‘September 5’ Captures One of the Most Shocking Massacres — of the Israeli Team at the Munich Olympics

An attack against Israelis in the small hours of the dawn. Hostages taken in front of a stunned world, footage capturing the horror in real time. That could describe not only October 7, 2023, but also September 5, 1972 — the massacre at the Munich Olympics. A new movie, called simply “September 5,” offers a fresh angle on the event. Its focus is how the attacks were covered by ABC News, which beamed the brutality to 900 million people.The 1972 Olympics were intended to introduce the world to a new Germany. The last games on German soil, in 1936 at Berlin, had been presided over by Hitler. The 1972 games offered a new chance but, in the event, showcased the world’s oldest hate, courtesy of Palestinian Arab terrorists of the Black September organization. Eleven Israeli athletes were killed following a cascade of errors by West German security forces. This story has been told before, most recently by the director Steven Spielberg in his “Munich,” which focused on the subsequent Israeli effort, directed by Israel’s premier, Golda Meir, to deliver justice to those responsible for the massacre. That ambition led to “Operation Wrath of God,” which exacted vengeance over more than 20 years. “September 5,” directed by Tim Fehlbaum, covers only the attack itself, and is the stronger for its restraint.The insight of “September 5” is that tightening its ambit amplifies its force rather than narrowing its vision. The focus on broadcasting craft liberates the film to hew close to the savagery and eschew cant and justification. George Orwell wrote that “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” The movie at least makes the effort to do that. Its lens offers an argument for medium over message and craft over context.Sean Penn, John Ira Palmer, John Wildermuth, Tim Fehlbaum, and Jake Kasdan during a screening of ‘September 5’ on December 8, 2024, at Los Angeles. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Paramount PicturesThe 1972 Olympics were the first to feature a satellite in space, and the new technology becomes both capability and conundrum. “The bird,” as it’s called, allows for an abundance of angles but heightens the ethical quandaries attached to broadcasting a massacre. The shots snagged by the crew — archival film woven into this movie — still haunt. A terrorist, say, leans out in a ski mask, brandishing a rifle in a portrait of perdition. Today, Hamas broadcasts on GoPros.The action of “September 5” takes place in the studio. Its twists will be familiar to anyone who has hunkered down in a newsroom. The cast approaches the work with the bleary-eyed intensity of the graveyard shift. The president of ABC Sports, Roone Arledge, is played by an excellent Peter Sarsgaard, who provides intimations of the television titan to come. The head of operations at ABC Sports, Marvin Bader, is played with lockjaw intensity by Ben Chaplin.ABC’s reporter in the Olympic village was Peter Jennings, then only 34. He was pulled onto the Games after a four-year stint in the Middle East. He narrates the bungled efforts to rescue the athletes, which looked doomed at the time, let alone today. Particularly infuriating is when the Israelis are led to a bus by the terrorists, so close and exposed that one wants to dive into the screen and snatch them to safety. No one did. Also memorable is footage of ABC’s anchor, Jim McKay, who for nearly three decades hosted the network’s “Wide World of Sports,” where he vowed to bring viewers “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” McKay was on the air for 14 hours straight on September 5, 1972, in a performance that has passed into legend. As has his announcement of the tragedy: “Our worst fears have been realized tonight. … They’re all gone.” Another reporter in the Olympic village that day was the sports announcer Howard Cosell, born Howard Cohen, who rose to fame bantering with a young Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay. Cosell’s stentorian voice would forever be associated with “Monday Night Football.” One of the animating tensions of “September 5” is the struggle between ABC’s news and sports divisions over who would cover the story. One is glad that sports prevailed. “September 5” is one of the more compelling cases on film in recent years for the logic of Zionism. Not three decades after Auschwitz minted corpses and ash, the world watched while Jews were murdered in the city of Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch. Germany was not the villain at Munich, but the West Germans were so afraid of repeating their past that, by abjuring a strong military, they enabled an echo of history. That is a lesson to never forget.

‘September 5’ Captures One of the Most Shocking Massacres — of the Israeli Team at the Munich Olympics

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