Review 740: September 5

 

September 5 is tense, exhilarating experience. A taut, gripping, engrossing thriller that asks tough ethical questions and thankfully succeeds.

Set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, the film follows the ABC sports crew that quickly adapted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage.

The coverage of the 1972 Munich massacre was the first time an act of terrorism had been broadcast on live television and 900 million viewers tuned in.

Even though September 5 is not a political film, it is profoundly political as it touches on a lot of ethical and moral issues such as What do we call the people who've taken these athletes hostage? Is the coverage helping these highkackers? What if someone gets killed on camera? Should these people be reporting in this way? Is their reporting having an effect on the unfolding events? Because there's a moment in this film, a very chilling moment when they realise that what they are reporting actually is having an effect in the real world. We get these issues being discussed very cogently by a group of newscasters  They have a camera in the film but what does that mean? What does it mean in terms of how they report this story and should they be reporting it in this way? 

You may know this story from Steven Spielberg's Munich from almost 20 years ago. That film focused on the massacre to harrowing results, Confining the film to the studio for duration of its brisk 94 minute runtime makes the film feel akin to a stage play taking place on one set. Star Peter Sarsgaard has likened the film to a subamrine thriller with all of these people in dark rooms with all of this equipment with cameras acting as stand ins for periscopes which will give them images but what does that mean in terms of how you report the story. Co-writer, director Tim Fehlbaum brilliantly intercuts the stock footage of the event with the modern, dramatic reconstruction to 

Terrific stuff: Fast paced, nail biting, edge of your seat tension.

Co-written and directed by Swiss filmmaker Tim Fehlbaum, September 5 feels like a the score by Lorenz Dangel is pulse-pounding and suspenseful, the cinematography is terrific and succeeds in evoking that 70s aesthetic while also making great use of hand The production design is making the studio feel like a lived in set

Peter Sarsgaard delivers a fine performance playing Roone Arledge, president of ABC sports. He is very much the 

captain of the ship when it comes to reporting on this event and making the ethical choices not just for his crew but also 

for the whole viewing public. Throughout the film, we see him forced to navigate 

Leonie Benesch is very much the heart of the peice playing translator Marianne Gebhardt.

Ben Chaplin

John Magaro