Histories of Violence  The Year of Atrocities  7.Munich.The
attacks of September 11, 2001, seem to have reinvigorated the
artistry of Steven Spielberg in a way nobody could have
imagined. First came The Terminal, a fanciful and heartfelt
slapstick paean to a time when airports were still pleasant
places to visit. Then there was this summer's War of the Worlds,
in which our 21st-century fears of invasion became an ingenious
springboard to an entire chronology of 20th-century genocides
and other atrocities. And now there is Munich, a masterpiece
both as breathless espionage thriller and deep moral inquiry—at
least up to that grotesque moment in the third act when
Spielberg intercuts his restaging of the titular massacre with
an entirely unnecessary slow-mo sex scene between Eric Bana's
vengeance-minded Mossad agent and his long-absent wife. The
movie needn't strain for such an operatic climax, because it's
already so unshakably powerful. Detractors have accused
Spielberg of equating Palestinian terrorists with