37/27
Narrative
During the 1972 Munich Olympics
an American sports team finds itself forced to cover a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. It was a privilege to see this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival.
The film is set in the ABC control room in Munich for the 1972 Olympics
It realistically describes 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 control room is populated by ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), up-and-coming producer Jeffrey Mason (John Magaro), VP of Olympic coverage Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and German translator Marian Gebhardt (Leoni Benes), who are excellent in their roles.
Adding to the realism is the use of archive footage from Jim McKay’s reporting on the tragedy
The film also accurately shows how technology that was considered cutting-edge at the time but seems amusingly primitive today (examples include giant VTR machines competing for satellite space, manual insertion of graphics, etc.). But the key aspect of any thriller is Tim Felbaum’s writing and direction, which keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the film.
But this quibble certainly doesn’t stop me from highly recommending this excellent film – a must see!
My only minor gripe is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right to play the handsome and elegant host I remember (I probably would have cut his character and just relied on the recording of Jennings speaking from the Olympic village).