Rating: 
Summary: The Games We Play
Review: Extremely engaging documentary about the world's first real global glimpse of terrorism,in it's ugliest,fanatical form. Wonderfully compiled by Kevin Macdonald,attempting to make the first "documentary/movie". In my opinion,he doesn't exactly achieve his ambition,but makes a damn good documentary instead. A graphic representation of the events that took place at the 1972 Munich Olympics. All partys are on hand to tell their version,including the athletes' families,the Israeli secret service,the Germans,& incredibly,a surviving terrorist. This is the film's selling card. I liked it so much,I played it again straight after. Definately recommended for those who are aware or even unaware of the truths about this appalling day in human history.
Rating:
Summary: Slightly Unbalanced
Review: Having read the previously submitted reviews, I think that ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER's one significant flaw is its cursory portrayal of Palestinian grievances. The highly-trained Black September commandos had definite motivations behind the decisions they made. Jamal Al-Gashey is given a very brief moment at the beginning to describe the experiences of his youth in a refugee camp, after his family had been forcibly expelled from land the Israelis wanted to annex. When analyzing the acts of the Palestinians, it is important to remember what led them to conduct terrioristic acts. In 1967, the combined forces of the Syrians, Jordanians, Egyptians, & Palestinians were defeated in battle by the Israelis (the Six Day War) and the West Bank and Gaza Strip occupied. After this war, unarmed Palstinian protestors were routinely shot down by Israeli security forces. Not having the advanced weaponry of Israel and seeing peaceful protest mowed down in a hail of gunfire, the Palestinians turned to terrorism as their only viable option. They struck at the 1972 Munich Olympics because of the high publicity. Their Israeli victims were not merely athletes, but also reserve soldiers, per Israel's requirement that every Israeli serve in the military (Orthodox Israelis excepted). What happened at Munich was horrible, and it shouldn't have occurred. It is vital, however, to understand the motivations of both sides and know why they made the decisions they did.
Rating:
Summary: will we ever learn?
Review: i found this film so upsetting. i was a teenager when these murders took place. i remember watching the tv all day. i remember the outcome; all dead. what i don't remember learning was how incompetent the germans were during this rescue. if these had been german citizens, would it have played out differently? i hated this documentary BECAUSE it upset me and felt compelled to finish watching it BECAUSE it upset me. seeing the dead athletes seemed unnecessary until you think about the fact that the horror is more real, the need to respond
more urgent when you see the results of fanaticism and rabidity. this murderous day in our world history should be seen as a battle cry to defeat, once and for all, those who refuse to live and let live in tolerance, if not peace.
Rating:
Summary: Very good film
Review: I found this film so, so interesting that I have watched it many many times. I belive it to be one of the best done doc. films in years.
I did find that the film left a lot of questions out there. Why was the German goverment so bad at handling these events? Was it that they did not want to look war like in dealing with the terroists? Was it handled badly because the were Jews in Germany and there is still a lot of antisenitesum (anti Jewish) fealing in Germany? Was it becase this was the first event like this? Or was it just a lot of bad calls on there part?
The question that realy stays with me is WHY DID THE GAMES NOT STOP?
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie and book too!!!!! See this movie now!
Review: I love this movie so much. I am an israeli and i have studied the munich attack for many years and this movie is great. If you are a jew, non-jew, whatever! you should see this movie, its an amazing movie!!!! It really captures the whole attack before and after.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone should see this film...
Review: I remember my aunt buying me a book that chronicled the Olympic history. The last date in it when I received it was 1976. I'll never forget the image, shown on the cover of this DVD, when I came upon the 1972 Olympics in the book. I was too young to remember it but this image has haunted me all my life.I had heard about this video and ran across it in my local video shop. It was captivating. It was horrible but I couldn't turn away. It begins with the human element, interviewing the wife of one of the Israeli athletes who was killed. Also interviewed are German officials and other key players in the whole affair. Perhaps most interesting is the interview with a surviving terrorist. His points of view adds depth to the film and his final words will leave you thinking. I don't know much about the history of terrorism and the hijackings so prominent in their arsenal as a way of drawing international attention, but it seems to me this was perhaps the first in a very long chain of events drawing attention to the cause of the Palestinian people. Watch as it unfolds. It is dramatic and not overly sensational and will leave you astounded. I was not aware that there was such footage available. It is as if it is happening live before your eyes. I was enraged, embittered and deeply saddened by watching it but I believe watching something such as this is vital to see this to deepen our understanding of history lest we forget.
