Terrorism at the movies

Terrorism has long ravaged nations and in today's world, terrorism weaves its nasty web connecting governments and terrorist organizations all over the world making it almost impossible to defeat. With accounts of terrorist activities and the involvement of government organizations in funding and executing these activities being written about in books such as See No Evil (Robert Baer) and Vengeance (George Jonas), Hollywood has brought these accounts to the big screen in movies like Syriana and Munich.

In short, both Syriana and Munich were absolutely brilliant films. But let me say a bit more about each film.

Directed by the writer of Traffic, Stephen Gaghan, Syriana relates fictionalized accounts of US CIA operative, Bob Baer. It deals with the sale of weapons to terrorist organizations by the US and their involvement in controlling political activities within the Middle Eastern countries, which in turn affects the lives of - two Pakistani teenagers who are drawn to the teachings of an Islamic school, the Royal family of an unspecified Persian Gulf country, an American who works as a financial advisor to the Royal family, and an American lawyer investigating the merger of two large petroleum companies in the US.

Munich is yet another masterpiece by director Steven Spielberg. I always amazed at how one year he makes a film about aliens taking over the world (War of the Worlds) and the next he tells a true story about the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

After embarking on a secret mission for the Israeli government to execute all those involved in the Munich massacre, Avner (Eric Bana) and his team of experts question the truth behind the targets of their attacks. Their only justification for their mission is that they are taking out people who were involved with killing Israelis and that if they were left alive then more Israelis would die. What they realize is that every target killed has a more powerful and more ruthless replacement. They have joined the circle of death, which breathes the life into terrorism world over.

The key to making such brilliant films, are the equally brilliant performances by Syriana actors, George Clooney and Alexander Siddig, and Munich actors Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush.

These films are powerfully gripping and timely. The will make you wonder about who you can or cannot trust in this day and age of corporate politics. The Syriana tag line sums it up perfectly - "Everything is connected".