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Every four years, the world’s athletes gather to compete for gold in front of a television audience of billions of people. In 1972, however, live satellite coverage was still a brand new technology. And the historical drama September 5 follows a TV crew as they scramble to cover the unexpected when chaos erupted during the Games.
September 5 is set during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. As the ABC Sports crew arrives early in the morning to prepare for another day of Olympic coverage, their schedule for the day takes a sudden turn when they hear what sounds like gunshots coming from the nearby Olympic village. As they find out more about a hostage situation involving the Israeli Olympic Team, the crew is forced to shift gears from sports coverage to breaking news—jumping into action to update viewers around the world on the latest developments.
Though they thought they were showing up to work for another day of broadcasting wrestling and volleyball to the world, the crew gets a crash course in news coverage—and they have to work together to make decisions about how to handle this unprecedented situation. The pace is fast and frantic as a young Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker) races out to the center of the action with the only cameraman available, the German translator (Leonie Benesch) digs for more information, and those left behind in the control room provide real-time updates over the headset to sports reporter turned news anchor Jim McKay. The film flawlessly incorporates archive footage of the event into the action—and it makes it all feel real.
While the film takes place almost exclusively inside the ABC studio, viewing the chilling events on the control room screens and learning of breaking news over phone calls and walkie-talkies, it’s all still surprisingly tense. Instead of showing the action as it happens, it shows the action inside the studio—the reactions, the emotions, the difficult choices that have to be made in just a few minutes’ time. And the ensemble cast effectively portrays the tension, the drama, and the chaos of this shocking moment in Olympic history.
In choosing to focus on what took place behind the scenes instead of stepping outside the studio to cover the unfolding hostage crisis, September 5 offers a different perspective on the tragic events. And while a TV studio thriller might sound less than thrilling, it’s actually a tense and emotional depiction of this historical event.
You can join the crew in their scramble when September 5 arrives in select theaters on December 13, 2024—ahead of its wide release on January 17, 2025.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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