Tel-Chai Nation

The ultra-establishment Haaretz daily reports that Steven Spielberg is hiring Eyal Arad to help promote Munich, which, as some sources mentioned in the earlier post have said, is a classic disaster of the morally equivalent type (Hat tip: Israel Perspectives):

Steven Spielberg has hired one of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's top strategists to market his controversial new film about Israel's retaliation for the Palestinian attack on its team at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Eyal Arad, who helped mastermind the disengagement, said on Sunday he was promoting the film "Munich", where it has already stirred fierce debate.

Avi Dichter, a retired head of the Shin Bet security service who attended a preview in Washington, likened "Munich" to a children's adventure story. "There is no comparison between what you see in the movie and how it works in reality," he said.

My my, Spielberger sure knows who to turn to for assistance, doesn't he? The most crummy of the politicians at that, and the ones who've succeeded in alienating the Israeli public at that.

James Bowman also checked the movie's content early (Hat tip: Betsy's Page), and goodness me, what interesting elements of the moral equation department were put to use in this movie:

Here are a few of the conventional ideas served up by Mr. Spielberg and his screenwriter, Tony Kushner, in "Munich" as if no one, or at least no one in Hollywood, had thought of them before:

* Revenge is an uncivilized, savage act that lowers the revenger to the level of his victim. As a result, there is always a certain moral equivalence between killer and victim.

* Engaging in revenge perpetuates a cycle of violence.

* Those who are caught up in this cycle and who kill in cold blood often suffer terrible agonies of conscience: nightmares, paranoia, substance abuse, and other manifestations of what we have learned to call post-traumatic stress disorder.

* From governments of all kinds, corruption, violence, and lack of human compassion is to be expected.

* Therefore, one should put loyalty to one's family and friends ahead of loyalty to one's country.

In other words, as the latter example implies, only the family and friends of an individual matter, not those of other people. So much for selflessness. And it's a good thing that I never saw Saving Private Ryan, because, as explained in the following:

This is a trick Mr. Spielberg has tried before. In "Saving Private Ryan" he showed little Matt Damon in front of the war graves in Normandy, questioning whether or not he was a good person - as if the deaths of so many men and the massive global project of defeating the Nazis had all been for the sake of little Matt and his precious self-esteem.

The same disproportion between the psychic struggles of his heroes - important to them, no doubt, though not so obviously important to the world - and political and military events of world-significance is evident in "Munich."

And I guess all those innocent Jews, French, Gypsies, and many other innocent Europeans, weren't as important as the so-called lives of those German cannibals, is that it? That's it, I'm not wasting my time on anything Spielberg does today that could involve political tones to it.

Ben Shapiro's also given his thoughts on the crummy movie, and notes Tony Kushner's elitism, and one of the biggest mistakes of the industry today: everyone MUST be portrayed as human. Does that include even Islamofascists who've committed rape in Europe?

R. Emmett Tyrrell's seen the movie, and according to the UK Guardian, Spielberg insists that:

"the biggest threat to the Middle East was neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis but intransigence on both sides."

Clearly, Spielberg is of a most naive form of educational background, and has never bothered to do any in depth research into anything regarding either side. And if this is how he's going to go about his business, then I guess he'd better not bother to come and live here, or get citizenship here, for that matter. In fact, maybe he should go and live on an island in the sea.

Update: and now the movie has officially debuted, and Debbie Schlussel's review for starters shows that this appears to be some kind of NC-17 rated horrorfest. That does it, no more Spielberg for me! See also Jonathan Tobin's review for more.

Also available at 10ft2ft.Com, Basil's Blog, Bloggin' Out Loud, Is it Just Me, Jo's Cafe, The Mudville Gazette, The Real Ugly American, Real Teen, Stop the ACLU, Wizbang. Others rightfully offended by Spielberg's sellout include Michelle Malkin, Gina Cobb, Captain's Quarters, Damnum Absque Injuria, Guns and Butter Blog, Newsbusters.

Labels: Moonbattery, showbiz