Dogs

Peyton - my December foster puppy

Peyton is available for adoption from Animal Haven.

Munich

Last night I went to see Munich. It was Christmas Eve on Staten Island, so most of the moviegoers were Jews and the theater was packed. Many of the Jews were Russian which made my experience even more interesting.

I found one seat between a woman to my left who used too much perfume and a man to my right who didn't use enough deodorant. At first it was unpleasant, but during the movie I figured out that if I leaned to one side during one scene and the other during another, it actually added another dimension to my experience. What I couldn't take so well was the constant phone calls that someone was receiving. It made me long for the good old days of Schindler's List (1993) when the worst offense was making out.

Smell-o-rama aside, I found the film well worth seeing. To me, it was about the struggle of a man tasked with hunting down people. They may well have deserved, but spending one's career doing this sort of thing takes its toll. The characters were fairly multi-dimensional, compelling and movie left me thinking. So, for me, it was 2:44 well spent.

Not everyone shared my view, though. As I was exiting the theater I heard comments like "... is a Hollywood Liberal" (remark presumably aimed at the director) and "I was disappointed with Spielberg. As a Jew [himself], I was hoping he would have presented Jews in a better light." When I heard this remark I reflexively made a face that made its author understand that I disagreed with his stance. I am not sure he understood why, so I will elaborate here.

First, I thought Spielberg presented the Jews in absolutely fine light. To me the Jewish characters appeared quite sympathetic, if complex and representative of the different views Jews hold in real life. I am not sure how much more sympathetic the characters would have to be without losing the complexity that made them compelling. In fact, I would have preferred that I got to know them better and understood their reasons for being on the hit team (though I wouldn't have wanted to sit through a 4:22 film).

Then, there is the thorny issue of Spielberg having a Jewish responsibility to represent Jews in a positive light. I am quite certain that the same man would very quickly call anyone alleging that Jews portray Jews in movies in a more positive light because they are Jews as an anti-Semite. So, what is Spielberg to do? Positive, but not too positive to notice by gentiles? Perhaps Jackie Mason could help direct the next picture...

I believe the trouble was not that the Jews were portrayed not positively enough, but that the terrorists were portrayed too positively (i.e. having families, points of view and generally having depth). So the Jewish protagonists weren't killing evil Palestinian terrorists, but Palestinian terrorists who had other things going on in their lives after Munich. That is what made for the film difficult and compelling to watch - my reptilian brain told me it was OK to hunt the terrorists down, but my stomach was squeamish about blowing up a person whom I had "met" though his dialogue.

Apparently my fellow movie watcher didn't care to "meet" the terrorist or understand his reasons for doing what he did. Nor did he want the pros and cons of hunting down terrorists (as opposed to trying them in court) to be discussed. It seems to me he missed the whole point of being Jewish. Doesn't our culture embrace debate and revel in multiple interpretations of the same Torah sentence? Doesn't portraying Jews as capable of dealing with moral complexities cast them in a positive light?