Rating:
Summary: Lessons in History
Review: I remember seeing some of this footage live when I was 12 yrs old watching the Olympics. The games of Mark Spitz and Olga Korbut and terror on Live TV. But this movie shows much more than what we saw on TV back then. It's also somewhat balanced - showing the tragedy of the Israeli athletes, but also giving a glimpse of the plight of the Palestinians. The lone surviving terrorist grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon where he built up his hatred, after his family was pushed out of their homeland. Mainly, I came away with feeling this would be a good training film for SWAT teams and hostage negotiating teams on what NOT to do. My guess is that because this was the first incident of it's kind, the German police were just completely inexperienced and clueless. It was most interesting to hear how the terrorists prepared for this. They were mostly young, trained in Libya, not told of their mission until the day before. Eerily similar to current terrorist acts. There is also a mixed message about negotiating with terrorists. Golda Meier made it clear: if we give in here, every Israeli from now on will be a target. But later the Germans did give in by letting the 3 surviving terrorists go as insurance against future attacks in Germany. Lessons in history.
Rating: 
Summary: The good guys (Israel) and the bad guys (Palestinians)
Review: I think that would have been a more fitting title. Motivations and facts about why the Palestinian group did what they did, why the "ruthlessly efficient Germans" were so imcompetent in handling the situation are put aside in place of MTV style cinematography, period rock songs a la Led Zepellin et al, and more sentimental moments from the Israeli point of view than any Dick Edburg OLympic Moment could muster. Only at the end do the so-called terrorists VERY briefly explain why they did what they did, but this important scene is downgraded with a cheesy fade out and slow motion view of the surviving person in order to perceive him as pure evil; this is similar to the sensationalist camera tricks used on the "bad guys" on shows like COPS. This is a very one-sided documentary made for the ignorant hip-hop generation simplistically displaying the Palestinians as ruthless terroroists without a cause and the Israelis as nothing more than victims. No wonder it won an Academy Award!
Rating:
Summary: scary, timely
Review: I was a year old when this happened. Whats not important is the tacky juxtaposition of rock music and some of the events (Deep Purple's "Child In Time" playing to the flashes of the dead Israeli athletes' bodies killed the climax for me). What is extremely important is that this film exposes Europe's real reason for its reluctance in the war on terrorism: fear of retribution. When I shut this movie off, the news was on...Daniel Pearl's picture in manacles and at gunpoint was on the screen. We are still fighting the same villains 30 years later. Eduacational, highly necessary contextual information.
Rating:
Summary: a lesson against the oblivion
Review: I've seen the DVD "One day in September" and i'm outraged by some reviews, so i shall write you in french, if you permitt : oui ce film est un playdoyer contre le terrorisme, oui il doit être vu,j'accorderai même cette diffusion aux jeunes de 16 ans pour qu'ils apprennent ce que cet évement fut une page d'histoire A l'époque j'étais jeune et on nous a raconté n'importe quoi!! Les longueurs que certains lui reprochent à ce film, sont calculées de même les extraits de musique,cela renforce combien les "politiques" du moment se moquaient bien de ces pauvres otages,et même les irritaient (ce n'était pourtant pas la faute à ces athlètes d'être israeliens)car cela perturbait "leurs jeux", c'est mon interpretation personnelle,leur incapacité à gerer cette crise et le cafouillage à l'aeroport en sont des preuves, la fin était déjà écrites! L'utilisation des extraits de "Deep Purple" et de "Led Zeppelin" est fort judicieux, le témoignage des parents des victimes nécessaires pour comprendre et déplacé le rire d'un intervenant "politique" dans son récit des échanges de coups de feu à l'aeroport! des hommes sont morts. Il ressort quand même un point positif : la création d'un service spécialisé contre le térrorisme et même par la suite, l'entente des pays pour lutter contre ce fléau et une meilleure protection des individus quels qui soient.Ce film mérite plus qu'un Oscar ou deux, il mérite d'être suivi par d'autres "reporters-cinéastes".Je pense qu'il donne à réflechir et je me suis surprise à prier pour ces victimes à l'écoute du 2ème mouvement de la 7 ème symphonie de Beethoven (que l'on me corrige si je me trompe!)Cela m'a rendu plus humaine!!et engagé contre l'intolerance!
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