On September 5, 1972, eight members of the Black September Organization from Palestine attacked the Munich Olympics in West Germany and took Israeli athletes hostage in an eventual massacre that was broadcast live to a stunned world. 900 million viewers were able to see a global crisis unfold for the first horrifying time via satellite. September 5 recounts the frantic scramble by the ABC Sports team as they mobilized to capture an awful event that still reverberates to this day. Superbly acted and edited, the film bursts at the seams with tension, anxiety, and professional resolve through 90 mind-blowing minutes. September 5 is a gripping thriller that challenges for best film of the year.
When the Munich Olympics Became a Hostage Situation
The 1972 Munich Olympics saw an American sports broadcasting crew unexpectedly tasked with covering a hostage situation involving Israeli athletes.
- Release Date
- November 29, 2024
- Director
- Tim Fehlbaum
- Cast
- Peter Sarsgaard , John Magaro , Ben Chaplin , Leonie Benesch , Daniel Adeosun , Corey Johnson , Solomon Mousley , Georgina Rich , Marcus Rutherford , Zinedine Soualem , Benjamin Walker , Robert Porter Templeton , Rony Herman
- Runtime
- 91 Minutes
- Writers
- Tim Fehlbaum , Moritz Binder
- Uses every second of its runtime to create tension and thrills.
- An excellent ensemble cast choreographed to perfection with great editing.
- One of the best 90-minute movies ever made.
Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), an overnight producer for ABC Sports, sits in his rental car smoking a cigarette before his night shift. He enters the control room to weary technicians doing grunt work as they prepare for the upcoming day. He relieves an exhausted Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), ABC's VP of Olympics Coverage, who says not to wake him up as he sleeps in a back office. Mason also says a cordial hello to the big boss, Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), the President of ABC Sports, before he leaves. Arledge also orders everyone to leave him alone until morning. He hasn't spoken to his wife and children in days.
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After gunshots are heard, Mason goes outside to see muzzle flashes a hundred yards away in the athletes' dormitories. The radio squawks to life with panicked German chatter. A confused Mason asks Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), a German translator hired to transcribe footage, to translate. Police are racing to the building. Several Israelis have already been killed. Mason springs into immediate action, waking Bader and calling Arledge, who immediately orders all hands on deck. They're going to go live and find out what the heck is happening.
ABC Sports' Crisis Management
September 5 fires on all cylinders within mere minutes of the opening credits. Mason is quickly established as the central protagonist thrust into a trial by fire. He's in charge of the control room. It's literally the middle of the night. History is taking place before their eyes. Arledge refuses to throw the coverage to ABC News back in the US. They're live, on the ground, and in position to report in real time. But first he has to make sure ABC Sports doesn't lose the satellite slot that's instrumental to the broadcast. That's his job.
Mason, a totally unproven commodity, has to get his ass in gear and take command of everything else. He needs cameras in position, Gebhardt on the radio relaying the German response, and the biggest difficulty, a reporter physically on the scene to anchor the coverage. Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker) will be a household name and trusted news source for decades in the aftermath.
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We live in a time when cell phones can easily document and share critical information in an instant. 1972 was a dark age in comparison. September 5 mesmerizes with the extreme lengths and technical ingenuity Mason and his colleagues went through to achieve a seamless live broadcast. They also had a journalistic responsibility to report accurately. Sources had to be vetted in record time. It's astonishing to see how they deduced the hostages' identities and were able to show their pictures on television. The victims were no longer faceless people held in some abstract place. This brought instant gravitas and an emotional connection to a rapt audience.
One of the Best Movies Ever Made
Swiss director/co-writer Tim Fehlbaum, primarily known for his German films Hell and Tides, never loses sight of the geopolitical and personal ramifications of what transpired. The Munich Olympics were held nearly 30 years after Germany's World War II defeat and genocidal role in the Holocaust. Benesch, who's absolutely superb as Gebhardt, represents the German horror and guilt of allowing such an atrocity to take place. But this pales in comparison to the anger, fury, and utter sadness of her Jewish colleagues. September 5 has searing scenes where the ABC crew vehemently argue about how to frame the attackers. Were they freedom fighters for the Palestinian cause or ruthless murderers? The term "terrorist" became their description.
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Acclaimed German editor Hansjörg Weißbrich must also be lauded for his vital contribution. He and Fehlbaum constantly cut between roving action outside and boiler room pressure in the control room. Nothing is ever static. The ensemble shuffles between emergencies to track an evolving situation. Uncertainty and confusion has to be wrangled before anything goes live on air. All of this tension is created through skillful editing in post-production. September 5 could have easily become submarine warfare with agitated people looking at monitors and pressing buttons.
It's not hyperbole to say that September 5 ranks among the best 90-minute films ever made. Fehlbaum, his brilliant cast, and excellent team behind the camera deliver cinematic greatness. Everyone needs to clear space on the shelf for the upcoming awards season. I sincerely hope that September 5 can be viewed artistically and not as basic propaganda in light of tragic current events. It's a day that lives in infamy regardless of political or religious persuasion.
September 5 is a production of BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion, Projected Picture Works, and Constantin Film et al. It will be released theatrically in the US on November 29th from Paramount Pictures.
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