Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005) is a tale of five Israeli men seeking vengeance. At the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, Palestinian terrorists have massacred eleven Israeli athletes. The Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, and her generals find agent Avner Kaufman to seek retribution. Together with a team of four men, whose talents and specialties include forging documents, cleaning up crime scenes, and making bombs, Avner Kaufman is instructed to kill eleven men one by one. The Israeli secret intelligence agency, Mossad, has found each one guilty in some way with the Munich massacre. While based entirely on historical events, the characters and ways in which those events play out are fictionalized. The film is heavily layered with themes of friendship, vengeance, patriotism, terrorism, and the question of a just war. A subtle but nonetheless extremely important theme is meals and family. The idea of coming together to eat food and being part of a family are very much related and cannot be separated, especially in the way Spielberg presents the story.
In Jewish tradition, the idea of a 'meal' dates back as far as the earliest Hebrew Scriptures. The Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible gives one of the first divine commands to eat a meal together with family and neighbors to commemorate the day that God delivered the Jewish people from slavery (Exodus 12:14-20). Meal regulations over subsequent centuries such as eating kosher foods, unleavened bread, and fasting have made meals a very important part of Jewish life. The film's two main meal scenes are when the team convenes initially and later when Avner meets Papa. Family is also very important in the film. Avner never knew his father, though his mother and Mossad comrades told him stories about his courage and patriotism, and thus Israel itself as a nation and as a worldwide people is shown to be one enormous family. Israeli citizenship is much deeper than being part of other nations, like the United States or Britain. Everything that happens to the nation is the direct equivalent of having it happen to a family member. Using meals as a motif, the film illustrates Avner’s change as the member of a family.
At the start of the film, Avner’s place in a family is shown by his simultaneous desires to serve his country and be a good husband and father, as his wife is pregnant. The two roles are somewhat related. He desires to support his family as a good husband should, so he also wants to support his country as a good citizen should. Living in his hero-father’s shadow, he does all he can for both parties. Thus, when called upon to join a mission, the objectives of which he knows nothing about, he simply asks his wife for her approval. His larger family, his country, has called him and he must answer. The first thing that Avner does when he meets his team is cook them a meal. He is shown to be an exceptional cook, though humble about his talent. The team discusses what their duties are, what they are skilled in, and how they are going to go around Europe killing these men. In essence, they become family. The viewer sees each face in a close up as they communicate with one another. Spielberg actually makes the moviegoer a member of the table and one truly feels what it means to be part of this new family. The viewer is given the opportunity to join the meal as well. The scene closes with the group joking and laughing through the night. The bonds of family have been sealed.
The next meal that the film shows Avner visiting Papa, his informant’s father. He and his family run an underground, anonymous intelligence agency. They provide information to those who pay a considerable sum. They can give someone data concerning anyone and everyone in the world of secret intelligence. Avner is worried what Papa has to say because Avner used information he received to organize a Mossad strike in Beirut, which violates the principles Papa uses to give information. What follows is a fascinating conversation between two men who share an incredible amount in common. Papa, whose real name is never revealed, shares Avner’s passion for cooking and observes that they both have fingers too fat to ever be superior chefs. Their hands are better for chopping meat. Papa solemnly says, “Oh, we are tragic men. Butcher’s hands, gentle souls.” Papa begins to pick fruits from his garden for the meal ahead, in a peaceful, beautiful village surrounded by children and a beautiful family. The French sun illuminates the screen and the viewer instantly becomes aware of two opposing forces in the scene. One cannot help but realize that the business which constructed this family and home is that of deceit and murder. The camera constructs Papa as a wise man, but nonetheless one to be feared. The power he wields is almost too much to put on screen.
The highlight of the scene is Papa actually forgiving Avner for transgressing the principles on which he was given information. Gathering food for his family, Papa notices the metaphor of helping one’s family and suggests that Avner call him ‘Papa.’ Avner refuses, as he has a family to help and, though he did not know him, has his own ‘Papa’ back home. Papa admires this very much, and notices that whatever Avner is doing, he does it for the same reason that he runs his information business; because family is important. In the end of the scene, after sharing a meal, Papa notes that these intense similarities between the two men would have made Avner a worthy son. Avner, however, is not his son, and that is something that cannot be reconciled no matter how much the two share. Family cannot be forced in places where it ought not to be forced.
By this time in the film, Spielberg has made it abundantly clear that Avner and his team have questioned the very motives and actions which have led them this far. Deaths and bloodshed have made them wary of anything they are assigned to do. Avner’s facial expression, covered in black camouflage, as he shoots a teenage guard outside his victim’s house shows the horror and anguish he feels for everything he has done and how futile he thinks his work is. Once the assassinations are complete, Avner sees his mother in Israel to convince her to be with his family in Brooklyn. She notices that her son is distraught. Avner says that he cannot reveal what he did, though asks if she would like to hear. Posing this question suggests that his mother by virtue of bringing him into this world deserves to know what her son has done. She declines, however, saying she knows everything just looking at his eyes. She knows that whatever he did was necessary, and that he should be proud to have done his family such a service. While his mother’s visage shows her compassion, wisdom, and motherly strength, the expression on Avner’s face again reveals his questioning side and skepticism. He is proud to be an Israeli and does love his family, both immediate and nationwide.
Avner, however, still doubts whether or not doing anything for that family is just. By the end of the film, there is no doubt in Avner’s mind that he has failed morally. He has not done justice but only furthered injustice by perpetuating violence. When Ephraim, his contact in Mossad, comes to Brooklyn and tries to bring him to peace with his actions and return to Israel, Avner reveals his doubts and anguish. In response, Ephraim rebukes him and argues for the justice in fighting terrorism and for a homeland. A tense discussion follows, after which Avner invites him to a meal, saying “Break bread with me. Come on, you're a Jew in a foreign land. It's written somewhere I should invite you to break bread with me. Break bread with me, Ephraim.”
He declines with a defiant “No.”
Thus Avner has thus been cut off from his Israeli family. Whether just or unjust, he cannot be part of this larger family any more because he has decided not to go certain distances for the welfare of the Israeli state.
The film closes as Ephraim walks away from Avner in a misty New York harbor. Avner appears utterly alone under the massive city’s skyline. A careful viewer will see the World Trade Center towers in the background, suggesting similar implications for terrorism, vengeance, and retaliation being used in a post September 11th world. Spielberg closes his film ominously, filling the moviegoer’s head with questions about finding one’s place in a family and having that identity as a family member. How does one carry out one’s duty as a family member? What family or families does one belong to? By partaking in a meal, one is signing a contract. One agrees to be a part of a family and share in loyalty to others. By Ephraim so blatantly walking away from Avner’s invitation, the viewer gets a strong sense of abandonment and loneliness. The viewer, like Avner, is left struggling for a place to belong and call home.
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