'September 5' depicts shocking day when terrorism arrived at the Olympics

On Sept. 5, 1972, Munich's Summer Olympics morphed in a gut-wrenching instant from the world's biggest sports story to a tragic news day when Palestinian terrorists took hostage and later killed 11 Israeli athletes.

The ABC Sports reporters on the scene who told the story live were not remotely prepared for that pivot. And yet the way they rose to the occasion is the heart of "September 5" (in select theaters now in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto, nationwide Jan. 17).

"We wanted to capture the frenetic pace of it all, how there was almost no room to breathe as this all unfolded," says Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum. "Speaking with the people who were there covering this horrible event in front of their eyes, it's clear there was a movie to be made here."

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What is the 'September 5' movie about?

The taut film explores how the U.S. team from ABC Sports, led by its now-legendary anchor Jim McKay, arrives at the games flying high. The network has secured a satellite that will allow the games to be broadcast live around the world.

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But when echoes of gunfire in the athletes' dormitories turns into confirmation of two dead athletes and demands from a group called Black September, the Olympics script goes out the window. The drama revolves around how producer Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) rallies his troops to report a breaking event as it happened with comparatively primitive technology and an information vacuum.

Arledge, whose quick thinking in 1972 catapulted him to success in ABC's news division, snaps into action. He orders massive cameras tethered by long cables into the streets to better capture the hostage area; he gives the green light for staffers to pose as Olympians to get camera footage in and out of the athletes' village; and he pushes back on orders to relinquish the story to ABC News staffers sitting 4,000 miles away from the action in Manhattan.

Although one news reporter was already on the scene to help with Olympics coverage − Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker), who later rose to fame as the network's main anchor − it was otherwise an improvised journalism ballet before a time when anyone with a smartphone in their pocket could capture and disseminate news.

'September 5' raises compelling questions about media ethics

For Sarsgaard, the questions posed by "September 5" echo across today's media landscape.

"This went from being the first time a sporting event of this kind was broadcast live, to being the first time a live camera was put on a hostage crisis," he says. "So today you have to ask, this tool that we have to see events of all kinds unfolding live, does that help us in terms of what journalism is supposed to do for society?"

In "September 5" as in real life, two ABC Sports producers − Geoffrey Mason (played by John Magaro) and Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) − stop to ask profound questions in the midst of the chaos. As the minutes tick by and the tension grows, the men debate such issues as whether to show the terrorists on camera.

"It really was those conversations with Geoffrey who made me see how we could make this movie," says Fehlbaum. "We had to share a lot of the dilemmas that were coming up for these people very quickly."

Chaplin playing Bader is "the moral center of this movie, because he's asking things that needed to be asked," says Sarsgaard.

That would include simply how much of the hostage crisis to show a global audience live. Was it OK to show the hostages themselves, if they were spotted at gunpoint in the open? Was it fine to put a visual spotlight on the terrorists themselves? And what best to call the hostage takers, was terrorists appropriate?

The themes of 'September 5' have direct echoes in the 2023 tragedy in Israel

"September 5" will strike painful notes for those still reeling from the Hamas-led massacres of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023. Fehlbaum says it is not the film's intention to re-open those wounds, and he points out that his film was already in post-production when those attacks happened.

"You can't separate the news today from what happened back in 1972, so of course there are some similarities," he says. "And the world we are living in today will undoubtedly have an influence on what people think when they see this movie. But really, our film is about a moment in media history, a turning point in the way news event were covered. My hope is that more broadly it will cause us to reflect on our current media environment."

The movie magic of "September 5" is that it takes you inside a room where a group of amped-up TV professionals are covering a live event. And whether that's a sporting contest or the Oscars or a human tragedy, the charged atmosphere in that room is essentially a constant, says Fehlbaum.

"I spent a lot of time researching control rooms and what happens in there," he says. "Whether you're covering a Knicks basketball game or a political rally, you have this very special feeling once the clock ticks down and suddenly, you're live. It's an energy that is absolutely unique."

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