Filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum goes back to September 5, 1972, when the broadcast of the Munich Summer Olympics turned into live coverage of Israeli athletes taken hostage by member of the Black September, a group affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization, demanding the release of 236 prisoners in Israel. Starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin and Leonie Benesch, the film puts the spotlight on the ABC Sports broadcasters who made the unprecedented choice to bring this live coverage to its audience.
“Germany wanted to send a new image … out to the world,” Fehlbaum the film’s director and co-writer, told the audience at a Toronto screening last month. “This was the first time Germany could show the whole world its new liberal phase.”
“The whole Olympics was designed for sending that image out to the world. It was the first time that actually the venues were designed for optimal TV coverage, and it was the first time that they had this live camera on the Olympic tower. And then suddenly this whole apparatus had to switch from reporting on sports to reporting on this tragic event.”
Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) in Paramount Pictures’ “SEPTEMBER 5,” the film that unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today, set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics (Paramount Pictures)
What is ‘September 5’ about?
September 5 is largely set in the control room where ABC Sports is working to broadcast the Munich Summer Olympics. But when the crew heard of gunfire at the Olympic Village, they completely shifted their focus, with Roone Arledge (Sarsgaard) advocating for the sports team to lead the coverage of the news event.
Magaro plays Geoffrey Mason, the producer making the on-the-spot calls on how to cover what was happening with the hostages. Local reporter Marianne Gebhardt (Benesch) proves to be particularly critical to the team’s work, after being underestimated by her male coworkers in the control room navigating how to effectively, and accurately, cover what’s happening on the ground at the Olympic Village.
As Fehlbaum explained in Toronto, the goal was to film this movie in a documentary style and lean into the time period of the story.
“We said, we want to cover it as if we ourselves would be a broadcast team or documentary crew covering or observing these people, covering that situation,” Fehlbaum said.
“Another thing that was really important to us is … that all the technology is really accurate, because ultimately, this is a film about the media, and media … is communication via technology, via devices. … So we thought, if we make a movie about this, then it has to be really accurate.”
Jacques Lesgardes (Zinedine Soualem),Marianne Gebhard (Leonie Benesch),Geoff Mason (John Magaro),Carter (Marcus Rutherford) star in Paramount Pictures’ “SEPTEMBER 5” the film that unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today, set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. (Paramount Pictures)
‘It should have that feeling of a constant ticking clock’
September 5 does effectively put you in that pressure cooker situation of this control room, racing against the clock while having evaluating journalism ethics in each decision.
Anyone who’s been in a control room, broadcasting live when a breaking news situation comes into play, will tell you that it does feel chaotic, stressful, you start feeling claustrophobic, with people talking (or mostly yelling) over each other and trying to move as quickly as possible. It’s that unique energy that Fehlbaum was really effectively able to portray in this movie, rarely executed with the same success.
“It should have that feeling of a constant ticking clock,” Fehlbaum said about creating that energy of the control room.
Much of the story also hinges on Magaro’s character, wanting Geoffrey Mason to succeed as he tries to impress the executives at ABC, hoping to work his way up the ladder of the station’s hierarchy, but it’s really sitting in the anxiety of the situation that sticks with you after watching the film.
The retro visual style of the movie really enhances the thriller element the film strives to achieve, making the audience feel like they’re in the control room in 1972, while maintaining its frantic pace throughout the 94-minute runtime.
This isn’t a film that tells the story of the 1972 Munich Olympics and its not making any definitive political statements, but it’s difficult to not evaluate the film in the context of the present Israel-Palestine conflict. But it’s really a movie about how the news get told, and how even a decision to press or not press a button during a live broadcast can alter how the world perceives an unfolding news story.
While this may be a film best suited for a journalists and news junkies, it still provides an interesting perspective on a horrific moment in history.
September 5 is currently in select theatres, being released widely on Jan. 17