SEPTEMBER 5 : Tuesday 11th February 2025.

I saw the M Rated 'SEPTEMBER 5' at my local independent movie theatre this week and this historical drama thriller is Co-Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Tim Fehlbaum in only his third feature film Directorial outing following 'Hell' in 2011, and 'Tides' (aka 'The Colony') in 2021. This film saw its World Premiere screening at the Venice International Film Festival in late August last year, went on wide release in the US in mid-January and was released here in Australia last week. It has so far grossed US$4.5M, has received generally favourable critical reviews and has garnered eleven award wins and another twenty-six nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, the ABC Television Sports crew presides over the coverage of the relatively uneventful Games. When Mark Spitz wins his record breaking seventh gold medal in the swimming event over a West German competitor, ABC President Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) dramatises the win by cutting to his competitor's reaction and planning to introduce the subject of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany during a live interview with Spitz. Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), the Head of ABC Operations, questions the decision, with Arledge reminding him of the importance of emphasising emotions over politics to create an effective broadcast.

Later that night, gunshots are heard in the distance. The crew listens in on Police broadcasts, aided by Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), the crew's local translator, and gradually learn that a terrorist attack is unfolding in the Olympic Village no more that 200 metres away from the ABC studio. It is reported that militant group Black September has broken into the apartment housing the Israeli team and taken eleven athletes hostage, demanding the release of some two hundred Palestinian prisoners. 

Seeing an opportunity for a compelling story, Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), the head of the control room, quickly mobilises the crew to switch the coverage of the unfolding hostage crisis instead. Along with Arledge, he takes practical steps to turn the story into a gripping news sensation, negotiating more advantageous time slots and even forging an identification badge so that a crewmember can access the now-restricted Olympic village. The crew are mostly enthusiastic and confident that the whole situation will be resolved quickly and efficiently, but a dismayed Bader reminds Mason and Arledge that the lives of real people are at stake and warns them of the impact they might have on the terrorists' actions.

The crisis deepens due to failed negotiations and mistakes from a largely unprepared and under resourced local Police force. Countless global news stations vie for the latest news and brief images of the standoff, prompting Mason to become more competitive with covering the story. At one point, the crew realises that the terrorists are watching their programme beamed live to every TV in the Olympic Village and around the world, which leads to an attempted rescue failing. Local law enforcement officers storm the control room and threaten the crew at gunpoint to turn off the broadcast, but Mason ultimately refuses and Arledge tells them in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of his studio. The terrorists are eventually transported by helicopter and bus with their hostages to the military airport of Furstenfeldbruck, located some thirty kilometres from Munich, and Mason sends Marianne there for coverage, cynically including a sound technician in the event a shootout occurs.

Marianne, at the airport with other news crews, reports to Mason that the hostages are said to be free, which is apparently confirmed by a German public service television broadcaster. Bader urges Mason to hold off on reporting until the information is confirmed by another source, but Mason is unwilling to lose the scoop and has the news announced, albeit with the caveat that reports remain ongoing. Bader is furious but is pacified when Mason receives an official facsimile soon afterwards claiming confirmation from the German Chancellor. As the crew celebrates with cold beers all round, Mason pivots to planning interviews with the survivors, and Bader celebrates with Arledge in his office. As he watches a live, televised ABC interview with Conrad Ahlers, acting as a spokesperson for the German government, Ahlers speaks of the resolution to the crisis in an optimistic future tense. Realising that the reports the studio received were all incorrect, a horrified Arledge contacts an inside source and learns that the rescue attempt failed and all the hostages were in fact shot and killed.

Mason has ABC Sports Anchor Jim McKay correct the live broadcast, and state the real outcome. Arledge nevertheless praises him for an excellent job, while Marianne mourns that even more innocent lives were lost on German soil, and she and countless other reporters had been at the airport, intent only on getting a scoop while lives were being lost. The crew heads home, and after shutting down all the equipment and closing up, Mason ponders over the studio's bulletin board featuring photos of the eleven victims.

In a closing epilogue, we learn that eleven Israeli athletes and coaches, one German Police Officer and five Black September members were killed on that fateful day. Further text reveals that the event was the first time a terrorist attack had been broadcast on live television around the world and was viewed by a global audience of approximately 900 million, more than the 1969 moon landing, making it one of the most viewed broadcasts in history.

'September 5' tells the story purely and squarely from the perspective of the ABC Sports coverage team and for the most part from the claustrophobic confines of the temporary studio from which they broadcast to the world. It's a tight, tense and taut telling of a day marked in infamy as a group of television journalists and those working behind the scenes in the studio, laid the very foundations of televised media coverage that we have come to take for granted today. It is a well crafted film, a compelling story, well acted (particularly by Magaro and Benesch), and with spot on production values that do justice to the time and place, but still I was left wanting a little more meat on them bones. For instance, more perspective on the eleven Israeli hostages turned victims, or the political shenanigans going on behind closed doors, or the failings of the local Police on the ground . . . you get the picture. That said, the films brisk running time of just 94 minutes, and the authenticity of combining actual archival footage into the films narrative all add up to a film worthy of your cinema ticket price, but it won't be for everyone.

'September 5' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-