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Mathew Scott

Munich

Starring: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Geoffrey Rush

Director: Steven Spielberg

The film: Making a film about the events surrounding  the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games  brings with it some added baggage.  How political do you make  it,  and at whom do you point the finger?

Master filmmaker Steven Spielberg - always  able to attract premium publicity  for his projects - took on the job and ensured there were enough leaks throughout the making of the film to keep keyboards tapping around the world. How would he paint the Israeli secret agents charged  with bringing those involved to justice? Would he  portray the terrorists in a soft light? And how would he reflect on the world and how it has changed since 1972?

With the film clocking in at close to three hours, Spielberg  gives himself enough time to cover all the bases. The recreation of the taking of the hostages from the Olympic Village is  fast and furious and excellent cinema.

But the film's focus is more on the aftermath: the decision to send a group of Mossad agents (led  by Eric Bana as Avener, below right with Mathieu Kassovitz) to hunt and assassinate  those behind the killings.

This allows Spielberg full rein for his set pieces as one by one the villains are tracked down. But how different are they to those   now hunting them?  Everyone seems to be swimming in a sea of  grey - there's no real  good and evil in the world we're presented with.  And, as always with  Spielberg, you fear that,  at some stage, one of the baddies will scream, 'But you're just like me!' - to  ensure we get the point.

Similarly, lingering shots  of the World Trade Centre are all  too obvious and simplistic.  So, nothing has changed in the Spielberg canon,  but you're inclined to forgive  the director these flourishes, because  the film is a lesson in how to keep an audience on the edge of their seats.

Bana continues his rise through the acting ranks, steely one minute, soulful the next. The assorted characters around him skim closely to cliches - the hardened warrior, the science geek out of his depth - but are never given too much screen time, so you don't really care.

Best of all,  Geoffrey Rush  delves into his  catalogue of outrageous accents, and he rolls  his tongue around wonderfully as Avener's Mossad boss.

The extras: There's a two-disc collectors edition available online, but for the moment Hong Kong retail shoppers  will have to make do with the single-disc package that features just two extras: the director introducing the film and explaining his motivation in some detail, and a small featurette on how the real events unfolded.

The verdict: Spielberg packs everything he can into this taut thriller that works a treat if you don't dig too deeply.



Munich