40/31
During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, an American sports broadcasting team must adapt to live broadcasts as Israeli athletes are held hostage by a terrorist group. Juliette Ménager worked in the casting department on both this film and Munich (2005). This was Regal’s Monday Mystery Movie on December 9th. I wasn’t expecting it, as I hadn’t heard much about it, but as soon as the movie started, I was intrigued because I knew the story it was based on. It covers the events of September 5th, 1972, the hostage situation waged by Palestinian terrorists against the Israeli team during the Munich Olympics, Germany. This film doesn’t delve into the politics of the situation, but instead focuses on the ABC sports news team who had to rush to cover the events as they unfolded. This was well told and extremely well edited, with a combination of real footage from the event mixed in with the actors’ performances. I was very impressed with how this was all done and also enjoyed seeing the story unfold through the eyes of the news crew. It was interesting to see how they had to think quickly to be able to cover as much of what was happening as possible. It was also interesting to see “behind the scenes” of news coverage – back when the mainstream news media actually acted ethically. Or tried to. This is not an action packed film, but I was engaged the entire time and never got bored. It is also a fairly short short film, running around 90 minutes (although it felt longer to me, because of everything that was happening). Recommended. Video review coming soon.
