Munich Olympics Massacre Drama ‘September 5’ Stuns Venice Film Festival
VENICE, Italy—“They’re all gone.” Those words, delivered by Jim McKay, host of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, are some of the most haunting ever spoken on American television. McKay uttered them when announcing the death of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, who had been murdered by the Black September terrorist group at the Summer Olympics in Munich in 1972.
That fateful day—September 5, 1972—has been the subject of cinematic inquiry before, most notably in Steven Spielberg’s Munich. Tim Fehlbaum's September 5, which just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, puts a new perspective on the events, shifting focus to the American broadcasting team that followed the hostage crisis, resulting in one of the most-viewed moments in American television history.
There’s bound to be controversy over September 5 coming out now given the Israel-Palestine crisis, but anger towards this film is entirely misguided. The film does not refer nor does it draw any parallels to any current events. What it does present is a powerfully told, tightly wound, and riveting story of an American sports broadcasting team on a single day reporting on a major event in world history. It’s entirely apolitical in scope.