MUNICH: OPERATION BAYONET
**1/2 out of *****
Reviewed by Juan Incognito

Screening in the 2006 New Zealand Documentary Film Festival
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BBC audio interview with the Producer

Genres
Documentary

2006
Directed by
Ron Maiberg

Operation Bayonet examines the Israeli government’s response to the murder of 11 of their athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics by the Black September organisation. The general topic has been revisited several times in recent years, most recently by Spielberg’s Munich. Released at the same time as Munich, Operation Bayonet in effect acts as a companion piece, however the producer claims this was not deliberate.

The focus of the documentary is on the people and personalities behind the Israeli response, the Mossad leadership, the operatives who carried out the attacks, the soldiers who assisted, and some of the families of the slain athletes. In this the documentary offers something original, as the Israeli team responsible for the operation offer their opinions on what they did and why. These interviews are the first time that the Mossad operatives have talked. This very much sets the tone of the documentary, that it is concerned with the till now secret side of the Israeli response. It is not an attempt to be a balanced examination of all sides to the story, nor does it offer anything new about the reasons for Munich.

The message that comes through from the interviewees is largely the same; that Israel needed to make a response and that response would be focused on removing the people responsible in order to stop future activities. It was clearly stressed by Mossad operatives that prevention of future attacks rather than the seeking of revenge or the seeking of justice for the murdered athletes was the reason behind Operation Bayonet. In response to this assertion footage of angry Israelis demanding revenge was played, and the two athlete widows interviewed both mentioned that an anonymous caller contacted them after each successful killing of people involved in the murders to advise them to listen to the news. This indicates that revenge was at least more of a motive than the Mossad/Army interviewees would like to suggest.

Operation Bayonet is in effect an oral history of the Israeli response, which is no doubt a useful historical resource. The film also does make some attempt to raise alternate opinions as to events or motivations. However, given the short length of the documentary it dose not spend as much time as it perhaps should have examining the effectiveness of the operation or talking to Palestinians or other involved parties about how they were involved or affected. Perhaps this film should have been accompanied by companion documentaries looking at these issues.

Another flaw with the documentary is the constant blurring of the photographic or video records of the killings both in Munich or elsewhere. This is an documentary about terrorism, about murder, about death. The audience are therefore adults, and should be treated as such. What value lies in lingering over a blurred out body? Why not just state that people are dead and leave it at that if one is unwilling or unable to actually show the results? Blurring graphic imagery of murder and death may be respectful to the families of the dead, but it serves to make the events abstract when they should not be.

This is an interesting documentary, however it will be more useful to those who have had some exposure to the Munich murders or who have watched Spielberg’s Munich. Without any background, the brief explanatory material included does not offer enough context to be truly useful. However, watching former Prime Minister Eduad Barak talking about his experiences in one of the operations is rather surreal. That guy just can't stop smiling!

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