11/17
It was a privilege for me to see this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival
Plot
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcast crew is forced to cover the hosting crisis affecting Israeli athletes.
The film is set in the ABC control room in Munich during the 1972 Olympics
It 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.
The film also accurately shows how technology that was considered cutting edge back then but seems amusingly primitive today (examples include giant VTR machines, competing for satellite space, manual insertion of graphics, etc) is still a thriller
The control room is populated by ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), rookie producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), vice president of Olympic coverage Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), and German performer Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), all of whom are excellent in their roles.
Adding to the realism is the use of archive footage from Jim McKay’s reporting on the tragedy
But the key aspect of any thriller is the writing and direction by Tim Fehlbaum, who keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film.
But that quibble doesn’t stop me from highly recommending this excellent film – it’s a must see!
My only minor quibble is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite suited to playing the dashing, debonair newscaster I remember (I probably would have cut his character out and just relied on the tape of Jennings speaking from the Olympic Village).