Everything is Political

Film: September 5
Format: Streaming video from Amazon Prime on Fire!

My kids get mad at me when I tell them that virtually everything they do has political ramifications. It’s true, though. Spend money at Chick-Fil-A, and you’re helping to finance a company that happily gives money to anti-LGBTQIA+ organizations. Buy something at Wal-Mart, and you’re enriching a company that has thousands of employees on food stamps and other forms of welfare. Make a movie about a group of Palestinians killing Israeli athletes, and you’re making a comment on the current situation in Gaza, even if that wasn’t your intent. That makes September 5 a movie that is a lot more politically charged now than it might have been a few years ago.

To be fair, the events of the Munich 1972 Olympics are a compelling story, and that is enough to warrant a movie. It does seem oddly timed, though, as Israel undertakes what certainly looks like genocide and the eradication of the Palestinian people in Israel. A story that clearly has Israelis as victims and Palestinians as terrorists certainly feels politically motivated, regardless of intent or the viability of the actual historical events.

Before we get into the film, the historical events need to be covered. The Summer Olympics in 1972 took place in Munich, the first time the Olympics happened in Germany since the infamous 1936 games. Naturally, there was a good amount of interest in the fact that Israel was sending a team. Tragedy struck when a Palestinian terrorist group called Black September took the entire Israeli team hostage, eventually killing the entire team.

What makes September 5 different from the normal film of this type is the perspective. We’re not going to see this from the point of view of the hostages, the athletes, or even the terrorists. We’re going to see this from the point of view of the ABC Sports crew covering the Olympics and dealing with the story as it breaks. Much of our time will be spent with Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), head of the control room in Munich. Mason is getting a lot of his marching orders from Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), president of ABC Sports. Also important is Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), a local from Munich who functions as a translator.

The plot here is going to be interesting for someone who didn’t experience these events in real time. I’m just barely old enough to have vague memories of it. Seeing the shot of the face masked terrorist on the balcony of the athletes’ village is something I think I remember. I at least remember commotion and concern, and I have seen that picture enough that I honestly don’t know if I remember it from when it happened or have just seen it so much that I think I remember seeing it. The story as we see it is simply the unfolding of what actually happened on September 5th, 1972. It begins with rumors of gunshots in the athletes’ village and soon escalates into the actual story, resulting in the first time that an act of terrorism was shown on broadcast television.

Much of the film is about how the coverage ended up being handled by ABC Sports rather than the news division. It was a momentous decision to put a story this huge—one that was witnessed by something like 900 million people live—in the hands of people who had moments before been covering volleyball games and Mark Spitz’s collection of swimming medals.

It's the screenplay that was nominated for September 5, and that really is the nomination that it should have received. It’s a solid film, but perhaps not ambitious enough for a Best Picture nomination, and while it’s directed well, it’s also a small film in terms of how the story is told. John Magaro could be considered for a nomination, but the truth is that the role genuinely doesn’t ask a great deal of him. The screenplay, though, is interesting in the sense of what it shows and how the story breaks. There is a real sense that everyone is concerned for the hostages (of course) but also that they want to break the story and get credit for covering the news. As someone who has worked in news, and who is married to someone who edited a newspaper, I can confirm that this is a pretty accurate feeling.

Honestly, I don’t know that September 5 is necessary viewing. It’s good, but there are a number of other films about this same event, and Munich covers the aftermath. I will say that it moves quickly—by the time it feels like things are starting to move, there’s only a half hour or so left in the film. It builds well, and I suppose that more than anything is what earned it the nomination it received.

Still, it’s probably impossible to avoid the politics with this one. In the midst of a genocide, a film that depicts the victims of that genocide as the villains regardless of the history is a tough sell.

Why to watch September 5: An important event from a unique perspective.
Why not to watch: The politics are unavoidable.