Sometimes, simply telling the story the way it happened is the best approach to a docudrama. From director Tim Fehlbaum, September 5 is an extraordinary retelling of the tragedy that took place during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics when a group of Israeli athletes were taken hostage by a Palestinian militant group (the use of the word “terrorist” is one of the key debates within the film). Known as Black September, they wanted hundreds of prisoners held in Israel set free.
What made this event unique was that it was the first time such an act was captured and covered on live television, thanks to ABC Sports’ ground-breaking coverage of the Olympics that year. ABC News wanted to take over covering the event, but producer Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) fought and won to keep his team in place.
Floor manager Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) called many of the shots during the broadcast with Arledge and VP of Olympic Operations for ABC Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) joining in discussions about the best way to run the coverage. The film opts to use a great deal of the actual footage from the event, including host Jim McKay (not played by an actor), who sat in a studio and moderated the goings on, throwing it to other reporters as the hours went on, including a young Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker). Most of the film takes place in the confines of the control room, which adds to the tension and claustrophobia of the proceedings.
The team is rounded out with local contributor Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch, The Teacher’s Lounge), who is used as not only a translator but as someone who monitors the local police channels for updates that the Germans are giving the public, making her the secret weapon of the group and gaining the team valuable intel. September 5 does a remarkable job illustrating how ABC was hampered by the technology of the time (the used actual film for all of their non-live coverage), but how they worked around some of those limitations to make a better broadcast.
But it’s the moral questions that are the most intriguing, including discussions about what to do if someone is killed on camera, or the chilling realization that the terrorists were watching their broadcast for information in the Olympic village hotel where they were holed up. As mentioned, this was new territory, and very few involved knew what the right answers were. As a result, a few substantial coverage errors were made, and the aftermath of the bad decisions is the epitome of guilt among the journalists.
If you want perhaps a better, if less personal, account of these events, I strongly recommend the Oscar-winning 1999 documentary One Day in September, but September 5 is as solid a retelling of these events as you’re likely to get. Even if you know the tragic outcome, the film still holds a great deal of power and insight thanks to its singular perspective and impressive acting.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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