a road to peace? Or do they really not in the end care if Israel is destroyed?

 
At 7:30 AM, Blogger Esther said...

Rachel, I feel your frustration. Drives me crazy.

Gindy, you know my feelings on Spielberg and Schindler:

http://outsidetheblogway.blogspot.com/2005/04/oskar-schindler-hero.html

 
At 9:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Esther, I don't know if you've heard the comment from another one of our "favorites," that loathsome little turd, Woody Allen. He said "As a filmmaker, I'm not interested in 9/11. Because if you look at the big picture, the long view of things, it's too small, history overwhelms it." Now, mind you, he said this in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine. He doesn't have the you-know-whats to say it in this country. But, I wouldn't be surprised to find that, as a filmmaker, he'd be interested in 9/11...if Arabs hadn't been the ones who attacked us.

 
At 6:53 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

the sad thing about this is that although a lot of the information he will be working with has been discredited, people will go and see the movie and believe it... which is historically irresponsible and dangerous for Israel's image to the world

 
At 3:39 AM, Blogger Always On Watch said...

I'm with Regular Ron!

I stay pissed off most of the time--since 9/11.

 
At 10:18 AM, Blogger Tom Carter said...

I always agree with MOM. In this case, I would have to include anti-Semitism and religious hatred to the discussion. I spent a few months living in Saudi Arabia during the build-up to the first Gulf War, and I normally watched a 30-minute English-language news broadcast on Saudi TV. It was a real eye-opener to hear all that hatred and anti-Semitic hysteria spewed out in awkward English.

I just read an interview with Spielberg on the movie. He seems sensitive to the criticism, and it looks like he's made positive efforts to both make the movie reasonable and deal with the critics. I personally think he's a genius of our time, and I'm reserving judgment until I see the movie. It very well might be great.

I've read a variety of accounts of how Israel tracked down and killed the Palestinians who perpetrated or were associated with Munich. At a gut level, I love it. Justice pure and simple. Intellectually, it concerns me a little. They admittedly killed one man in Europe by mistake who had nothing to do with the incident, and there were questions about a few of the other targets. In order for justice to be just, it has to be correctly applied.

 
At 12:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think one of the more troubling aspects of the movie is the fact that Spielberg never saw fit to interview any of the people involved. I'm sure he never would have dreamed of making Schindler's List without interviewing Holocaust survivors, so why would he make this movie and never talk to anybody in the Mossad?

The Moroccan waiter who was killed in Norway was a tragic case of mistaken identity, for which the Mossad took responsibility. As far as any other targets that may have been questionable, if they weren't involved in the murders of the athletes, but they were members of Black September, well....

 
At 11:09 AM, Blogger birdwoman said...

Speaking of Spielberg and movies - went to see War of the Worlds this weekend. Afterwards, I read my Entertainment Weekly review (yes, I'm a total highbrow!!). There's one part where the mean evil aliens are searching a basement for people to munch on, and they use this camera on a long neck like thing. EW had to write that this was a commentary on our current government.

Jeebus I hate it when they won't let movies be MOVIES.

(*)>

 

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