‘September 5′ is high-octane drama

The 1972 Munich Olympics should have been a celebration. Instead, it turned into a den of fear. Germany was hoping that the 1972 Summer Games, held from August 26 to September 11, would eclipse the memory of the 1936 Olympics where a dictator and genocide operator by the name of Adolph Hitler overlooked the worldwide spectacle. 

With thoughts of putting the Berlin Olympics in the rearview mirror, Olympic officials were more than eager to move forward to a new Germany. For some sports, the Summer Games turned into a hallmark. 

American Mark Spitz made the 1972 Olympics his pool playpen after winning seven gold medals and dominating the swimming competition. 

Spitz’s phenomenal performance should have been the glitter to light the German skies. It wasn’t. Unfortunately, the spotlight moved dramatically away from international sports competition to terror. 

Instead of the focus being pinned on friendly athletic competition the 1972 Olympics became known as the Munich Massacre. Eleven members of the Israeli contingent, including athletes and coaches, were murdered after a hostage takeover at the Olympic Village. 

Black September was the infamous group that carried out the brazen attack that shook up the Olympics and the international community. Incredibly, bringing all this home in real-time to viewers to witness worldwide was a daring broadcasting crew with a couple of journalism legends in its hip pockets.    

In other words, it was a brewing storm that ABC News and its chief Roone Arledge jumped on and would not let go of. The catastrophic tragedy that unfolded before the eyes of millions of viewers resonated in many ways. 

For one, it changed the perception of news gatherers. Before this incident, those reporting on sports and news worked under different sets of dynamics. Prior to the hostage takeover at the 1972 Olympics, news reporters and news section were the only ones deemed to report on situations like what happened in Munich.

That all changed. You have a live hostage situation taking place at the premier sporting event. Mixed in all of this was warring Middle East nations. Sports became news, therefore requiring folks to remove their job description titles and to do the job that was necessary at that time.  

What  “September 5” does is take a rather unusual look from the perspective of the media tree and hand it over to audiences. Every angle, every root of “September 5” comes from the outlook of those working behind the scenes on what should have been a bonanza ratings draw with its Olympic coverage to address a full-on terrorist attack. 

“September 5” wastes not one second of its 94-minute run time on dead air. Every second counts as Arledge (played by Peter Sarsgaard) and his team work frantically around the clock to do something that’s never been done on live TV. 

“September 5” is a gut-check reality on one of the saddest chapters in Olympic history.  It is a moment in time that can never be repeated. “September 5” sparkles the most when director Tim Fehlbaum allows the ABC crew to become the lead actors with the athletes becoming an unwilling supporting cast. 

As Fehlbaum’s film builds up piece-by-piece, he paces “September 5” to an unfathomable credendo. Sometimes, true heroism does not always come across in the form of an athlete or personality. Arledge and his group exhibited what the unselfishness of teamwork is supposed to look like. 

Someone once said that teamwork makes the dream work. 

In the case of Arledge and his bunch, this meant coming together to deliver a change-up in the world of covering news. Sports crews are generally frowned upon when they try their hands at reporting hard news. 

Arledge and his team debunked that narrative by boldly chasing the news of the day in their backyard, which in this case was a hostage takeover during the Olympics. Basically, “September 5” explores how Arledge and his bunch changed the game in how media networks broadcast live news, albeit at the time that global terrorism reared its ugly head. 

Sarsgaard is fantastic as an unflinching Arledge. Following Sarsgaard’s lead in the wonderful acting department are Ben Chaplin (Marvin Bader), John Magaro (Geoffrey Mason), Leonie Benesch (Marianne Gebhardt), and Zinedine Soualem (Jacques Lesgards).                

“September 5” is incredibly descriptive and blunt in its telling or re-telling of the Munich Massacre. This is a case where everyone associated with the film, from actors to writers and the director, got it right. From a historical perspective, “September 5” is a must-see movie. 

Top Image Caption: 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.