Stephen Spielberg’s “Munich,” among other films, have told the tragic story of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, when Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage with heartbreaking results. “September 5” is a taut historic drama that also takes a look at that tragic event, but from the perspective of how it was covered by media. When the terrorists took the Israelis hostage, the ABC TV Sports news team was suddenly thrust into the responsibility of covering a breaking-news events, something that had never boon done and which had a profound effect on news reporting going forward.
Director Tim Fehlbaum co-wrote the script with Moritz Binder based on the real events, focusing on the TV news team as they race to cover the terrorist attack. The suspenseful film unfolds like a nail-biting thriller, as the journalists scramble to keep the world informed of unpredictable events with lives in the balance, and make ethical journalistic decisions, good or bad, on the fly.
Peter Sarsgaard plays ABC Sports executive Roone Arledge but much of this taut drama focuses on a young Jewish-American producer, Geoff Mason (John Magaro), and his mentor Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin). Mason is given a first-time assignment to run the ABC Sports newsroom in the quiet hours of the night, while most of the team rests up for the Olympics coverage the next day. No one expects much to happen and Bader thinks it will be an easy starter assignment for his protege. Yet during the night, everything changes as Arab terrorists gain access to the Olympic village where the Israeli athletes are housed and take them hostage. The TV sports news crew suddenly finds themselves as the operation with cameras on site to cover the breaking news of the hostage crisis.
The film focuses events from the viewpoint of the ABC sports news crew, so we see only what they see and know what they know about evolving events, and those wanting a closer look at what the hostages experienced get a better view of that with Spielberg’s film. Roone Arledge fought his bosses at ABC to keep the sports TV crew in place, instead of turning things over to a hard-news crew.
The technicians, camera men and the rest of the TV production crew are forced to innovate and adapt as events shift, creating solutions on the fly to keep the camera on events and the world informed. Some of what they did to adapt, including early moving camera and live broadcast work with equipment that now looks primitive, has had a lasting impact on TV news and media, but actions and choices also raised questions of journalists’ ethics and judgment too.
Peter Sarsgaard’s Roone Arledge is the voice for aggressive efforts to keep the cameras on the terrorists and evolving events to deliver the news to the world in real-time, while Ben Chaplin’s Marvin Bader represents the voice for ethical restraint and human considerations of what is happening under the camera’s eye.
The true-story based drama, which has received critical praise and awards nominations since its debut at the Venice and Telluride film festivals, is fast-paced and edge-of-the seat suspenseful, with the cast delivering strong ensemble performances working with a well-crafted script. The film has been singled out for those performances, as well as the editing and script.
John Magaro, whose mother is Jewish while his father is of Italian descent, is excellent as the young producer who is forced to make some difficult decisions and solve knotty technical problems under pressure from unfolding events and conflicting pressures from boss Roone Arledge, played forcefully by Peter Sarsgaard and the emotional human and ethical concerns of his mentor Marvin Bader, well-played by Ben Chaplin.
A standout supporting role, Marianne Gebhard, is played by German actress Leonie Benesch, who played the lead role as the beleaguered teacher in “The Teacher’s Lounge.” Marianne Gebhard is one of few women in the newsroom, and when she is pressed into service in the essential role of translator, she winds up adding a layer of rawer human emotional response to what is happening to the hostages, which Benesch does in a moving performance.
“September 5” is a tense historical drama well-worth seeing for its well-crafted, well-acted and suspense-filled telling of the 1972 Munich Olympics tragedy, and how TV coverage of it changed how breaking news is covered.
“September 5” opens Friday, Jan. 17, at multiple area theaters, with two preview showings at Plaza Frontenac Cinema on Thursday, Jan. 16, which include a post-screening, pre-recorded Q&A with the cast and director.
