‘September 5’ Review: Newsroom Thriller About the Munich Massacre is Well Made Yet Ill-Timed

Preview

Image copyright (©) Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

R: For language

Runtime: 1 Hr and 31 Minutes

Production Companies: BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion, Projected Picture Works, Constantin Film, Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Director: Tim Fehlbaum

Writers: Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David

Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem, Georgina Rich, Corey Johnson, Marcus Rutherford, Daniel Adeosun, Benjamin Walker, Ferdinand Dörfler
Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes

Release Date: December 13, 2024


Where to Rent/Stream This Movie

On September 5, 1972, the ABC sports broadcasting team – led by Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), and Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) – witnessed an act of terrorism involving Israeli athletes being taken hostage at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. They attempt to break the story as it is in progress, and broadcast it on live TV, in a daring act of media news coverage that'd never been done before. Their strides to capture the story as it unravels in real-time revolutionized the media journalism landscape forever.


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September 5 is a Very Well-Made Affair

In all fairness, September 5 is well-crafted. Tim Fehlbaum throws the viewer into the ABC station among the production crew, the control room bearing dozens of screens, and occasionally news anchor Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker). Markus Förderer's camerawork is as bustling as the station's conditions, further enhancing the tension as the hostage situation unfolds. Förderer’s strong use of handheld shots and brisk camerawork throughout the fateful day makes the viewer feel like a voyeur and a participant. The atmosphere gets heavier as the news crew makes more impromptu decisions to get closer to the event, and it's completely immersive. For example, one scene has one of their employees wrap film canisters around him and have him pose as an athlete to infiltrate the media village on the field. This actually happened. 

September 5 is undoubtedly one of the most tightly-constructed features of the year. Editor Hansjörg Weissbrich crafts a swiftly paced and concise experience, allowing you to feel as though you’re witnessing a significant historical event being documented right alongside the production team. 


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September 5’s Writing Aims For Neutrality But With a Meaner Spirit

There's an irony in September 5's story trying to capture the authenticity of a historical event, yet Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, and Alex David's screenplay is coated with artifice. It tries to emulate better fictional newsroom works like Steven Spielberg's The Post, Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom, and Tom McCarthy's Spotlight, but the dialogue is flat, contrived, and devoid of humanity. The ABC sports news team engages in a contemporary routine where they interact with one another in a manner that resembles contemporary newsrooms like CNN, yet it comes across as robotic. John Magaro and Peter Sarsgaard are very charming actors who try their best to make dry and hollow dialogue work but fail to do so because Roone Arledge and Geoffrey Mason are illustrated to be as generic as news producer characters come. Despite the impressive filmmaking, the hyperbolic depiction of the ABC sports production crew makes the overall film come across as hypocritical.

There's a forced xenophobic aura and hostility long before you hear the first gunshot from the Black September terrorists. The writers establish the tension in the air surrounding Munich's hosting of the Olympics, given that it’s some time after Germany's defeat in WWII and the country is transitioning to a new identity. Furthermore, individuals within the newsroom, particularly those of Jewish descent, exhibit meanness and indifference towards innocent German individuals who are merely performing their duties. Early in the film, Bader and his German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) have a bizarre interaction where he asks if her parents knew about the holocaust, and she goes, "I'm not them." Though he immediately apologizes, the film continues to adopt a tasteless, xenophobic rhetoric – weird considering they're at the Olympics, which is meant to be a celebration of all cultures. There’s a scene where Arledge tells Mason, "This isn't about politics, it's about emotion," furthering my "hypocritical" statement. 

September 5's screenplay is so wrapped up in trying to be apolitical with this pivotal moment in media journalism history that it forgot to instill humanity or a moral compass in its characters. Everyone is so concerned about capturing the incident that bigger topics like media ethics or moral empathy for both of the marginalized groups in conflict are ignored. It's just too direct with little room for conversation about the pioneering instance of showing shocking acts of violence on live TV, which kind of lent itself to how we as Americans became desensitized.


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LOL Fuck Off, Paramount

After thousands of Jewish and more thousands of Palestinian people were killed following last year's October 7 attack, much of Tinseltown has been showing their bare asses in response. That Zionist symbol rained down the Hollywood symbol as many actors of Jewish descent sided with the Israeli government, determined to destroy Palestine. And, who could forget the anti-Jonathan Glazer solidarity list, where many industry folks signed their names denouncing his Oscar speech that mentioned the ongoing attack in Gaza?

I mention all of this because these seem like factors that contributed to the release of September 5. It feels like it was jumping on the gun to draw relevance between the events back then and now. Granted, principal photography began months before the October 7 attack, I refuse to believe there were any good intentions in its distribution, especially considering whose house it's under. 

For the past few months, Paramount Pictures have been trying to shove Zionist propaganda features, such as the doc We Will Dance Again, down our throats. They bought worldwide rights to the film after it premiered in Venice, then failed to find a U.S. buyer. So, they decided, "Fine. I'll do it myself," on some Thanos shit, releasing it under their own banner. It's sheer pro-Israeli filth meant to portray Palestinians as villainous terrorists while drawing an ugly comparison between the titular September 5 and October 7. In another universe, this groundbreaking landmark in television journalism history would’ve been well-regarded in my eyes… well, not really because the film still feels vapid anyway. And all I have to say is, fuck off, man. 

I don't see any way for me to recommend September 5 because of how blatantly deliberate it is in promoting anti-Palestinian views amid an ongoing Palestinian genocide where the death toll hit over 41,000 men, women, and children. Meanwhile, nobody within the Hollywood system seems to care, and the few who did get their careers rocked for it, like Melissa Barrera losing out on Scream (fuck Spyglass) and Susan Sarandon getting dropped by UTA. Forgettable movies like this have their agenda that allows Zionists in the industry to promote it for the Oscars. It's working considering its nominations for Golden Globes under Best Picture and Critics’ Choice (which I'm in) for Best Original Screenplay. And truly, fuck that noise.

FINAL STATEMENT 

I don't hate September 5, but I hate everything it represents. As objective as I’ve been within this review, it won’t get a recommendation from me. Unlike the journalists within the film, I have a clear moral compass and am vocal about what side of history I want to stand on. Denouncing films like September 5 is another small step towards ensuring that.


Rating: 2.5/5



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