SEPTEMBER 5 (2024)
Starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem, Corey Johnson, Georgina Rich, Marcus Rutherford, Daniel Adeosun, Benjamin Walker, Ferdinand Dörfler, Solomon Mousley, Daniel Betts, Jeff Book, Leif Eisenberg, Rony Herman, Robert Porter Templeton and archival footage of Jim McKay and Peter Jennings.
Screenplay by Moritz Binder and Tim Fehlbaum.
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum.
Distributed by Paramount Pictures. 94 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Screened at the 2024 Philadelphia Film Festival.
Fifty-two years later, living in a 24-hour media world, it’s a bit hard to imagine that the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics – in which a Palestinian militant organization called Black September held the Israeli Olympic team hostage – was pretty much the first time that the whole world watched tragic news occurring in real time on television.
Yet that is the history. This slightly off-center look at the events of those days – as seen at a distance by the broadcasters who were covering the story rather than the terrorists, or the victims, or even by German law enforcement – makes for a fascinating look at both the tragedy and at the work and ethics of journalism.
This second part is particularly interesting because in general the journalists covering what happened were not newsmen, they were sports reporters covering the pageantry of the event when it took a sudden very dark turn. However, they were the only ones there to let the world know what was happening. (Future anchorman Peter Jennings, who at the time was an ABC News correspondent, was on the scene and played a big part in covering the story, too.)
The horrible events of that Olympic season were one of the first times that the world experienced terrorism in such stark terms. However, September 5 does not look too deeply at the politics of the occurrence, or even the specifics of what happened – as said earlier, this was a look at the hostage crisis from the outside.
It does show the essential incompetence of the German law enforcement. This happened less than 30 years after the end of World War II, and the country looked at the Olympics as a chance to repair the country’s image, and the idea of 11 Jews being held hostage on their soil so soon after the Holocaust certainly worked against that narrative.
However, the most important narrative drive is with the journalists, trying to navigate an extremely horrific and tricky situation. They don’t always get it right – it took them a bit too long to realize that the terrorists were using their broadcasts for information, too – but the people in front of and behind the camera are doing their best to keep the world informed.
The hero – if there is any hero of the story – was Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), an ABC Sports overnight producer who was new to the job when he was suddenly thrown in way over his head. Having to negotiate the responsibility of sharing the news with the ethics of his profession, he also had to deal with interference from the Germans, the police, and of course the Olympic committee.
September 5 is full of spectacular acting, although for the most part the cast is relatively lesser known. (Peter Sarsgaard as exec Roone Arlidge and Ben Chaplin as producer Marvin Bader are probably as close as you’re going to get to Hollywood types in the cast.) It is tightly filmed by Swiss writer/director Tim Fehlbaum and works both as an enlightening history lesson and as a taut narrative.
September 5 is an extremely intense thriller, even though most people do know the final outcome. In fact, that knowledge only adds to the gravity of the film. Expect to see this one in lots of year-end best-of lists.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: December 13, 2024.
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