Sword of Gideon

When Psycho was redone, the same camera angles, etc. were utilized as in the original Hitchcock version. Having just seen Munich, The Sword of Gideon inspired a big deja vu. Twenty years later and the great Spielberg could not find a way to improve on Gideon. Gideon's emotion was no less and support from people like Rod Steiger and Colleen Dewhurst is hard to top. The Gideon sets were replicated in the Munich version as well. Interestingly, both movies ran about the same exact amount of time. Bauer's Avner was intense and emotional. If one of these films is to be seen, I'd call it a six of one and half a dozen of the other.

With the upcoming release of Steven Spielberg's film Munich, I think it would be a good idea for many people interested in this subject to go out and find this gem (and little known) film to watch first.

There are a few films out there that I never tire of watching -- this is one of them. This is an intelligent film that doesn't gloss over the inner conflicts that each of the Mossad agents must struggle with while performing a "righteous act" for their country to avenge the murders of their fellow Israelis (the 11 athletes).

Moreover, the incorporation of a very well played Golda Meir and her reverberating quotes really bumps this movie up a notch in my view. The makers of this film could have easily sidestepped the decision makers roles, leaving it as a viewer assumption, but fortunately they did not.

This is not a campy "Delta Force" revenge movie from a Chuck Norris/Steven Segal genre of films. The Sword of Gideon challenges us to ponder the real and complex problems of ethics, righteousness, honor, and duty. I'll be interested in seeing how much of this movie Spielberg leverages in "Munich."

This made-for-TV movie is based on the book "Vengeance" by Jonas. Both are told from the viewpoint of "Avner" (played by Steven Bauer), an agent in Israel's secret service, who is recruited to lead a covert assassination squad dedicated to eliminating the terrorists responsible for the "Black September" attack on Israeli Olympians in Munich in 1972.

Israel launched different initiatives against the "Black September" terrorist organization. Avner's was deeply covert, involving a team of former Mossad agents, officially resigned from the secret agency, who operated completely independently and were paid like mercenaries. In this way the Israelis hoped to avoid disasters like the botched Lillehammer operation that killed an innocent man and resulted in the arrest of agents linked directly to Mossad.

Avner and his team create their own mercenary network using Israeli money and set about their eye-for-an-eye operation. However the stress and paranoia of their task begins to eat away at their resolve and, when a team member is himself assassinated, the team takes its own revenge. Soon they feel unable to trust even their own countrymen...

The telemovie is well done with good pacing and suspense. The moral and ethical issues that are the central theme are handled creditably and you come to care about the team members. There are strong supporting characters, particularly Rod Steiger as the team's Mossad contact "Mordechai Samuels" and Colleen Dewhurst as Israeli PM Golda Meir. Michael York also turns in a nice performance as the team's explosives expert.

With the events of 9/11 and the middle east suicide bombings,this is still a topical movie.There seem to be 2 versions of this movie,strive for the longer one.Its a HBO film that I saw on a different cable station and then bought the film on EBAY.The film on e-bay was a unedited still in its original box for 86 minutes but with a few scenes cut out.Maybe there was a European vs US issue?At any rate the scenes cut out hightened as point of view in favor of Isreal which I share.This film is propaganda to be sure,but isn't all film? In a powerful scene that was shortened to cut out this statement,Golda Mair the Isreal Premire is explaining to the new Mossad recruit why their cause is rightous.This paraphrase was cut from the short version where she says,"The killed our children while the world played games" Its a haunting film.

This is a well produced TV movie which purports to be a docudrama about the beginning of the program by the Israeli Mossad to destroy all of the terrorists responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In fact, it seems to me to have very little semblance to authenticity about it. One cannot be sure, of course, but it does not seem that a powerful secret organisation like Mossad would operate as shown here: an independent squad, operating on its own with minimal help beyond the financial from its parent, and depending in part on hired outside organisations for information and assistance. At worst, this film has the smack of anti Israel propaganda; at best, weak-minded, turn-the-other-cheek pacifism. While taking an ostensible stand against vengeance as an effective means of combating terrorism, the philosophy clearly advocated is: do nothing about terrorist murderers and perhaps they will get tired and go away.

The film is not without some merit, though. The psychological pressures on agents of organisations like Mossad, CIA, MI-5, MI-6, the Deuxieme Bureau, etc. must be harrowing for some, perhaps not for others, and of this we are given a good glimpse in the film. The cast and direction are first rate, though editing is typically careless as in most TV movies. It is a film worth watching provided you are on your guard for the propaganda. A portion of the film was done in Israel with an Israeli crew and presumably without opposition from the Israeli government. If this story were turned around and portrayed a Palestinian group unfavorably in going against, say, Mossad agents, can one imagine the government of Libya,Syria, or the like permitting filming within its borders. It is to the credit of Israeli freedom of expression that such a movie was made, even though it would not appear to be friendly in intent.

There is one aspect of Mossad's campaign against the terrorists responsible for the Munich horror which the film omits to mention in its final statement that all the targetted people were killed. This is not quite historically accurate. Mossad is a pretty thorough outfit, but they also killed one more palestinian than targetted--a man who was actually totally innocent of any involvement. This happened in Lillehammer, Norway, a tragic case of mistaken identity. As for the nine terrorists involved directly in the Munich massacre, six were killed in the shootout with the German police, three were captured. These three were later released by the Germans in a hostage deal with the terrorist organisation. Two of these were killed by Mossad, one is still alive.