September 5 Review: News As Entertainment Begins

September 5, by director Tim Fehlbaum, delivers a tense look at the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage situation as reported by the ABC Sports department.

When producer Geoffery Mason (John Magaro, Past Lives) went in to work to continue coverage of the 1972 Olympics, he had no idea that he was stepping into a historic moment. He has a conversation with the network executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard, Presumed Innocent) and then makes plans about what events to cover, what fluff pieces to show, and how to frame the games in the context of where they are taking place, just 27 years after the end of World War 2. 

The tension rises immediately when there is news that a group of Palestinian dissidents have taken the Israeli team hostage, killing two members and threatening to shoot the remaining nine if a group of prisoners are not released. Because the sports department already has a team on the ground and cameras available, Arledge makes the call to have the sports division cover the story rather than passing it off to the news department. 

This film is a look at one of the first times that news made a shift into entertainment, as the grainy images of the masked man and one of the original uses of the word terrorist to describe this kind of event unfold. September 5 does an impressive job of showing the amount of thought that went into decisions made regarding the airing of this drama while also giving some insight into how various staff members were responding in real-time. Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch, The Teachers’ Lounge) serves as an interpreter who is trying to understand what is happening in her country, and Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin, Snowden) provides the perspective of a Jewish American navigating his grief while trying to do his job.

With a tight runtime of just 95 minutes, September 5 must be economical with its story choices. This means that the film does not offer nuance to the decades-long tensions between Palestine and Israel. If you are expecting a breakdown of that conflict in this movie, you will not find it. That said, the camera work and frenetic pace provide a claustrophobic sense of the newsroom as these events unfold and how they impact those on the ground.

The entire cast forms an impressive ensemble, but the emotional heavy lifting is done by Magaro. As the man making decisions about how this broadcast would appear to the public, the weight of those choices is brilliantly expressed through his performance. When he makes a call that ultimately turns out to be the wrong one, we are able to feel his pain.

The camera work, staging, and look of the film put us right inside of that 1970s television studio. We understand with the crew that if millions of people are watching this, then the terrorists could be watching as well, and what that means for the hostages. Despite this being a story that one can look up online and read about (and for larger context, it could be argued that one should do that), the tension surrounding the fate of the hostages and the people reporting on the situation is palpable. 

Given the ongoing situation in Palestine, September 5 will undoubtedly disappoint some. Honestly, given some questionable choices made by news outlets today, that aspect will also likely frustrate another group of viewers. Nevertheless, the excellent ensemble, fast-paced script, and gripping story make this worth the watch—even if only as a portent of things to come.

September 5 had a limited theatrical release in the US on December 13, 2024 and will be out in theaters nationwide from January 17, 2025. The film will be released in UK & Irish cinemas on February 6, 2025.