September 5—Review

In 2005, legendary film director Steven Speilberg crafted a sweeping historical epic about the ramifications and repercussions of the Black September capture in the 1972 Munich Olympics with his grand, three-hour feature Munich.

Nominated for five Oscars, Munich was a huge box office and critical success, almost doubling its budget and skyrocketing the careers of Daniel Craig and solidifying the already bustling career of Eric Bana. At the time, Munich was a powerhouse film for everyone involved. Written by the seasoned pens of Tony Kushner, Eric Roth and George Jonas, Munich was, albeit, more than anything, a very polished studio attempt at showcasing the cruelties of a very real yet impactful historical event that changed the course of many things that are experienced today, for example, news broadcasting, journalism and of course, media coverage.

With September 5, the team involved in what becomes a very independent and low-budget account of the events of that fateful Olympic year, this film becomes a very grounded and visceral filmmaking event that takes audiences on an audacious ride along with the sports film crew that inherited one of the world’s most unexpected sports stories, of all time Opting for a more retrofitted look that would be more authentic to the time of 1972, September 5 adopts a quite grainy look with tiny high-resolution shots of what a “sensitive situation” during that time would look like and less about what we are used to today with 4K ultra resolution type shots.

Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, a foreign director who makes his Hollywood breakthrough with this film, readies his camera and shoots this film with such delicacy and validity, that the authenticity of the journalist lens and ethics of storytelling and news anchoring becomes the forefront and main character within the film. While this is all true, Fehlbaum’s lens never takes away from its characters but instead elevates them, elevating the storytelling overall as well as the masterclass acting throughout the film.

As Peter Sarsgaard's character Roone Arledge so articulately states early on in the film, “It’s not about politics, it’s about emotions”, and September 5 proves itself early on that writer Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, and Alex David did their due research to make sure that the effects of such a world-changing event have bled into the current state of how we digest, consume and take in live news, live television and how the desensitization of violence and extreme situations are today taken into consideration and account by audience members and eyes today, around the world.

Led by an all-star cast of phenomenal actors, from Sarsgaard to one of my favorite upcoming young actors John Magaro (Past Lives) as well as the highly underrated and highly overlooked Leonie Benesch, whose lead role in last year’s The Teachers’ Lounge was one of the acting highlights of 2023. Sprinkled with supporting roles from Zinedine Soulem, Corey Johnson and Ben Chaplin, September 5 is a film that almost rivals my top ensemble film of 2024, Saturday Night, although the story of the film is much more prevalent and important than the rise and fame of Lorne Michaels.

For roughly ninety minutes, audience members are taken hostage by a riveting and compelling story about storytellers and news broadcasters whose main objective is telling a story, being there, and shooting real live television. The questions that arise within the forty-eight hours of this event keep audience members at the edge of their seats, and take over all their emotions and expectations, even if the final result and eventual fate of these hostages are known, September 5 becomes a truly worthy journalistic entry into the very special and specific cannon of wonderfully crafted films about the importance of journalism, truth-telling and significance of how an audience can be somewhere, they have never been before in their lives. Remember the date and make sure to make this film a must-watch once it starts playing at your local theatre.