September 5 2024

On September 5, 1972, at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, Palestinian terrorists held members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage in exchange for imprisoned countrymen. The ABC Sports team, led by Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) and Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), despite their lack of preparation, decided to fully pivot from covering sports to news. The coverage itself was historic—it was the first time a terrorist attack had been broadcast live—and so the film follows the producers, crewmen, and journalists’ efforts in relaying the news. It’s taut, thrilling, and impressively technical. We get to see the ingenuity of the team, the ethical dilemma behind their journalistic choices, and the real consequences of those choices. Like last year’s Civil War, September 5 highlights that uneasy feeling that arises from chasing the story no matter what which, like it or not, effectively dehumanizes conflict and people into mere ratings and numbers. The mistake September 5 makes, however, is that insists on being apolitical even though that avoidance is itself a statement. There are points in the film where, despite loudly declaring they’re only here to cover the news, the characters contradict themselves by favoring one side over the other (this being a big studio film, I suppose you can already tell which side that is). It could use a bit more courage and nuance, but as it stands, September 5, along with films like Civil War, She Said, and Spotlight, is a worthy journalism procedural.