Title: September 5
Describe This Movie In One Simpsons Quote:
MR. BURNS: Oooh, the Germans are mad at me. I’m so scared! Oooh, the Germans!
Brief Plot Synopsis: American TV network can no longer “stick to sports.”
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 4 test patterns out of 5.
Tagline: “The day terror went live.”
Better Tagline: “Technology always outpaces common sense.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village, killing two of the Israeli team and taking nine other athletes and coaches hostage. The ABC sports team, led by Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), producer Geoff Mason (John Magaro), and VP of operations Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), realizing they have an insider opportunity to cover the incident, reluctantly enter the unprecedented territory of broadcasting a terrorist event live to the world.
“Critical” Analysis: The Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics is remembered beyond its inherent horror. It’s remembered both for how it introduced terrorism to a global television audience and for the Israeli government’s response. What hasn’t really been covered, until now, is how ABC played a pivotal role in the former.
September 5 tells that story. Director Tim Fehlbaum puts us in the ABC Sports studio as Arledge and crew contend not just with the disruption to their Olympic coverage, but also being thrust (not involuntarily) into the role of taking over from the news department.
As documentary-style cinema goes, September 5 is top notch. Cigarettes in the studio! Tape spools! Walkie talkies! Secondary sources for news stories! Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker) talking down to the sports team! It’s all so quaint, yet still gripping.
It’s also about history being made in a world that can’t escape its own past. Germany hosted the Olympics less than 30 years after the end of World War II, with that and the Holocaust looming over everything. Memories are still raw for many, though sometimes tinged with black humor. Case in point: ABC’s European sports director Jacques Lesgards (Zinedine Soualem) asks German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) if the sounds they heard coming from the village were gunfire. To which the surly German soundman says to Marianne, “Tell the Frenchman I remember what gunshots sound like.” Ouch.
Concerns about the German hosts also arise, including when Marvin Bader questions Marianne about her parents’ knowledge of Hitler’s actions. She quietly replies, “I am not my mother.” Forced to acknowledge the sense of those comments, Bader (Chaplin at his most intense) backs off.
And if it turns out the German government knew about the planned Olympics attack well in advance, or that their police force were inadequate to the task (the German military was still forbidden from operating in peacetime), oh well.
The attacks also raised some Interesting (and horrifying) ethical questions, many for the first time. The debate between Arledge and Bader over whether to air someone getting shot on live TV is one, as are the technical solutions offered (shoot on 16mm for lag — Mason’s suggestion — or cut to crowd reaction shots). We also see the limits of the media of the time, as Arledge, Mason, and company can only sit, listen to the reports, and watch footage from their own cameras and other station’s broadcasts.
Tensions escalate as the Israeli government refuses to negotiate and the Germans make several tactical errors, leading to what we now know will be a tragic outcome. The ABC team is forced to adapt to the rapidly changing circumstances, but no one comes into their own more than Mason, who Magaro portrays as eerily efficient despite his relative lack of experience.
The timing of September 5’s release is … unfortunate, to put it mildly. It’s to Fehlbaum’s credit that the action stays almost exclusively within the studio to avoid editorializing about either the motives of the terrorists or the Israeli response.
Because the latter’s been done. From Sword of Gideon to Munich, we’re aware of the Meir government’s response. Those movies, and September 5 for that matter, go to great lengths to show Israel’s desire, nay *need* to respond to any more perceived existential threats with extreme prejudice.
Hell, Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, and Alex David’s script accurately paints the host Germans as painstakingly aware of the optics accompanying such as attack on Israel’s athletes on their turf. Jennings’s uniquely Canadian droning on about the history of Palestinian militants contrasts nicely with a network sports desk trying to figure out how to handle an international incident dumped in their laps.
In the end, September 5’s objectivity may very well be he reason it’s remembered. By focusing almost exclusively on the media itself, Fehlbaum and company tell a compact and effective story without getting to mired in politics. To paraphrase a great American businessman, savor the flavor, because it’s probably not happening again.
September 5 is in theaters today.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
