Of course journalists love movies where we are shown doing their jobs properly – it makes us feel important.
The journalist thriller has some real high points – All The President’s Men and Spotlight spring to mind – and new thriller September 5 places fairly high on the tier.
An Oscar nominee for its screenplay, September 5 tells the true story of how the ABC Sports who were covering the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich suddenly found themselves tasked with reporting on a fast-moving, intense hostage situation involving the Israeli team.
The events of the Munich Olympics have been depicted on the screen before – Steven Spielberg’s best film of the last 25 years was about this very topic and the Oscar-winning documentary One Day In September is still a gold standard for the genre – but September 5 smartly identifies that the journalistic side of the event is ripe for the big screen.
Considering the events being depicted in the film and the current political climate, the film has attracted controversy for its approach to the material.
In the first five minutes of the film, Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum spells it out for the viewer; he has no interest in delving into the inherent political drama at the heart of the film.
The film starts with American swimmer Mark Spitz winning yet another gold medal and the team in the control room wanting to play up the political element of an American Jew winning an Olympic medal “in Hitler’s backyard.”
Producer Peter Sarsgaard, the leader of the ABC coverage in Germany, tells his team they are there to report on the human side of the sport, not the political one.
In recent times, there has been a debate about whether sports and politics should intersect (with people often forgetting that sports like football are inherently political by their nature) but September 5 has no interest in entertaining that debate.
With that, the film lets you know from the off that yes, the political element will always be just beneath the surface, but that is not the main focus of the film; it is about the people.
Last year we criticised the Alex Garland film Civil War for opting to be an apolitical film about a divided United States Of America releasing in the same year as a Donald Trump re-election bid.
Then, we argued the film opting to have nothing to say on such a loaded topic was a sign of weakness; in September 5, it is a sign of quiet confidence.
Fehlbaum lays down the marker early, like how Roy Keane would get a tackle in early doors, and tells the audience this is his film and he’s going to tell it this way.
The film he makes is solely about the people in the control room, tasked with reporting on the dynamic and tense situation involving the Israeli Olympic team in the athlete village.
Sarsgaard and British actor Ben Chaplin look and sound the part as 1970s TV men, not quite Rip Torn on the Larry Sanders Show but rough and tumble guys who will do anything to get the job done.
Sarsgaard leads the ensemble and films like this make you wonder why hasn’t he won an Oscar yet.
Fittingly for a film set in the 1970s, there is a nearly John Cazle quality to Sarsgaard’s performance here and he wouldn’t look out of place in a film like The Conversation.
The standout of the ensemble is John Magaro, who shot to prominence for his role in Past Lives in 2023.
He was the American husband caught in the middle of a generational Korean love story in that movie, in this movie he’s the bright-eyed idealist who finds himself thrown in the deep end.
Anyone who has ever worked in a television, radio or a media job in general will instantly identify the kind of character that Magaro is going for and he pulls it off with aplomb, like how Michael Keaton’s performance in Spotlight is eerily accurate of seasoned journalistic veterans.
Magaro gives a 70s character actor-style performance as the sports guy who suddenly finds himself directing what later became known as the first hostage event to be globally televised.
One stand-out moment has Magaro slowly realise that the hostage takers are watching the same television feed that he is directing and the slowly dawning horror in that scene is played brilliantly.
One of our favourite films from last year was German film The Teacher’s Lounge, and fans of that film will be glad to hear that star Leonie Benesch is just at home in this glossy Hollywood film as she is in a small scale German production.
The 1970s feeling of September 5 is a key part of why the film is so successful and it’s accounted for every step of the way.
The cinematography is suitably smoke filled, we have plenty of character actors with rolled up sleeves making stressful decisions and the score is the right level of ominous.
Films based on historical events always face a road block – the viewer knows how the story ends, so how can the film makers mine drama out of it?
Somehow, and despite September 5 covering an event that has been covered by Spielberg and an Oscar-winning documentary, the film manages to mine tension and drama out of a premise with a foregone conclusion.
September 5 did get the lone screenplay nom at the Oscars but this film would have made it into the Best Picture line-up in any other year; it has that sturdy, reliable quality that the film industry at large has been sorely lacking in the Netflix era.
Conclave took the populist, meat and potatoes slot in the Oscar race this year but fans of Conclave and that style of film will find plenty to love here.
It’s rare for a film to be just 90 minutes these days, but September 5 gets in and out and leaves the viewer wanting more.
The blissfully short running time will make this film a hotel room classic or a streaming hit for years to come.
We used to take films like September 5 for granted and now they are sources of water in the streaming era desert.