Garrett Dalton-Munich

The film Munich is one of Stephen Spielberg's best films and one of my all time personal favorites. The movie is an adaptation of a book titled Vengeance and follows the events that transpired after the terrorist hostage taking at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. The terrorist organization known as Black September took the Israeli Olympic team hostage and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners as well as several members of the Red Army Faction in Germany. The hostage situation turned bad and left the entire Israeli team dead. In response, Israel assembled a secret group of assassins to eliminate the planners of the Munich incident. The team engages in a discreet war against Black September throughout Europe and at one time in the Middle East. Within the film can be found the idea of morality in the face of an extreme situation. At one point in the film one of the assassins poses the question to the others as to the legitimacy of their assignment. He did not see the difference between the killing that Israel was doing and the killing that the Palestinians were perpetrating. This is a moral question as to whether the laws of man are more important than the higher moral law. Is it right to kill for the security of one's people or does the is it morally unethical?