Letters

Spielberg's Shot to the Heart

Our exclusive report on Steven Spielberg's new film, Munich, generated some unease: Was the director granting too much humanity to the Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics? But Spielberg fans eagerly anticipated the filmmaker's take on an emotionally charged topic

Your cover story on Steven Spielberg's new movie, Munich, described the film as "so sensitive it was kept under wraps" [Dec. 12]. What's so sensitive? The terrorist massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and Israel's response were credibly addressed in the 1986 movie Sword of Gideon. Still, I look forward to seeing Spielberg's moviemaking talents brought to bear on this story of terrorism and a nation's legitimate response. Sensitive or not, the movie--if it's good--will sell itself.

CHRIS KRISINGER COLONEL, U.S.A.F. Burke, Va.

I hope Munich is a big success. The story of the Israeli athletes who were murdered should never be forgotten. I wish there were more brave people like Spielberg. He is willing to tell the truth in his movies and make a difference.

ELENA SHUMSKY Orlando, Fla.

I was disappointed to learn that Spielberg considered the heart of his movie to be a fictionalized incident in which a Palestinian terrorist engages in a civil discussion with an Israeli. By rewriting history to humanize the terrorists, Spielberg misses the whole point of the Munich massacre. If the terrorists had been inclined to make their case rationally, the all-too-real atrocities perpetrated against the Israeli national team at the 1972 Olympics would not have occurred.

AHARON SHIFRON-RONNIE Concord, Calif.

Spielberg said he and screenwriter Tony Kushner didn't "demonize" the terrorist characters in Munich, and he felt that "many of them [were] reasonable and civilized." If Spielberg were making a film about Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann--another gang that slaughtered Jews--would he portray them with the same degree of generosity and tolerance?

AL RAMRUS Pacific Palisades, Calif.

I was a student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem during and after the Munich massacre. Also, I remember in later years the accounts in Israeli newspapers of the Israelis involved in the sanctioned killings. Those were people who did not enjoy killing but who felt no particular guilt about what they were ordered to do. They understood that it was about justice, not revenge.

RAFAEL GUBER Los Angeles

In TIME's interview with Spielberg, he said, "I cannot tell you how many people come over to me on the street and repeat almost verbatim the line the Martians say to Woody Allen in Stardust Memories: 'You know, we like your earlier, funnier films.'" It's no surprise that Spielberg quoted Allen; the two great filmmakers breathe the same ether. My living room is graced with two film posters, one for Spielberg's Schindler's List, the other for Allen's Shadows and Fog. I look at them to remind myself of the hope and magic that great directors can bring to an audience.

REGINA MORIN San Diego

Showing Gays the Door

My thanks to Andrew Sullivan for his thoughtful essay, "The Vatican's New Stereotype," on the Roman Catholic Church's new rules barring gays from the priesthood [Dec. 12]. He expressed so well how I have been feeling--like an outsider in the church that was my home for 67 years. Although I have at times disagreed with church teachings, I have always felt like part of the fold. But the new exclusion cuts me to the core. I don't recognize Jesus in the new rules. It is more than a homosexual issue; it wounds my heart, which is aching on account of this hateful intolerance. By the way, I am a heterosexual mother of five children and grandmother of six.

CHARLINE KENNEDY

Orlando, Fla.