What’s It About
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be in a TV control room during a major crisis? That’s exactly what “September 5” shows us, taking place during the terrible events at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Even though many people know how this sad story ends, watching it through the eyes of TV broadcasters makes it feel fresh and tense. The movie starts by showing us the everyday stuff that goes into broadcasting the Olympics. ABC and CBS were sharing TV coverage that day, which becomes a big deal later when they both want to show what’s happening with the hostages. We get to see some pretty clever moves by the ABC team to get the best footage. For example, there’s this camera guy named Gary Slaughter (played by Daniel Adeosun) who pretends to be an athlete just to sneak into the Olympic Village and hide a camera near where everything’s going down. The movie has some problems, though. It tries really hard not to take sides on anything, which actually makes it weaker. At one point, someone says that politics don’t matter when people’s lives are in danger. While that sounds nice, it’s way too simple for such a complicated situation. The film brings up some good questions about whether it’s right or wrong to show this kind of stuff on TV, but it doesn’t stick with these ideas long enough to say anything meaningful about them. Where the movie really shines is in showing how people actually act in a control room during something horrible. Instead of having everyone running around screaming like you might expect, we see lots of moments where people are just frozen in shock, trying to figure out what to do. They keep having to make tough choices: Should they show violence on TV? What happens if they do? How will this affect people watching at home? These feel like real problems that real TV people would face. The actors all do a great job, even though they don’t get much background story to work with. John Magaro plays the main character, who’s dealing with this whole mess on his first day, and he’s the only one we learn anything about. It’s kind of disappointing that we don’t get to know the Israeli athletes better – they’re the actual victims here, but we barely learn anything about them. Still, everyone in the cast works really well together, especially Magaro, who makes you believe he’s someone trying to keep it together while everything’s falling apart around him. The movie moves fast and keeps you on the edge of your seat for its hour and a half runtime. Ben Chaplin also stands out in his role, making every scene he’s in more interesting. The film shows us how important it is for news people to stay human when covering inhuman events, which is still super relevant today with all our 24-hour news channels and social media. Even though it’s not perfect, “September 5” definitely keeps you watching. Think of it like a really well-made episode of a TV show about a news station – it’s exciting while you’re watching it, but it might not stick with you for very long afterward. The movie does a good job showing how stressful it must be to cover terrible events on live TV, trying to balance getting the story out with being respectful to the victims and their families. What’s really interesting is seeing how different this is from today’s news coverage. Back then, they had to make careful decisions about what to show. Now, with everyone having smartphones and social media, such events get broadcasted to the world almost instantaneously, with or without the readiness of the people involved. The film does not have time to engage in a thorough discussion of each of these issues; it does, however, make one ponder. So, while “September 5” might not be the most profound movie ever made about journalism or terrorism, it’s absolutely worth seeing if you want to find out just how news gets created during a crisis. It can be likened to an inside look at one of sports history’s most tragic moments, even if it sometimes feels more like an exciting television show than a serious examination of what happened.
OUR RATING – A TRAGIC 6