45/50
I was honored to see this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival
Plot
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, an American sports broadcasting team is faced with covering the hostage situation of Israeli athletes.
Set in the ABC control room in Munich for the 1972 Olympic Games, the film realistically portrays both the routine aspects of running a control room during an event and, of course, the tragic event of the “Black September” attacks on Israeli athletes
In the control room sit ABC Sports President Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), young producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), vice president of Olympic coverage, and German interpreter Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), all of whom are excellent in their roles.
The key aspect of any thriller, however, is the script and direction by Tim Fehlbaum, who keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film
The film also accurately depicts how technology that was considered modern at the time looks amusingly primitive today (examples include giant VCRs, competition for satellite space, manually inserting graphics, etc.).
Also adding to the realism is the use of archive footage from Jim McKay’s coverage of the tragedy
My only minor criticism is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right to play the handsome and dapper anchorman I remember (I probably would have cut his role out and just relied on the tape of Jennings speaking from the Olympic Village).