September 5: The 1972 Olympic Terrorist Attack, Live on ABC

The 1972 Olympics were a triumph for one Jewish athlete, American Mark Spitz, until he was forced to leave early, under armed heavy guard. Soon after Spitz swam to his seventh gold medal, the Games turned tragic for eleven Jewish Israeli athletes and coaches, who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Yet, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) never acknowledged their deaths during the Games proper, until they final observed one single solitary minute of silence during the 2020 Covid games in Tokyo, having long deferred to states that hate Jews and sponsor terrorism. Nevertheless, the world knows full well of the Munich atrocities, thanks in part to ABC Sports’ coverage. Swiss director and co-screenwriter Tm Fehlbaum recreates the broadcast team’s tense hours managing their coverage from the network control room in September 5, which releases today in New York theaters.

On paper, it looked like a slow news day for the American team, which is why ABC Sports President Roone Arledge and anchor Jim McKay (seen entirely and extensively in archival footage) had originally taken the day off. They soon returned when staffers reported hearing gunfire in the Olympic Village.

Only few hundred yards away, the bunker-like ABC facility was so close, yet so far—but it was certainly much closer than a studio in New York. Soon, broadcast director Geoffrey Mason and his operations boss Marvin Bader figure ways to steal shots including repurposing the aerial camera and moving one of the studio cameras right outside their facility. They also manage to dispatch Peter Jennings and a cameraman to athletic dorm opposite the unfolding hostage crisis right before the clueless Bavarian police shutdown access to the area.

However, the audience’s POV never leaves the makeshift ABC studio, so we see the outside footage at the same time as do Arledge and his employees. Fehlbaum deliberately presents the story from a narrow perspective, but it captures the confusion and the ethical dilemmas that result from trying to cover violent breaking news. In fact, we watch with the ABC crew as they realize their live coverage may have sabotaged the Bavarian police’s planned rescue attempt.

In fact, Fehlbaum and co-screenwriters Moritz Binder and Alex David directly address the moral implications of the terrorists’ savagery by introducing viewers to David Berger, an Israeli weightlifter hostage (and former American), whom ABC cameras filmed at length during his visit to Auschwitz the previous day. Use of that footage (recreated with actor Rony Herman) both humanizes the victims and draws a clear comparison between the Black September terrorists and Hitler’s National Socialists (although not mentioned in the film, it was later revealed German Neo-Nazis groups provided logistical support for the September 5^th attack). Yet, he also skillfully builds tension from the claustrophobic setting.

Frankly, the Jennings estate might not be thrilled with September 5, because Benjamin Walker’s impersonation-style depiction makes the newsreader look like an arrogant snob. However, Ben Chaplin’s performance as Bader is richly complex, particularly in the ways he relates to his Jewish heritage (which grows increasingly complicated, for obvious reasons).

John Magaro realistically portrays Mason’s shock and disillusion, as his greatest professional moment in the sun turns into a nightmare of profound dimensions. Yet, perhaps the most arresting performance comes from Leonie Benesch, as German translator Marianne Gebhardt, whose pride in Germany’s new progressive direction turns to horror and disgust at its incompetence and short-sightedness.

Frankly, the video of Jim McKay remains so indelibly imprinted on our shared memory, Fehlbaum’s decision to solely rely on archival news footage rather than casting an actor was really quite wise. Yet, anyone expecting the emotional payoff that came when he read A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young” while covering the closing ceremony will be surprised by its absence. However, Fehlbaum strictly confines the film to the events of that one horrible day.

Throughout September 5, Fehlbaum and company viscerally convey a sense of how inconceivably shocking the Black September massacre was to the polite “normies” in the ABC control room. Yet, the Western world keeps forgetting the lessons of September 5^th, September 11^th, and October 7^th, burying collective heads in the sand, allowing evil like Black September to operate freely. That never works out well, as this film duly attests.

It is also a tightly wound tick-tock chronicle of journalism at its best and worst. Highly recommended for its timeliness and its rigorously disciplined execution, September 5 opens today (12/13) in New York theaters, including the AMC Lincoln Square.