September 5

• Directed, Co-Produced, and Co-Written by Tim Fehlbaum
• August 29, 2024 (Venice) / January 9, 2025 (Germany)

The story of the Munich massacre during the 1972 Olympics from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew and their efforts to cover the events.

As with any dramatic presentation of actual events, always do a little digging before or after viewing. Don’t take what is presented by ANY film as gospel. Movies like September 5 are dramatic presentations to make a buck and not factual presentations to inform. Very often the fact based have a viewpoint to get across.

I was surprised by how evenhanded this film was. It does not go out of its way to portray the reporters as heroic crusaders or as heroes of the story (too often) nor does it really come down on one side or the other (too often) over the totality of events portrayed. It generally does its best to (feel like it) authentically present(s) what happened that. Mercifully it does not appear to sensationalize too much or to stop the narrative to make some kind of surface level philosophical statement. You get the feeling that Tim Fehlbaum was pushing for as factual of a film as he could and still make it interesting.

Things occur like debating what wording to use when discussing the captors. Peter Jennings (voice of Benjamin Walker) pushes for the use of ‘gorilla commandos’ over ‘terrorists.’ He does not wish to inflame the situation or speak incorrectly. It is not far removed from what can occur if that moment was fictitious.

Aside from the hostage situation this gets a great deal of its drama from the sports division putting their foot down and saying they are going to cover this over the news division. I’m not sure exactly what it says about the people in the sports division being insistent on doing that during the situation. The movie doesn’t offer any kind of commentary one way or the other. That is aside from the scene when the German police shut down the ABC broadcast because their live coverage is informing the terrorists.

Was this to portray the reporters acting under a complicated and difficult circumstance? Or was it a tepid indictment of journalism and their need to get the story before anyone else? Their actions put the hostages in danger.

To the credit of the filmmakers, I have no idea what’s archival and what’s re-created in the general movie. Aside from Peter Jennings voice which is an actor and archival footage of Jim McKay I am at a loss to decisively tell the difference. The news footage looks authentic to the time period.

The acting is excellent and the script is fantastic. September 5 is a good film. I’m just a little conflicted on it. It effectively recreate the time without drowning you in fashion or mentions. While it aims to be evenhanded, it glosses over the death of the athletes a bit and the drive to get the story and get it first over considerations of safety and keeping the public informed. At least address them a bit more even if you do not come on one side or the other.

There are no major names. At least nobody that I heard of which is beneficial. Casting mostly unknown yet talented actors helps drive home the story. Some are known just enough that their faces might tickle your brain but not so much you know the name. You’re not watching Brad Pitt in the movie but rather watching somebody who may have done a lot of work. You just can’t name so-and-so.

September 5 was a nice surprise though I’m not sure what it had to say and that may be part of the reason I liked it. It’s there to present the situation and largely allow the viewer to learn a little and draw their own conclusions.