“September 5” is “not about politics, its about emotions,” which are the words of Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s husband), the producer overseeing ABC’s broadcast of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, which is notorious for the hostage crisis which led to the killing of all the hostages, Israeli athletes, who did not initially escape. Unlike Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” (2005), it focuses on people not directly connected to the tragic event, but people who work for ABC Sports, who are expecting to cover the international athletic competition live, but soon switch gears to cover an exclusive news story without the experience or technology to cover.
“September 5” features a seamless ensemble cast mostly contained in a dark, airless control room with a direct, unobstructed view of the Olympic Village. Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) arrives at the control room as the new guy who may be in over his head. He does not have the confidence of Arledge, who chides him early and often before he has done anything, but he has the confidence of his direct supervisor, Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), who appears to be either equal or second in command to Arledge. The film offers no background information on any of the characters that cannot be gleaned as they function. They are doing their job then rise to the occasion along with everyone else in the newsroom and in the field covering the story.
The leads are not composite characters. Arledge is a dad of two girls but is generally serious and is deft at treating a sports match like a narrative. These three men are not just characters, but real-life legends in television broadcasting. Arledge would later become the president of ABC Sports and ABC News and the creator of “Monday Night Football,” “20/20,” “Nightline” and “ABC News World Tonight.” Bader’s gift with logistics earned him a place in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and his prowess for logistics would lead to the successful airing of ten Olympic Games. Mason would go on to win twenty-six Emmy Award for his work in televising sports. Other real-life characters like anchor Jim McKay appear with the benefit of television archival footage though some in studio scenes shot from behind have an unknown actor acting as the physical substitute. For moviegoers who remember anchor Peter Jennings, actor Benjamin Walker had the heaviest lift. Walker does not look or sound like Jennings, but he nails the rhythm and demeanor. Unlike “Saturday Night,” most of these characters are not instantly recognizable to the average person so using solid character actors who may not be instantly recognizable to the viewer who sees a movie once per year is a good move. Savvier folks should not miss such a great cast make recreation look easy.
The newsroom is like a well-oiled machine with each person playing its part to put on a show, and these characters may be where cowriters Moritz Binder, Alex David and director Tim Fehlbaum get creative. Interpreter Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) functions as the next generation of Germans hoping to prove that they are better than those who came before and the lead woman facing sexist microaggressions. Out of all the characters, while she still fits into the period, she also appears timeless and contemporary. These moments do not feel segmented or interrupt the flow of the film. Marianne and Bader briefly butt heads, but he backtracks and apologizes. Hank Hanson (Corey Johnson) asks her for coffee while he solders a machine then cameraman Carter Jeffrey (Marcus Rutherford) chides Hank for sending an expert out of the room, which means they can’t do the work. Carter apologizes by later bringing her a cup of coffee. These are blink and miss it moments. Benesch brings an innate credibility, strength and resolve to her characters, which proves that she is not a one hit wonder after her amazing lead role in “The Teachers’ Lounge” (2023).
It should not be suspenseful to watch a movie about a well-known historical event, but it is mainly because the plot is dominated with solving technical problems and showing the limits of seventies technology. It is easy for contemporary audiences to take for granted the existence of live broadcasts with all the accessible, inexpensive and light tools at our disposal. “September 5” does a deft job of establishing the era without being heavy handed and displays the ancient tools in their natural environment: rotary phones, walkie talkies, bulky cameras, film cannisters, slots for satellites, using blocks of letters on a black background to make captions, taking photos of photos to enlarge them, tube televisions with dials and antennas, magazines and books because no internet, maps, putting mic up to telephone. The necessity for new tools pushed everyone to use their ingenuity to take everything to the next level. If it sounds boring, then these words are not doing it justice. It is just too bad that IMDb does not have information for the actor who plays Andrea and other white lab coat wearing women who came up with these innovations. They may not be based on actual people, but it was another subtle way to advance representation of women in technical fields.
“September 5” feels like a found footage film. It starts with cheesy archival footage introducing the Olympics before it segues into horror. Using the actual shots of terrorists wearing ski masks leaning into the camera’s frame on the big screen evokes the idea of other masked killers of the slasher variety. While terrorists usually segue to actual faces or stereotypes, Fehlbaum’s decision to use the real image conveys a faceless, merciless, nonnegotiable evil whereas demonized people can still relent and be human. Covering their crime becomes a spiraling ethics test that they try to pass but are constantly failing.
Whose agenda is ABC pushing? The most harrowing moment is when they wonder if the terrorists are watching their broadcast, which will endanger the hostages. Like Alex Garland’s “Civil War” (2024) without the spectacle, there is limited discussion of the actual conflict except when they are debating how to describe it on screen. Out of all the ABC employees, Jennings is the only one who seems to be engaging with the origin, the Middle East conflict, on a higher analytical level than the elemental conflict of people in danger versus people endangering them. It is interesting that there is a third side shown in “September 5” that is not reflected in the broadcast. The local German police turn authoritarian quickly by refusing access to journalists, shutting down the feed and threatening ABC employees with guns yet no one considers using that information in their broadcast. There are more bad guys than the terrorists, including, unintentionally, the ABC employees, and hopefully viewers will see that though it is not spelled out. They go from airing sports to desperate to transmit snuff television in less than twenty-four hours while easily shrugging off responsibility of whether terrorists should have a tactical advantage by having access to police operations.
It is fair to wonder how a movie like “September 5” will play given everything happening on the world stage now even as its proponents cry that it is just about journalism. This historical thriller is the equivalent of a dramatic complement to “Saturday Night” (2024) with the bonus of ethical quandary: they were so preoccupied with whether they could, they did not stop to think if they should.
