Munich and The Original Spaghetti Western

It's been a while since my last post as I have been busy and just hadn't really seen anything that I thought was good enough to review until 2 days ago when I watched Munich and then yesterday I watched A Fistful of Dollars so i felt compelled to prove to myself that I will be able to keep up this blog while starting school again. So here we go...

Munich
An excellent film staring Eric Bana and directed by Steven Spielberg about the 1972 Munich Massacre of 11 Israeli athletes and what the Israeli government did in secret as a response to this. A group of Jews lead by Avner (Eric Bana) a former Mossad agent, are sent to Europe to kill the 11 people responsible. The first part of the film depicts the massacre of the athletes by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September and the Israeli reaction to this. The rest of the film is Avner's search for the targets. As more of their targets are taken care of the group begin to feel the heat of the CIA, PLO and KGB on their backs and ask themselves What does it mean to be a Jew? When will the killing stop? & What about these peoples replacements?
One of the best films of 2005 and nominated for 5 Oscars this is defiantly a film to see weather you are Jewish, Arab or neither. As this film does not primarily takes sides against either faith and shows the lower points of both. Although this is a lengthly 163 minutes, the time goes by easily as this film gets deeper and deeper.
My Rating: ****

A Fistful of Dollars
The introduction to the world of the "Man with no name" (Clint Eastwood) as he rides through the Mexican border town of and the San Miguel. When he arrives he hears about the two gangs that fight across this land, the Rojo's and theBaxters, so decides to play them against each other and collect a fistful of dollars in the process. The original Spaghetti Western and one of the most famous roles Clint Eastwood has every played. The start of the Dollars trilogy although it may not be the most famous it is defiantly worth some recognition as it is a great film on it own, and is only made better by being part of such an amazing trilogy. Although all the credit can't go to Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood as the film is a westernised version of Yjimbo, a Japanese film about a Ronin instead of a wondering rider. But this does nothing to the films quality as this is a similar case to the Magnificent Seven.
My Rating: ****