For anyone who may think the current situation in the Middle East and Israelis being attacked is a new thing, here’s an eye opener. It’s 1972 and the world’s eyes are on Munich for the Olympics. Post war, the world at peace, colour TV broadcasting around the planet. Specifically we’re focused on the America broadcaster ABC and a team lead by Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard). He’s not one to pull a punch and this will be important, as they find themselves at the centre of a different story, with sport overshadowed by terrorism. The war less than 30 years ago, this was Germany’s PR push at a new start, but the Holocaust is not forgotten or diminished in ways that it inexcusably is today. Certainly not to Martin Bader (Ben Chaplin), who like many Jews is torn by what’s happened in German history and this present day move to start anew and forget. Before things kick off, the set up introduces us a musty world or dark rooms, tape reels, cigarette smoke and beige clothing. It’s very tactile and leaps wonderfully from the screen. The archive, of which there’s a lot is almost indistinguishable in the edit. It’s here we meet Geoff Mason (John Magaro), he’s the new guy but eager and fearless, a problem solver. Most of the problems being cable related… until the gunshots. It’s chilling, gripping, cinematically exciting. Calls are made, the scurry for information is difficult in the pre-digital age. German radio broadcasts translated (by Marianne Genhardt (Leonie Benesch), via walkie-talkie over phone lines, confirm a hostage situation with Israeli athletes. The brief is simple, sport’s on hold, all hands on deck, report the news. Only this is not a news crew. The hostage demands are the same as they are now. They’ll release the hostages, 14 of them, if Israel releases hundreds, 200 to be precise. Is this where this unbalance bullshit started? I’m not sure. To add to the drama and the inhumanity the Palestinian group Black September also put a timeframe on it, every hour that passes, an Israeli is shot. There is a heightened drama to it, but in a sense that’s the crux of this. It’s a crew used to sports covering the news and that’s their approach, coverage. The best shots, the best information, the best relay, the best of everything they can do and a few things thought impossible. The portrayal though is brilliant as they wrestle with how best to serve the story, but also the hostages, their families, the viewers. You have to remember, although this was a generation with war fresh in their minds, TV was a new escape from the horrors of such. Televising a hostage situation on live TV was dangerous and although sadly commonplace now, this was a first. It feels wrong to describe it as entertaining when real lives are, were on the line, but it’s highly engaging, chillingly so. There’s no happy ending. Will there ever be.
7/10
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