19/31
It was a privilege to see this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival
Scenario
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting team is forced to cover a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.
The film takes place in the ABC control room in Munich at the 1972 Olympics
It realistically portrays the routine aspects of running the control room during the event and, of course, the tragic event of Black September on the Israeli athletes.
The film also accurately shows how technology that was considered cutting edge at the time seems amusingly primitive today (examples include giant VTR machines, competition for satellite space, manual input of graphics, etc)
Populating the control room are ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), senior producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), vice president of Olympic coverage Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and German interpreter Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), all excellent in their roles.
Adding to the realism is the use of archival footage from Jim McKay’s reporting on the tragedy
But the key aspect of any thriller is Tim Fehlbaum’s writing and direction, which will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the film.
But this complaint certainly does not prevent me from highly recommending this excellent film – you must see it!
My only minor gripe is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right to play the handsome, dapper anchorman I remember (I’d probably cut his character and just rely on the tape of Jennings talking about Olympic Games village).
