Joni Mitchell famously wrote, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” I suspect that sentiment will become even more commonplace over the next few years. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the only constant in the universe is change, and to wish for the present to be frozen in amber is, at best, wishful thinking.

One of those things that’s disappearing – or perhaps changing – is trust in the media. I learned from Gallup* that in 1972, sixty-eight percent of Americans had between a great deal to a fair amount of trust in mass media. As of 2024, that number has plummeted to thirty-one percent. I get it. When billionaires can spike stories, when literally any dingus can call themselves a journalist and post obvious falsehoods online, and when the feelings of viewers are taken into account** alongside newsworthiness, then, yes, I don’t exactly have a plethora of trust in the media.

Was there a moment when trust in the media began to tip and fall? I think one of the first bricks on that particular road to Hell took place during 1972 in Munich, a brick genuinely paved with good intentions. Those events have been adapted, again, with September 5, a film that’s intelligent, tense, and occasionally frustrating.

The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich were supposed to be routine, at least as far as the Olympics go. Television viewers were meant to cheer on the athletes, and their viewing experience was brought to them by ABC, one of the big three networks. Executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) is determined to move things along smoothly, and his producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) leads ABC’s sports broadcast team within a cramped control room.

The team is on site, moments away from the Olympic village. Things seem tranquil, which is why the initial reports are so hard to believe. Rumors trickle in of masked gunmen attacking Israeli athletes, of two members of the athletic team murdered and nine others taken hostage. It’s all happening, moments away.

Phone calls come in. Roone is told that ABC’s news division will take over. He pushes back hard, and argues that while the news division is back in the United States and would need to report remotely, his sports division is on site. They can bring every moment to viewers live, and they recognize they’re stepping into a historical moment, one that they’re ill prepared for.

Tensions are high. They’ll only get higher. Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) is a German crewmember, the only one on the team who speaks the language. She’s pressed into service as a translator, while also dealing with sexism and yet another act of violence against Jews perpetrated on German soil. Operations manager Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) understands, in his way. He lost family in the Holocaust and wonders if it’s happening again, or if it never ended. All the while, Mason tries to deal with demands from the big bosses, demands from Roone, and make split second decisions that won’t just affect coverage of the event, but could alter the event itself.

To be honest with you, I struggled quite a bit with September 5. That doesn’t mean that director Tim Fehlbaum made a bad film. The production design is solid, the pacing is swift, and Fehlbaum ruthlessly cranks up the tension. He makes the decision to keep nearly every scene inside the broadcast building, and a combination of masterful sound design and jittery cinematography and editing creates a sense of chaos. Also, if you’re a fan of competency porn, as I am, you’ll love this film. We see intelligent professionals doing their jobs well, for the most part. When mistakes are made, we understand that it’s not due to incompetence, but rather people stuck in a no-win scenario. So having said all of that, what’s my problem?

Part of it is the jittery shakycam of it all. I understand that Fehlbaum made a stylistic choice meant to create verisimilitude, a feeling that we’re wedged into that cramped room watching history be made. I get that, but that decision is one that always takes me out of the movie. It’s a tough maneuver to pull off. I think that even Paul Greengrass, one of the masters of shakycam, only ever successfully made it work in United 93.***

Part of my issue is the script, by Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, and Alex David. By no means is the script bad. In fact, the writers do an outstanding job of characterization. Not only do we clearly understand the personalities and points of view, we see them bump into one another to create compelling conflict. It also does nice work with showing what happens when rigorous journalistic ethics slam into messy reality. Having said that, I think the script’s focus is too narrow. So much so that it seems to avoid digging into the historical and political details around the Munich massacre. As newsman Peter Jennings, Benjamin Walker provides a little context, but if you’re not familiar with what happened, you’re out of luck. I suspect that decision was made to keep the budget down, and to avoid creating controversy due to the ongoing hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians.

This kind of film is one that doesn’t spend much time on backstory. We learn who the characters are by watching their behavior, and the cast uniformly turns in disciplined and effective performances. If there’s a lead, it’s John Magaro as Mason. He excels at playing an intelligent professional who, immediately, is in over his head. He’s well-supported by Peter Sarsgaard as Roone. Sarsgaard is one of those chameleonic actors who can believably shift from playing an Old West outlaw to a South Boston scumbag to a federal investigator. Here, he’s not simply playing a soulless TV executive. His Roone has the experience to balance ABC’s interests with the ethics of journalism. If there’s an MVP in the cast, I think it might be the quiet and subtle performance by Leonie Benesch as Marianne. She plays a German woman acutely aware of recent German history, and how those events reflect upon her. Marianne’s highly competent, yet she carries the weight of both her country’s reputation and the sexism she has to deal with. She never gives inspirational speeches or kicks loutish men in the nuts. She just takes a deep breath and does her job, a feeling I imagine the vast majority of women can relate to.

If you Google “Munich massacre” and look at the images, the first one you’ll see is of a man in a ski mask looking over a balcony. That man isn’t just a symbol of terrorism, he’s a symbol of the birth of infotainment. September 5 certainly has its issues, yet the way it portrays a historical event and the people doing the best they can with it is effective.

*Which you can read about here.

**Years ago, I remember talking politics with a neighbor. She muttered darkly, “I wish there was Republican news.” Congratulations, your wish came true!

***Not so much with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. The joke my wife and I have is that Greengrass forced Matt Damon to undergo rigorous fight training, then refused to let anybody see it. 

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.