Deadly Games

Image credit: Munich: Karen Ballard

''One of the things that people make a terrible mistake with in terms of thinking about the Middle East conflict is to think about it in terms of a clash of religions — Jew versus Muslim,'' says Kushner. ''It really is not about that. It's about geography, about home. In the same way, you can misunderstand what happened in 9/11 as being a clash of Judeo-Christian civilization versus Muslim. There's a lot more going on. Behind Muslim fundamentalism, there's a history of colonialism and oppression that needs to be thought about intelligently.''

Between Israel supporters already wincing at such gestures of empathy, Palestinian sympathizers opposed to Spielberg's pro-Israel stance, and renewed attacks on the source material's verisimilitude, it's no wonder Spielberg brought in professional crisis manager Allan Mayer to advise him during Munich's release. ''I didn't think we were in crisis,'' jokes Kennedy, but she confirms that Mayer — who has done spin control for Halle Berry and R. Kelly — is around to help with ''marketing.''

Spielberg and Co. also settled on a policy of limited promotion. ''When we started shooting,'' says Kennedy, ''we realized that no matter what, Steven directing this subject was going to create a lot of speculation. So we just said, 'We're going to move quickly on getting the movie made, and even faster to get it finished and out there, because the best thing for the movie is just to let it speak for itself.'''

Munich has attracted healthy attention from critics' groups, and won Golden Globe nominations for its direction and screenplay. Time will tell whether Spielberg's tight-lipped strategy — so far the director has only granted one interview (to TIME magazine) — and the controversy surrounding the film will hurt it come Oscar time.

There's a scene in Munich in which a fastidious crime-scene cleaner named Carl (Rome's Ciarán Hinds) tells Avner, ''If I can't kvetch, I can't do my job.'' Aside from being one of the film's many surprisingly touching moments between the hitmen, the line is also an example of art imitating Kushner.

''The long night shoots were sort of punishing,'' he says, reflecting on his first major Hollywood experience. ''It got chilly. I wanted to go home. You can't read because the minute you open a book everybody comes by and says, 'What are you reading?' There's a lot of sitting around and doing small talk, which some people clearly love. I don't. I tried desperately not to gain too much weight because you just eat constantly. I was certainly relieved when it was done.''

But then he smiles and adds, ''I also miss it.''