OSCARS 2025: September 5 (2024)

In September of 1972, the Palestinian militant organization Black September took eleven Israeli athletes and officials hostage during the Munich Olympics. The German police would badly bungle a rescue attempt, resulting in the militants murdering all eleven of the hostages. The event would become known as the Munich massacre. The incident received considerable media attention, pushing the word “terrorist” into the front of the public's mind. These events have inspired at least two critically acclaimed films already. 2024 would bring with it another take on the true events, entitled “September 5.” Right now was probably not the best time to release a fictionalization of this topic, what with Israel trying to ethnically cleanse Gaza and all that. That's probably why “September 5,” in spite of strong critical reception, has been mostly ignored during the awards season. The movie received only one Oscar nomination, in the category of Best Original Screenplay. 

The 1972 Summer Olympics received the highest tech news coverage of its day, footage and results from the games being broadcast all around the globe from Munich via then cutting edge satellite technology. The ABC Sports room team performs a carefully choreographed operation to keep coverage of the games running smoothly, under the leadership of Roone Arledge. The international team work through the night... But something is different on the morning of September 5th. Gunshots are heard in the distance. Police begin to gather around the Olympic village, as it becomes increasingly apparent something has gone wrong. By the morning, it has become clear that the Israeli sports team have been taken hostage by Palestinian militants, their demands being made public. The ABC Sports team insist on covering what they know will be historical events. 

In order to distinguish itself from past films about the Munich Massacre, director Tim Fehlbaum and a writing team led by Moritz Binder touch upon an intriguing gimmick. “September 5” doesn't actually play out in real time, condensing about two days worth of events into a compact 97 minute runtime. However, the movie absolutely feels like it is unfolding minute for minute as the real events did. This is accomplished with an incredibly tight screenplay that immediately introduces its setting and cast. That pairs with whip sharp editing, leaping effortlessly between the different characters as they take in every new bit of breaking news and try to keep coverage running along. “September 5” accurately captures the flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants feeling of being in a news room during major events, of a tightly knit team of experts and working professionals committed to their job of recording what is happening near-by and telling the world.

Fehlbaum uses this set-up as the foundation for what plays as a gritty thriller. Befitting the early seventies setting, cinematographer Markus Förderer accurately replicates the look and feel of the paranoid thrillers of that decade. The camera work is claustrophobic, drawing attention to the cramped and dim interiors of the news studio. The big analogue monitors, chunky buttons, massive walkie-talkies, and endless cords sticks us in this time and place quickly. The cast is populated with character actors, all of them absorbed by period accurate clothing, hair, and make-up. The closest thing the film has to a name star is Peter Sarsgaard, as Roone, who I did not recognize until the end credits rolled. The film goes out of its way to make the viewer feel like they are in that newsroom too, uncertain of what might happen next and simply doing the best they can to keep up with the startling events as they unfold. There's an electricity to “September 5” from the moment it starts, making it a hell of a thriller. 

What also makes “September 5” such a tense experience is that it sees the characters asking hard questions, making tricky choices, in a life-and-death situation. Roone insists on covering the hostage crisis, despite it being outside the normal reach of a sports department. Various news anchors call them on this, the reporters insisting that they are the closest to the action. They have to balance network agreements, ABC and CBS squabbling over commercial breaks and agreed-upon broadcast times, in order to keep the footage rolling. This points towards questions about what role the media should play as history is happening. The news coverage of the German police inadvertently reveal covert attention to the militants. Facts mix with rumors, split-second decisions forced to be made. More than once, it's questioned whether the reporters keep going because it's important to get the word out... Or because they want bragging rights, they want to be part of history. 

In fact, the brutality of death and violence colliding with the frivolity of the Olympic games adds to the tension in “September 5.” One of the newscaster is left speechless by cutting between reports of the on-going competitions and the details of the hostage, saying that they are returning to “the real world” when going back to coverage of the hostage situation. The weird push-and-pull between the theatrics of the Olympics and actual world events floats under every scene in “September 5.” The former site of the Dachau death camps are near the Olympic village, the focus of a pre-recorded segment that Roone questions the taste of. The shadow of the Holocaust hangs over much of what happens in Munich, the German government eager to put the memories behind them. However, it's hard to let go of such preconceived notions. The Olympics are suppose to be about international cooperation yet the workers in the newsroom, from different corners of the continent, are often separated by petty differences. The high-minded ideas the Olympics are meant to represent are often at odds with the behind-the-scenes strife that made them happen, much less the actual bloody business of international relations. 

While “September 5” clearly has thoughts about the legacy of the Holocaust over these true events, it doesn't seem to consider what effect other global events might have had. There is a brief scene where it's discussed whether “terrorists” is the proper word to describe the militants, the newsroom ultimately going with it. One can't help but see that as an omen for what was to come, of the American media dehumanizing any and all Middle Eastern forces with the term for years to come. What this also means is that the film never once questions if Israel's treatment of Palestine might have prompted these attacks in any way. The Palestinians are never portrayed as anything but far-off spectres, masked figures that are a source of violent terror. This is a side effect of the film's intentionally narrow viewpoint of events. I actually admire “September 5” sticking to its guns and not breaking immersion, insisting on keeping its focus entirely within the news room. However, it's not going to dispel any notions that this is Israeli propaganda, another attempt to use one genocide eighty years ago to whitewash the motives of a government performing an on-going genocide right now. 

I guess it's not fair to criticize a movie for what it isn't. “September 5” is actually an extremely well made and very tense motion picture, that makes foregone historical conclusions into a captivating thriller. If one can put this movie in a bottle and not think about the real world events – then and now –  that informed it, it gets high marks all around. While impossible to overlook such a stain, I do highly respect and admire the craft on display here. In some ways, maybe focusing in on the reporters and technicians covering the hostage situation was the most responsible thing to do. It's not like they had much to do with Israel's actions as a country. Propaganda aside, “September 5” is mostly an expertly assembled and chilling experience. [8/10]