Susan Granger’s review of “September 5” (Paramount Pictures)
On September 5,1972, Palestinian terrorists, part of a group known as Black Sepyember, infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich, killing two Israeli athletes and taking nine others hostage.
Writer/director Tim Fehlbaum’s “September 5” is a tense journalism thriller, chronicling how news of that that atrocity reached the rest of the world.
Since ABC Sports was broadcasting the Games, utilizing their link to the newly launched space satellite, its bleary-eyed crew were on-site and among the first to hear gunfire. As they scrambled to get into position to ‘cover’ this major story, logistics became their primary concern.
Alerted by ambitious young producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) and network executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), “Wide World of Sports” anchorman Jim McKay, who was scheduled to take that day off, immediately started to deliver on-camera updates, augmented by off-camera observations by Middle East expert, then 34-year-old Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker).
Maneuvering inside the newsroom during the 17-hour ordeal are operations manager Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), an anguished Jewish New Yorker whose family was devastated by the Holocaust; Jacques Lesgards, a French Algerian Arab; and local ‘hire’ Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), their only German translator.
Gebhardt was keenly aware of the significance of Germany’s hosting the Olympics since the previous Berlin games in 1936 were presided over by Adolf Hitler.
Co-scripting with Moritz Binder, Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum takes a deep dive into the dynamics of media ethics since ABC’s live television coverage was informing both the terrorists and the hostages’ families what West German authorities were doing/not doing to alleviate the situation.
Credit cinematographer Markus Forderer and editor Hansjorg Weissbrich for achieving astonishing authenticity by interweaving archival news footage. Their reportage of the Munich crisis won ABC Sports 29 Emmys and led Arledge to eventually become President of ABC News.
Riveting and relevant, the message of this film resonates with the ongoing conflict after Hamas’s brutal October 7th 2023 massacre of civilians at an Israeli music festival.
FYI: Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” (2005) focused on Israel’s subsequent mission to wreak revenge on those responsible for the Olympic carnage.
In German and English, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “September 5” is an enthralling 8, playing in theaters.
