A sports broadcasting unit sent to Munich to cover the 1972 Olympic Games must pivot to live news when a group of Israeli athletes is taken hostage by a terrorist group, in this Oscar-nominated thriller.
Director: Tim Fehlbaum
Writers: Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, and Alex David
Script source: Deadline
September 5 takes us into the ABC Sports broadcasting studio in Munich, an outpost created for the purposes of covering the 1972 Summer Olympics.
A day in which the meagre televisual highlight was a “back to the Cold War” boxing match between the USA and Cuba is thrown into chaos when gunshots are heard from inside the Olympic Village. We quickly learn that several of the Israeli team members have been taken hostage by terrorists who are demanding the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners.
We’re then taken on a nail-biting ride as the sports team scrambles into “news” mode, aware that they are the only broadcasting unit with live footage of the in-progress hostage situation.
At the centre of the action is Geoff (John Magaro), who is thrust into the role of newsroom point man, despite the fact he has barely made his sport broadcasting bones, with just a smattering of golf and minor league baseball on his resume.
Heading the whole thing is Roone (Peter Sarsgaard), ABC Sports president, who’s trying to squeeze every bit of human drama out of the Olympic action, who jumps at the chance of covering a real news story. There’s also VP of operations Marvin (Ben Chaplin), whose Jewish heritage gives him a more personal connection to the story. He provides the counterpoint to Roone’s “we follow the story wherever it goes” attitude.
In fact, one of the areas in which the film succeeds is showing us some of the dilemmas news crews face when covering unfolding events, especially when lives are at stake. In this case, with a camera trained right on the room where the hostages are being held, there’s a chance they’ll capture live footage of someone being killed – compelling TV but what if the family of the victim is watching back home?
There’s also a great sequence in which the newsroom becomes aware that ABC is available in all of the athletes’ rooms in the Olympic Village – as they’re broadcasting live footage of German cops attempting to covertly enter the hostages’ room…
Another plus is how the film places its events into a wider historical context. While there’s no escaping the connection to current events, the main political angle here is Germany attempting to reinvent itself on the world stage following WWII by hosting the Games, only to find itself at the centre of another crisis (involving Jewish hostages). With the war ending just 27 years earlier, the memories and traumas are still fresh.
Indeed, post-war tensions are palpable among the multi-nationality ABC team, most notably young German-English translator Marianne (Leonie Benesch). As the team’s only German speaker, she’s pivotal in covering the story but becomes increasingly appalled that her country has allowed this to happen. Understandably, the Germans had decided to forgo the optic of having armed security patrolling the Olympic Village, giving the terrorists the chance to slip inside.
The film also looks really good. The claustrophobic TV studio setting has been painstakingly created, with plenty of old school tech and lively scenes of the newsroom in action. There is also liberal use of the actual footage of the Olympic Village, while the fictional production team cuts to real video of ABC’s anchor Jim McKay and its on-the-ground reporter Peter Jennings.
With so much working in its favour, the film should be an all-out success. But, for some reason, it falls short.
Sometimes, it’s hard to put your finger on why a film is lacking… something. September 5 is one of those films.
Certainly, all the ingredients are in place: compelling real-life event; solid acting; authenticity; period detail; a sense of urgency. Yet, the film doesn’t fully engage.
It might be because – as with Saturday Night (2024) – the importance of what the team was doing is not revealed until the end (we learn that 900 million people were watching ABC’s live coverage).
It might be because of how the real events concluded, giving the whole thing a sense of grim inevitability.
It might even be because whatever pressure and stakes were building in the newsroom were nothing compared to what was actually unfolding in the Olympic Village.
The fact that the film incorporates so much actual footage should work in its favour, but it only adds to the documentary feel. This puts emotional distance between us and the team, adding to the emotional distance of not seeing any of the actual “action”. From the room, the hostages are bundled into a bus and taken to a military airbase where “all hell breaks loose”.
Ultimately, we’re watching the watchers who themselves are watching… a balcony. They’re removed from the drama and so are we. Instead, the film shows us in meticulous detail how an apparently inexperienced (yet impressively slick) broadcast team covered a live news story.
Overall, there is much to admire and enjoy about September 5. It takes a unique perspective on a terrible real-life event and shows us how this sports news team brought the story to the world.
However, it ultimately suffers from a style that’s a little too by-the-book and a narrative that’s a little too far removed from the victims to allow for any real emotional engagement in the characters or in the tragedy they so effectively covered on that day in September.
Writer takeaways
Here are a few things writers can take away from September 5:
1. Writing urgency: While not told in real time, like Saturday Night, this is an example of writing “urgency”, with a ticking clock and the pressures of live TV.
For example: The sequence starting on page 24 when the team realizes something is wrong and everyone scrambles into action. It then intensifies in the sequence starting on page 52 when they go live.
2. Setting up the story: Note the difference in opening between the script and the film…
The script takes us straight into the newsroom, showing us the ABC Sports team covering Mark Spitz winning gold in the pool. However, the film begins by spending a minute or two showing footage of the ’72 Olympics accompanied by an ABC voiceover promoting the network’s coverage.
The film’s opening not only places us in the story’s world but it immediately creates authenticity and takes care of some exposition (including the technical limitations of the day).
3. Stakes: The concept of stakes in the story is interesting. With regard the hostages, the stakes are life and death. However, for the ABC Sports team, the only stakes are really that the news won’t be broadcast live. This mismatch is one of the reasons why the film lacks some emotional intensity.
For example: Contrast this to one of the “TV news” films we mention below, Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). Here, the wider stakes and that of the news team are inextricably linked. High-profile journalist Edward R. Murrow’s on-air campaign against Senator Joseph McCarthy proves a powerful weapon in the fight to end the Communist witch-hunts, which caused widespread damage to people’s lives.
4. Use of real footage: While the use of real footage does make September 5 feel a bit disjointed and adds to the “documentary” vibe, it is done seamlessly. In the script, it’s written as plain dialogue, such as in the scenes where the control room is communicating with Jim McKay in the studio.
5. Emotional connection: Despite the disconnect between the hostages and the newsroom, there are some great moments where the film makes a personal connection between the characters, their situation, and the wider context. This is highlighted in the scenes with Marv and, especially, the (fictional) Marianne.
For example: On pages 105/6 of the script, after the fate of the hostages is known, Geoff tells Marianne he shouldn’t have sent her out to the military base (where the hostages were taken). “I can only image the things you saw,” he says. She replies that she saw nothing, adding that everyone there was just “staring into the night” waiting for something to happen because they “wanted to take a picture of it”.
This is a simple yet effective exchange which sums up her feelings about what has happened in her country – so soon after the war – as well as ABC Sport’s role that day as a bystander, voyeur, and an important recorder of history.
Take a look at the trailer:
Also watch…
Munich (2005): Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed drama tells of the attempt to hunt down the terrorists responsible for the kidnapping of the Israeli athletes. Script source: Daily Script
One Day in September (1999): Kevin Macdonald’s Oscar-winning documentary recounts the tragic events of 5 September 1972.
The Eichmann Show (2010): This TV movie tells of controversial efforts to televise the 1961 trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann.
Good Night, and Good Luck (2005): Goes behind the scenes at CBS as broadcaster Ed Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly take on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his damaging Communist witch-hunts.
Frost/Nixon (2008): Dramatizes the revealing post-Watergate interviews conducted between British talk show host David Frost and former US president Richard Nixon.