Stunned by the box office failure of Munich at home, Steven Spielberg is looking for love from the Germans. He tells Der Spiegel's website:

"'Munich' is definitely the most European film I have ever made," Steven Spielberg told Germany"s Spiegel Online this week. "I also think that 'Munich' will have an easier time here, that it will be understood more easily and better."

The director knows his audience, as international media reaction to the film shows. Savaged by conservative commentators in The Washington Post and New York Times, Spielberg's movie about the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games opened to positive reviews in Europe this week. Only in Israel is the film getting mostly negative reviews.

The Independent's Robert Fisk, a Middle East correspondent and longtime critic of Israel, says the film is "absolutely brilliant."

"Most people who see the film, especially outside the US, will wonder what the fuss is all about," wrote The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland in a piece picked up by South Africa's Mail and Guardian. "Far from viewing Munich as anti—Israel, they may well regard it as highly sympathetic."

It just have psychologically tough on Spielberg to be so condemned by many in the Jewish press, particularly the blogosphere and talk radio. But to have the box office tank as a result must be almost more than he can bear. He has built his fortune, standing, and probably his self—esteem on his popularity as a story teller.

Assuming the Europeans actually do like the film, will Spielberg unconsciously separate himself from his American anchoring? Munich certainly pulled in the domestic US grosses of a hit European movie, in addition to adopting the perspectives of the international Left.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky 

Thomas Lifson  1 27 06