Movie Review: September 5
Now more than ever, the Academy Awards have become synonymous with lengthy, robust films. Look no further than Scorsese films Killers of the Flower Moon and The Irishman, as well as Best Picture winner Oppenheimer and James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, all of which clocked in at three hours or longer. In fact, since the 2012 Oscars, only six films in total possessed running times less than 100 minutes. This year, we could be welcoming the lucky number seven to the group with Tim Fehlbaum’s taut 91-minute thriller, September 5.
Set during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the ABC Sports Broadcasting team with renowned anchor, Peter Jennings (played by Benjamin Walker), and Television Producer Roone Arledge (Dopesick’s Peter Sarsgaard) focus on covering the events and star athletes in contention during the world’s first-ever live satellite broadcast of the games. Yet, a more sinister story unfortunately takes center stage in West Germany, as a group of eight Pakastani militants infiltrate Olympic Tower and take 11 Israeli coaches and competitors as hostages on September 5th. This shocking news forces the ABC Sports Broadcasting team and their young producer, Geoffrey Mason (Past Lives’ John Magaro), to oversee the minute-by-minute coverage of this tragedy in the making.
One of the Olympics’ darkest moments is no stranger to the big screen, most notably in Steven Spielberg’s Best Picture nominee, Munich. Yet, unlike Spielberg’s harrowing drama, Fehlbaum frame’s his examination of these infamous events through a journalistic lens. September 5 fits neatly into the Spotlight and All the President’s Men mold, placing the audience into the mindset of those individuals tasked with finding the truth. It makes for a deeply intense and fluid story.
The film unfolds in what almost feels like “real time”, as these journalists chase a story with no knowledge of where it’s going or how it will end. But staying on top of what’s transpiring is no easy task. The news team must be clever and crafty, tapping into the German police’s radio frequency to know where the cameras should go and doing whatever is necessary to follow the story. Fehlbaum and co-writers, Moritz Binder and Alex David, pen a tremendous script that plays out like Ben Affleck’s Argo with all the comedic levity trimmed away. The film’s brisk 91-minute running time leaves few opportunities to emphasize character development. It’s a clear detriment that ultimately becomes forgivable thanks to all of September 5’s other glowing attributes.
The film looks fantastic, with a grainy, analog appearance that plays to its time-period with perfection. September 5 is visually authentic, tightly scripted, and superbly acted. The entire cast works well in tandem with one another and the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. And despite its 1970s setting, Fehlbaum’s effort feels so relevant and timely. It highlights calamitous parallels with today’s social media driven race to break news stories with a disastrous disregard for accuracy, along with a heartbreaking familiarity between the events of the past and the current ongoing conflicts between Israel and Palestine. September 5 delivers the full package and completely justifies all of its Best Picture aspirations as one of the year’s finest offerings.
Grade: 4.5 stars out of 5
