September 5 (15) |Close-Up Film Review

The film opens quietly, in the dead of night, inside the ABC sports studio in Munich, just over a hill from the Olympic Village.

Young producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) is settling in for a routine shift, preparing for the next day’s sporting events alongside a skeleton crew. The atmosphere is calm, almost mundane—until a series of distant cracks across the night sky suggest something more sinister than celebratory fireworks.

Across the city, the Israeli Olympic team sleeps unaware that eight armed members of the Palestinian militant group Black September are scaling the walls of their quarters. What follows is swift and brutal: two athletes are murdered in the initial attack, and 11 others are taken hostage. As the crisis escalates, Mason and his team at ABC—led by the ambitious sports chief Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard)—find themselves at the centre of an unprecedented live news event.

Never moving from that control room, while the story fractures its perspective between the terrified hostages, the militants and their growing desperation and the German authorities scrambling for control, it is all experienced through the media’s race to document history as it unfolds. Arledge, with his keen sense for the moment’s gravity, insists that ABC retain ownership of the story rather than cede it to the news division. With satellite slots to negotiate and an Olympic Games still underway, he plays a high-stakes chess game behind the scenes, prioritizing coverage over caution. Mason, thrust into the role of orchestrating the broadcast, gains confidence as the night progresses—only for his inexperience to lead to a critical misjudgement.

Meanwhile, German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) becomes an emotional anchor, embodying a generation of Germans eager to move past their nation’s dark history yet suddenly confronted with a crisis they cannot contain.

As the hours drag on, failed negotiations give way to a catastrophic rescue attempt at Fürstenfeldbruck airfield, where German police, untrained and ill-equipped for counterterrorism, make fatal errors. Gunfire erupts. Explosions light up the night sky.

Scribbling down thoughts as I tried to process the sheer weight of what I had just witnessed, what struck me most was the film’s commitment to immersing us in the immediacy of the event through the lens of the media that broadcast it to the world.

The details of the ABC newsroom sequences are among the film’s most fascinating elements. The recreation of ‘70s-era broadcast technology—from handmade captions to slow-motion replays—adds both a nostalgic texture and a chilling realism. The decision to incorporate actual footage of legendary sportscaster Jim McKay, rather than casting an actor in the role, further grounds the film in authenticity.

John Magaro is quietly compelling as Mason, portraying the young producer’s mix of ambition and uncertainty with naturalistic ease. Sarsgaard is electric as Arledge, exuding both visionary leadership and ruthless pragmatism, though the film leaves us wanting more of his character. Ben Chaplin, as ABC head of operations Marvin Bader, provides a moral counterweight to Arledge, though his presence, too, feels fleeting. The film belongs to its ensemble, and while some characters—like Benesch’s Marianne—are fictional composites, they serve as effective conduits for the film’s broader themes.

By the time the film reaches its devastating climax, September 5 has thoroughly dismantled the illusion of Olympic unity. Unlike Spielberg’s Munich (2005), which explores Israel’s response to the attack, this film stays locked in the present, forcing us to sit with the raw horror of an event that played out before a global audience. It does not shy away from depicting the terrorists’ moments of vulnerability, but it never excuses their actions. The hostages are given dignity in their final moments, and the German authorities, though well-intentioned, are exposed as devastatingly unprepared.

September 5 is not an easy film to watch, nor should it be. It is a film about failure—of institutions, of negotiations, of humanity itself. It is a film about lives reduced to headlines and history written in blood. But above all, it is a film that demands to be remembered.

Digital Release Date: April 8th 
Digital Rental Date: April 22nd 
Physical Release Date: April 14, 2025 (Blu-ray and DVD)  

Fans who purchase SEPTEMBER 5 on Digital* will have access to nearly an hour of fascinating bonus content that delves into the significance of the historic broadcast from the 1972 Olympics and the extraordinary work that went into meticulously recreating that intense moment in time.

Bonus content is detailed below:

• Remaking Broadcast History — Join actors Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and more as they share the challenges of portraying the real people tasked with reporting on the world’s first televised hostage crisis.
• A Meticulous Undertaking — See how an empty space was transformed into a stunning replica of the iconic 1972 broadcast studio where the ABC Sports team witnessed the unfolding tragedy.

• On The Global Stage — The 1972 Munich Olympics marked a turning point in history, where the line between journalism and complicity blurred.  Delve into the ethical and journalistic dilemmas faced by the team as they weighed reporting the news and potentially fueling further violence.
• Screen Actors Guild Q&A – Discussion with writer, producer, and director Tim Fehlbaum, actors Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch, and casting director Nancy Foy.
• Producers Guild of America Q&A — A conversation with writer, producer, and director Tim Fehlbaum, p.g.a., producer Sean Penn, Philipp Trauer, p.g.a., Thomas Wöbke, p.g.a., and John Ira Palmer, p.g.a.