Will it, or not?

The film revolves around the incident in Munich where 9 Israelis were killed by Palestinian terrorists.


So...

What do we think??

Since I half-expect the film to be more or less a predictable thriller (since it's Spielberg, everything will end in a mushy finale; even Schindler's List ended like that), I think most won't care enough to raise hell about it.

Plus, Spielbergo's films are never controversial. I mean, do you see any dinosaurs filing defamation lawsuits?


So, personally, I doubt it will make much of a difference. But you never know. Mr. S is in a comfortable enough position to make any kind of film he wants. I guess that, if he wishes to portray the incident in a politically-charged vein, he can do so without a second thought.


Can you think of any other releases that might be controversial?

The level of controversy this film generates completely depends on how he handles the two sides of the conflict, which I believe he is capable of doing sympathetically to some extent. I do not think that this will be a Palestinian smear campaign. If anything, knowing Spielberg, he will try to use the film to find a middle ground to speak about recent events and terrorism as a general concept.

Most Americans aren't very well versed on all of the issues dealing with Isrealies (sorry spelling?) and Palestinians, so I don't see this really causing any controversy with the public, but maybe in bored newspapers.

The Incident? Was that at the 74 Munich Olympic Games?

Yes, but 1972 was the year iirc.

Thanks, I guessed at the year rather than looking it up.

No it will not, because the Muslim ( and Arab ) lobby in Hollywood isn't half as powerful as other lobbies ( ex. the Jewish lobby ). So even if the movie upsets the Arabs ( most likely ), the Arabs won't be able to do what the Jews did with the Passion of The Christ for example ( protest in front of cinemas, Appear in TV channels, newspapers and magazines to say how much the movie is anti semetic, etc ). Note that all the movies that showed the Arabs as terrorists ( The Siege, Executive decision, True lies, etc ) didn't cause much contreversy, at least in the united states.

If there's one movie i expect to cause contreversy, it's gonna be Kingdom Of Heaven.

True Lies did cause some minor controversy, but the film is pretty moronic so accusations that the film is racist (and personally, I think it is) really fall flat.

The Siege... I will never understand the controversy about that movie from certain groups. One of the primary messages of the film was the improper segregation of Middle-Eastern people because of a terrorist act. It explores an issue that would be talked about to no end on September 11th. Sure the movie isn't *great* but eh...

Film history is littered with controversy generated from folks who have not even seen the films in question...

The Last Temptation of Christ! Goodness, that has to be the most controversial ever.


Btw, Ahmed, I'm not sure how controversial Kingdom of Heaven will be. The film is sympathetic to the Muslim side (apparently) rather than the Christian.

And if there's one thing that we've learned from Hollywood, it's that bashing Christianity is fair game to them.


Plus, if it's anything close to being as bad as GLadiator was (what awful trash that was), I doubt anyone will touch it with a twelve-yard stick.

I Also thought KOH would be sympathetic to the Muslim side, until i saw the trailer and read the article about the movie in the April issue of Empire magazine.

In that article, Khaled Abu El-Fadl, professor of Islamic law and history, who read the script of the movie said " The Western Characters are fully formed human beings, reflecting the whole gamut of the of human feeling. On the Muslim side, everyone apart from Saladin is portrayed as a mindless machine, maniacally screaming " Allah Akbar" ".

Saladin is considered in the Arab world as one the best islamic leaders in history, he's an icon. I'm sure no one here will accept seeing him or his army defeated, or portrayed in a bad way. So i'm sure this movie will cause a LOT of contreversy in the Arab world, and maybe in America too. I'm also 90% certain that it will be banned in Egypt, where I live.

I think Spielberg will bash the german goverment in vegence,he loves bashing germans.

Oh, now that changes everything.

Saladin was revered by Europeans even in the Middle Ages and the Rennaissance. Dante puts him among the virtuous pagans in the Inferno, with Plato, Aristotle, etc.

If the film turns out to portray one side in a biased way, then it deserves to be criticized. The Europeans were absolutely horrible during the Crusades.

Yeah, and they keep kissing his ass in exchange. Lol!


But the story itself almost demands for the German gov't to be bashed.

Basically, they were incompetent. And the reason why they were incompetent is because something like that had never happened before. They had absolutely no means of dealing with the situation in Munich. It's not that they didn't try; it just was beyond anything they could have planned for.


Also, the Palestinians were the villains. It's as simple as that. How can you portray a group of people that hold a group of people hostage and kill 9 of them in a positive light? That'd be insane.

So the story in of itself is discomforting. Why would anyone wish to make a film like this at such a volatile period? But meh, whatever...