September 5 is based around the harrowing events of that date in 1972, when Black September took members of the Israeli olympic team hostage in the Munich Olympic village. "Around" is the operative word though as the film focuses solely on the actions and decisions of the ABC sports broadcasters who ended up covering the events live. With this approach director Tim Fehlbaum sacrifices in your face tension in favour of a love letter to classic reporting and changing of the guard in terms of journalistic priorities.
The film begins in the early hours of the morning, with the team preparing for a regular day of olympic coverage (not that there really is such a thing as a regular day of coverage yet, with this being the first games to be covered live via satellite). There is already some tension in the air around Germany hosting the games and ethics questions of live TV are surfacing, "you want to ask a Jewish man about the holocaust on live television?". Distant gunshots herald the start of a day nobody was prepared for and the team fight to keep control of the broadcast ahead of the news crew, reasoning that they are within touching distance of the events and therefore better placed to deliver the story. They also face challenges to retain control of the satellite as other networks want their broadcast time. As questions of what you can show on live TV and to what extent the coverage influences the narrative arise, you get the creeping feeling we are witnessing a dark day, not just in terms of the unfolding events but because we are watching the day journalistic priorities changed.
It's a team effort but there are three principal players. Geoffrey Mason (John Mauro) is the relatively inexperienced director thrust into uncharted waters. Full of nervous energy and dedicated to getting the best possible coverage, he drives the story. His boss, Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), is the man in charge of negotiating with the networks to keep them on air and is the one who most senses the chance to make history, both with camera and the ratings. Most interesting is Leonie Benesch as Marrianne Gebhardt. The German translator who also speaks Hebrew, she is easily the crews most valuable asset but is still, as per 1972 work culture, dispatched to fetch coffee at a vital moment. She is the heart of the movie and carries it well, even if she is saddled with a couple of bits of distractingly cheesy, on the nose dialogue.
Fortunately for a film about journalism, the control room stuff is great. It is shot in the style of the technology of the time and the perspective constantly weaves and cuts with a nervous energy befitting the events. The patter is the right mix of simple enough you can follow everything people are saying but with enough technical speak it feels like watching professionals working at a high level. The film really works as a love letter to old school reporting. It is somewhat limited by covering the events at a distance though. The characters may at some points feel the weight of events but the audience aren't really given the chance to and there is no discussion on the climate that lead to the unfolding events. The movie is also quick to portray the German authorities as laughably incompetent but offers no thoughts on how the situation could have been better handled.
September 5 puts you right in the middle of one of the most intense and important days in news coverage history and will make you nostalgic for the journalistic practices of old. Be aware though, the film is, like its central characters, there to strictly observe from a distance.
7 hours in control of the bird out of 10
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