September 5 review: ‘superbly constructed account of the 1972 atrocity’

To say that this taut thriller is about the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 would be simplistic. Yet that fact alone is enough to have triggered a petition by pro-Palestinian activists in New York calling for a boycott of cinemas showing the film. However, any movie houses that acquiesce to the pressure will be denying their audiences a chance to see a superbly constructed account of the atrocity.

It is told not from the perspective of the athletes but from the ABC broadcast team who were installed in Munich to cover the sporting spectacle and ended up improvising coverage of a massive and deadly international news story.

The film opens with a mini documentary by the broadcaster that proudly establishes that this is the first Olympiad to be broadcast live by satellite across the world. From then on the action largely takes place in the electric twilight of the smoke-filled control room where a bank of flickering TV screens show Mark Spitz powering himself to gold in the pool.

Executive Roone Arledge (a permanently perspiring Peter Sarsgaard) directs the team to ask the American swimmer how it feels as a Jew to win in Hitler’s backyard. When asked by his number two Marvin (a career-best performance from Ben Chaplin) if he is being too political, Arledge wisely answers: “It’s not about politics. It’s about emotions.”

 There is room too for showing how the world showed little interest in the fate of the Israeli hostages by allowing the Games to continue during the crisis. No change there, then

Meanwhile, up-and-coming producer Geoff (John Magaro), who has been vouched for by Marvin, is on shift when shots are heard in the Olympic village, and the world changes.

The deservedly Oscar-nominated screenplay by Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum and co-writer Moritz Binder keeps the plot focused on the pressures of journalism and high-stakes decisions, such as when, to the horror of the team in the control room, they discover the terrorists are viewing their live coverage of armed police taking up positions outside the Israeli team’s accommodation.

Leonie Benesch as German interpreter Marianne[Missing Credit]

The analogue technology of the period is lovingly recreated as is that irresistible Seventies period aesthetic. But there is also room to note German hopes that the Olympics would reset the country’s reputation after the Second World War, a sentiment personified by German interpreter Marianne (an excellent Leonie Benesch) of whom Jewish Marvin can’t help but ask if her parents were still alive. “Don’t tell me, they didn’t know either,” he says. “I am not my parents,” she replies.

Every exchange of dialogue has an intensity about it. There is room too for showing how the world showed little interest in the fate of the Israeli hostages by allowing the Games to continue during the crisis. No change there, then.

Classification: 15

★★★★★