It feels like many lifetimes ago now, but my beginning in journalism came in covering sports. In many regards, it was the best way to enter into this struggling industry as I gained a great respect for those who are often seen as somehow lesser than journalists covering "hard news" despite doing what is equally thankless work with the same sense of care and commitment. All of this is to say that my background should make me the exact person who would love a film like September 5, where a group of scrappy sports journalists are swept up in a news story that will put them all to the test.
But I came away perplexed by the prevailing emptiness of this film, which fails to do justice to its subject. Rather than mirror the work of good journalism and get into the complexities of its true story, it's little more than a slick act of recreation that leaves a far better work on the cutting room floor. Few films bury the lede as deeply as September 5 does.
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, a filmmaker who previously mostly made sci-fi films like Hell and The Colony, it drops us into a dimly lit TV control room in 1972 as a small group of ABC Sports journalists covering the Summer Olympics in Munich suddenly find that they are smack in the middle of a massive story. The Palestinian militant group Black September has taken a group of Israeli athletes hostage right in the Olympic village. They are threatening to kill them all unless Israel releases 200 Palestinian prisoners. This leaves the inexperienced TV producer Geoffrey Mason, played by the always great John Magaro of outstanding films like Past Lives and First Cow, in over his head. Yet it doesn't deter the no-nonsense ABC Sports President Roone Arledge, played by a solid Peter Sarsgaard of the far better journalism film Shattered Glass, who doggedly insists that they hold onto the story and not let the ABC News team take over remotely.
The film then traces the sports team, an ensemble cast who are mostly underserved by the script, doing exactly that. They attempt to do all they can to get cameras in the right place to see the action, get information about the rapidly evolving situation, and put a more human face on the crisis unfolding before them. It's all a rather aspirational portrait of the work of journalism, capturing how hard choices can be under stress, while also briefly raising questions about ethics. The live coverage was viewed by millions, but was this more for the grim entertainment they created?
Alas, the movie rarely sinks its teeth into this story beyond largely superficial and neatly resolved conversations. When a discussion arises about whether they should use the word "terrorist" to describe the militant group in coverage, concerns are raised and then glossed over so we can get to what is essentially a clock-ticking thriller. This creates an unshakeable distance from what the film does well in terms of ratcheting up the tension as it borders on a fantasy where most of the choices being made feel easy and the real-world complexities all get smoothed over. It's about a single moment in time, yes, but the camera zooms in so far that it loses sight of the full picture.
Great journalism and cinema is about grappling with the painful parts of the world. September 5 doesn't ultimately shy away from pain — as anyone aware of the real story knows there is no triumph awaiting in the conclusion — but it remains averse to grappling with the factors that led to this tragedy. The history surrounding the attack and the way this violence can be traced to our present moment with the horrors unfolding every day in Gaza are all connected as these cycles of death only continue if not confronted head-on. The job of journalism and filmmaking when exploring these situations is not to narrow our understanding, but to expand it. In the end, the failure of September 5 is the same failure of far too much modern 24-hour live news: prioritizing empty entertainment at the heavy cost of not excavating necessary, complicated truths.
September 5
Rated R
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum
Starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch
