Why September 5’s thrilling take on the Munich Olympics terror attacks is as relevant as ever
The edge-of-your-seat factual drama September 5 takes viewers behind the scenes in one of the Olympic Games’ darkest hours with a message that still resonates today, writes Leigh Paatsch.
Leigh Paatsch
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A couple of quality historical dramas – one from the 1972 Olympics and the other from 1800s France – are coming to the big screen this week.
SEPTEMBER 5 (M)
Director: Tim Fehlbaum (The Colony)
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch.
Terror before the cameras, tension behind the screens
The fascinating factual drama September 5 revisits what should have been just another day of athletic excellence at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
As the history books sadly now tell us, this turned out to be anything but just another day.
Just before sunrise, the Palestinian militant group Black September stormed a wing of the Olympic Village and immediately took 11 members of the Israeli team hostage.
Within minutes, two of the captives were dead. Later that evening, the rest were gone forevermore.
Though this is a story that has reached the screen on a number of occasions, the impact of the tragedy that unfolded on that awful day still silences and intimidates us all over five decades later.
Intriguingly, September 5 approaches the situation from a completely different angle than others have taken before.
Remarkably, this was the first terrorist incident that was broadcast live on television to a bewildered global audience.
Just as remarkably, the TV crew that recognised and then relayed the malicious magnitude of the incident to a worried, waiting world had next to no news reporting experience whatsoever.
The American TV network ABC held the rights to cover the 1972 Olympics, and had sent their best sports broadcasters and crew to cover the event from every perspective.
Partly by chance and partly by intuition, the ABC team led by Sports Chief Roone Arledge (played by Peter Sarsgaard) found themselves documenting a then-unimaginable horror in real time.
It was though a whole, radical new frontier in television was rapidly opening up before Arledge and his loyal, overworked lieutenants, director Geoff Mason (a superb John Magaro), producer Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and the team’s only German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch).
And yet, absurdly, for all the unprecedented humanity being captured by the crew’s cameras, the ABC team still had to throw to regular commercial breaks.
Later, just as strangely, it was discovered that the terrorists themselves were watching the ABC broadcast to stay on top of developments (and also plan an unlikely escape from the Olympic Village).
Even if you are familiar with the chronology of what transpired on September 5, 1972, this movie skilfully, sensitively and thoroughly conveys both a modern relevance and a timeless warning that is worthy of our full attention.
September 5 is in cinemas now
WIDOW CLICQUOT (PG)
General release
Should you translate the title of this English-language movie into French, you get ‘Veuve Clicquot’. Which makes perfect sense when you learn this modestly gorgeous period piece is actually a biopic of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, an extraordinary woman who in the early 1800s invented champagne as we now know and drink it.
It was only upon the tragic death of her vineyard-owning husband that Barbe-Nicole (beautifully played by Haley Bennett) took a closer interest in the family business. Despite persistent pressure to sell the Clicquot property, Barbe-Nicole held true to her dream of how champagne (back then looked down upon as a drab sweet wine) should really be bottled and tasted. Over time, the realisation of that dream revolutionised the wine business on a global scale.
Without over-pushing the point, the movie never lets us forget what a major miracle Madame Clicquot achieved in her prime. Clocking in just shy of 90 minutes, this attractively mounted production does not waste a moment in proving its subject to be a woman of great and lasting taste. Co-stars Tom Sturridge, Ben Miles.
PRESENCE (M)
General release
Veteran director Steven Soderbergh has always balanced broadly appealing works (such as the Magic Mike and Ocean’s Eleven franchises) with passion projects spanning a wide variety of genres (Erin Brockovich, Logan Lucky, Contagion). While putting the finishing touches on a much-anticipated big-budget movie titled Black Bag – a Cate Blanchett thriller due next month – Soderbergh has somehow found the time to push a smaller, leaner and meaner boat out into the box-office waters.
Filmed across 11 days for an absolute pittance by Hollywood standards, Presence has one cool idea on its mind, and enough talent assembled to make it work. Without getting too granular in detail about its core concept, Presence is a ghost story shot entirely from the perspective of a ghost. Just as we aptly remain in the shadows when it comes to understanding the motives of this unnamed spectral being, we are also continually unsure about what to make of the family who has just moved into the being’s household.
The family’s sketchy mum and dad (Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan) are not exactly what anyone would label role models for their equally shifty kids (Eddie Maday and Callina Liang). While hardly a full-on scare-fest in the tradition of The Conjuring or even Paranormal Activity, Presence still finds a way to haunt and disturb in its own peculiar ways.
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