Reviews

The hostage crisis at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany has been depicted on screen several times, including Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film Munich, but September 5 covers it from a new perspective.

This film focuses on America’s ABC Sports broadcasting team, who are on the ground near the Olympic Village covering the sporting event live via satellite for the first time.

When producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) arrives for his shift on 5th September, he expects to cover that day’s sporting schedule like usual. However, when gunshots are heard from the nearby village, the team soon pivot that report on the ongoing situation instead.

The ABC News team wants to take over the story, however, ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) insists it should be theirs due to their proximity to the unfolding hostage crisis and their ability to get their own footage.

September 5 retells what happened in that ABC Sports HQ almost in real time and shows how the news team responded to the situation in the Israeli team’s apartment. The journalists try to find eyewitnesses, verify reports and obtain exclusive footage all while figuring out where they stand morally on showing death, gunfire and acts of terrorism on live TV.

To give the film that extra layer of authenticity, director Tim Fehlbaum uses real archival footage from ABC’s broadcast, particularly sports anchor Jim McKay giving viewers updates on the situation in the studio. Felhbaum cuts between this footage and Mason in the gallery to make it seem like they’re communicating with each other.

The film has a grainy effect to look like it’s from the 1970s while the production design team impressively found working technology from the period to replicate the studio and all of its bulky analogue tech.

Magaro does a brilliant job keeping it together in the face of chaos and manages to maintain a clear head and focus on the task at hand. He is supported by a solid ensemble, but the main standout is Leonie Benesch as Marianne Gebhardt, a German translator working for ABC. She is an emphatic character who offers a much-needed German perspective in a sea of American men.

September 5 is an intense watch that lifts the lid on how stressful it is to cover an evolving news story in a high-pressure environment, from putting together a visual package to making last-minute decisions on what to report.

Even if you know the events of the crisis well, September 5 is still a gripping and thrilling film from start to finish.

In cinemas from Friday 7th February.

By Hannah Wales.

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