We’re so accustomed to the 24-hour news cycle and the instant delivery of breaking news that it’s tough to remember a time before it could be delivered so seamlessly to millions of people sitting in front of their living room TV sets. That’s part of what makes September 5 such an amazingly gripping thriller, as it captures the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist attack from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew as they literally cobbled together the means to broadcast those tragic events to the nation while dealing with the ethical ramifications of doing so.
German director Tim Fehlbaum catapults himself into the “filmmaker to watch” league with September 5, one of the best movies of the year. Set almost entirely inside a cramped, increasingly claustrophobic ABC broadcast headquarters, the film follows the reporters, interpreters, producers, and technical team who came into work expecting to cover just another day of Olympic boxing, swimming, and volleyball, but found themselves the only mouthpiece delivering news of vital life-and-death importance to a country that had never seen such a thing before on their TV screens.
An incredible ensemble plays all of their roles beautifully, with each getting their moment to shine. Peter Sarsgaard plays ABC News exec Roone Arledge, who often butts heads with Marvin Bader, the head of operations played by Ben Chaplin. John Magaro, who is on quite a run of great performances this year, plays Geoffrey Mason, a young producer barely entrusted to get the sports right. There’s also Leonie Benesch as invaluable German translator Marianne Gebhardt, Benjamin Walker as broadcasting legend Peter Jennings, and more.
Geoff’s shift was expected to be a quiet one. A day following Mark Spitz’s gold medal win for swimming, it was likely to be a breezy day full of pre-tapes telling athlete stories. Then, gunshots are heard at the Olympic Village mere blocks away from headquarters. The attack by terrorist group Black September has been captured in big Hollywood movies and television before, but never from this unique perspective. As the terrorists take a number of Israeli athletes hostage, Geoff and his team must pull out all of the stops to keep rattled American aware of each world-altering event as it unfolds.
Meanwhile, the personalities within the headquarters are constantly clashing. It’s 1972 and the world is just starting to deal with the horrors committed by the Germans against Jews. Some members of the team have family who were impacted, and that not only colors their approach to coverage but also their interactions with others. It makes for a lot of heated confrontation, although the film mostly leaves larger implications out of it.
One of the many beauties of September 5 is its depiction of broadcast technology of the era and the logistical hurdles it causes. That includes lugging a massive TV camera outside to get live footage of the crisis, while a 16mm camera is smuggled inside the barricaded Olympic Village where Jennings discretely reports. But to get that footage out, Geoff has another crew member dress up as an Olympic athlete, complete with phony ID badge, so he can get in and smuggle the film stock back out. The network is constantly fighting with others for crucial satellite time, because there aren’t thousands of them littering the skies as there are today. Every choice, every move, must be accompanied by someone getting their hands dirty, splicing film, putting their nose to the grindstone, working feverishly to get the job done with speed and accuracy. The tactile sensation of these people and their endeavors adds a visceral quality to an already tense situation.
These choices only create even bigger concerns that the team must grapple with. What happens if Black September starts executing people? Do they capture that live and broadcast it to the country, where the families of these athletes are undoubtedly watching? Geoff and his crew must juggle these issues as well as the needs of the network. How important are ratings when human lives are on the line?
Combining edge of your seat ticking clock thrills, politics, and heroic journalistic efforts, September 5 is a film you can’t turn away from even for a moment. While its choice to remain completely apolitical stifles it a little, the decision to remain completely free of current world events is probably going to help it attract a wider audience. And that’s a good thing because the more people who see this amazing movie, the better.
September 5 opens in theaters on December 13th.
