Sword of Gideon

1986 "What drives men of peace to commit acts of vengeance!"
7.1| 2h53m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 September 1986 Released
Producted By: HBO
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Chronicles a Mossad team hand picked to hunt down the terrorists involved in the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes.

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Director

Michael Anderson

Production Companies

HBO

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Sword of Gideon Audience Reviews

Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?
Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Steve L This 1986 movie told the same story Steven Spielberg schmalzed up in "Munich" in 2005. But it told it cleaner, and without Spielberg's weird suggestion of moral equivalency between the Mossad commandos and the Palestinian murderers they were hunting. Young Steven Bauer as Avner Kaufman showed the anguish of a civilized man sent to kill other human beings, but without the complete loss of direction that Spielberg's Eric Bana seemed to suffer at the end.As the civilized world struggles for survival against the forces of Jihadist Islam, this movie is a stark reminder that, still, only Israel takes the threat seriously.
abruckner-1 Steven Bauer, an underrated actor, does a magnificent job as head of a team dedicated to avenging the deaths of Israeli athletes. The plot is logical, credible and well-organized. Action scenes are just-plain terrific and the conclusion is excellent.I particularly liked the care the team took to "get" the criminal while taking great pains not to injure any members of his family, to the point that, when their actions could have injured an innocent, the team called the kill off. Direction was crisp, and to-the-point with very little wasted footage. This movie is so good that I fail to understand its absence from the shelves of most video rental/sales stores.
brgr88 This drama about the Israeli secret service's attempts at avenging the terrorist murderings of their Olympic athletes in the '70s might not leave you on the edge of your seat, but definitely makes for good watching, and is worth the rental price. (Rod Steiger makes a good showing as a retired Jewish spy!)Basically, Israeli intelligence (called Mossad) carries out an assassination campaign against the alleged terrorists with varying success. Made-for-TV action sequences have a tendency to be a trifle stale, but in this movie they actually come across with a sense of realism, if not necessarily "edge-of-your-seat" exciting (unlike Hollywood which, while fun & exciting, is about as realistic as the National Enquirer).This movie will be much more enjoyable to watch if you have at least some background/interest in modern Israeli history, otherwise it's just typical made-for-TV fare...
FISHCAKE This is a well produced TV movie which purports to be a docudrama about the beginning of the program by the Israeli Mossad to destroy all of the terrorists responsible for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. In fact, it seems to me to have very little semblance to authenticity about it. One cannot be sure, of course, but it does not seem that a powerful secret organisation like Mossad would operate as shown here: an independent squad, operating on its own with minimal help beyond the financial from its parent, and depending in part on hired outside organisations for information and assistance. At worst, this film has the smack of anti Israel propaganda; at best, weak-minded, turn-the-other-cheek pacifism. While taking an ostensible stand against vengeance as an effective means of combating terrorism, the philosophy clearly advocated is: do nothing about terrorist murderers and perhaps they will get tired and go away.The film is not without some merit, though. The psychological pressures on agents of organisations like Mossad, CIA, MI-5, MI-6, the Deuxieme Bureau, etc. must be harrowing for some, perhaps not for others, and of this we are given a good glimpse in the film. The cast and direction are first rate, though editing is typically careless as in most TV movies. It is a film worth watching provided you are on your guard for the propaganda. A portion of the film was done in Israel with an Israeli crew and presumably without opposition from the Israeli government. If this story were turned around and portrayed a Palestinian group unfavorably in going against, say, Mossad agents, can one imagine the government of Libya,Syria, or the like permitting filming within its borders. It is to the credit of Israeli freedom of expression that such a movie was made, even though it would not appear to be friendly in intent.There is one aspect of Mossad's campaign against the terrorists responsible for the Munich horror which the film omits to mention in its final statement that all the targetted people were killed. This is not quite historically accurate. Mossad is a pretty thorough outfit, but they also killed one more palestinian than targetted--a man who was actually totally innocent of any involvement. This happened in Lillehammer, Norway, a tragic case of mistaken identity. As for the nine terrorists involved directly in the Munich massacre, six were killed in the shootout with the German police, three were captured. These three were later released by the Germans in a hostage deal with the terrorist organisation. Two of these were killed by Mossad, one is still alive.