One Day in September

Rating:
Summary: One Day in September
Review: It's difficult to believe that this film won the Academy Award for best documentary a few years ago, but it only goes to prove what has long been suspected: The MPAA's taste tends toward the conventional and the mediocre.

The most significant criticism--which demands to be addressed before any discussion of the film's "artistic" merit--is the ethical dubiousness of One Day in September. Weaving together montages of masked Palestinians and sporting events at Munich Olympic games with a 70's rock music soundtrack, the film seems morbidly distasteful--as if it were trying, very forcefully, to ratchet up the drama factor in what is already a very (sad and) dramatic event. The strategy of the film is blatantly sensationalistic and exploitative throughout, arranging the "scenes" and narration with all the subtlety of a bad Hollywood political thriller. As if this weren't bad enough, the filmmakers went so far as to enlist the direct assistance of the only only surving terrorist, who--speaking on conditions of anonymity, for obvious reasons--contributes little in the way of insight or information to the documentary.

Otherwise, the film has a disjointed, unsatisfying feel to it. The narration dwells for too long on certain aspects of the events and too little on others. The chaos which ensues at the airport is not successfully clarified, and remains largely chaos to the viewers. The film inserts a provocative allegation that the German government arranged the hi-jacking of the Lebanon-Germany Lufthansa flight in order to be rid of the terrorists; this may very well be true, but the film does not discuss this matter sufficiently. It has the feeling of JFK-like conspiracy theory thrown in at the end for shock value.

And lastly, but certain not least of all, the gruesome photographs of the dead victims seem entirely unnecessary and insensitive. (At the end of the film, the photographs of the remaining victims are shown with rock music playing over them, as before.)

I highly discourage anyone from viewing or purchasing this film. I'd recomend reading a book or books on the subject, from which you will get, no doubt, a more comprehensive and humane account of these events.

Rating:
Summary: Stupid and meretricious
Review: Kevin Macdonald wrote an intelligent and tender biography of his grandfather, Emeric Pressburger, one of the finest and most under-rated filmmakers of all time. It's therefore something of a mystery to me how he could have made such a stupid film.

Macdonald spoke of his intention to make a "documentary thriller". This film about the 1972 Olympics hostage crisis certainly fulfils my idea of what thrillers are like, namely flashy, two-dimensional, morally childish and intellectually thin. It has clearly identifiable heroes (the Israeli hostages and their families), villains (the Palestinian terrorists) and comic relief (the German government and police). It has lots of flashy fast cutting, sumptuous slo-mo shots of leaping athletic bodies and a pounding rock soundtrack.

Unfortunately that's not enough. Macdonald focuses completely on the events themselves, padding out the film with reels of TV news footage, which is pretty useless as the newscasters frequently had no idea what was going on. (Then again, one rescue attempt was abandoned when it turned out, ludicrously, that the Palestinians could watch a police rescue squad move into position, because it was being broadcast live on the TVs in their room.) He also focuses on only one hostage, the fencing coach Andre Spitzer, as if telling us about all the rest would spread our sympathy too thin. This makes Spitzer - who seems to have been a perfectly ordinary, friendly, intelligent man - into the saint he never would have wanted to be. (Not because of Spitzer's family but because of Macdonald's use of crackly home movies for Instant Nostalgia.)

So many questions crop up which the film fails to tackle. What was the Palestinian cause? I know what it is, but no thanks to this film. Why exactly did the terrorists go on this mission? We are never told. They are depicted mainly as shadowy, almost nameless, with no history apart from a criminally brief bit of anecdote from the one surviving Palestinian. They might as well have been burglars for all we are told.

We are left in no doubt that the Germans made every possible mistake in the way they handled the situation - they didn't have a properly trained anti-terrorist squad, they failed to coordinate their rescue attempt on every level, the rescue squad on the plane even abandoned the mission seconds after the helicopters with the hostages had landed on the airstrip. But why was this so? Why were they so disorganised?

If you're going to make a film about political terrorism you should be explaining things a bit, not just telling a wham-bang story with a weepy ending. This film trivialises everybody involved - from the Germans who made a mess of it, through the Palestinians who committed murder for reasons we are never told, to the innocent Israelis who died. It's rubbish. I sat through it to the end, grinding my teeth. I'm just glad that intelligent documentaries are still being made; I hope nobody else follows Macdonald's lead, or non-fiction films will start to get as stupid as blockbusters.

Rating:
Summary: A Boring Disappointment
Review: Many of the more positive reviews seem to have been written by Israelis. Unfortunately many of the qualities they found in this film will be completely missing in other people's experience.

The average viewer who watches this film to either understand the incident or to gain some insight into the Isreali/Palastinian conflict will be disappointed. So will those seeking the vicarious thrill of watching a real life action-drama unfold.

Much of the film attempted to appeal to the emotions of the audience dwelling on the personal tragedy of one hostage's family and to a lesser extent that of another. That did little to give purpose or coherence to the film. There was considerable padding with footage of the Olympics, in case you have no idea what goes on there, footage of policemen, people lounging, and what felt like 20 minutes of terrorists staring out of windows and doorways. It could easily be pared down to an hour and serve as midweek PBS fodder. The early 70's rock music in the soundtrack, chosen perhaps to lend period mood, was cheesey and extremely annoying.

One positive comment I have is the movie explained some of the mystery behind the very bad performance of the German authorities. The greatest problem was lack of control (TV crews had free access allowing the live broadcast of an attempted police ambush which the terrorists were able to watch on TV) and lack of communication, both attributable to lack of training and appropriate organizational structure. The Germans at that time had no counterterrorist police units and their laws prevented military intervention. The police snipers had no radios, body armor or even proper sniper rifles. One policeman was accidentally killed and another officer accidentally wounded.

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST DOCUMENTARIES I HAVE SEEN
Review: One Day in September is - I think - one of the best docos I have seen. I found it gripping and left the cinema almost drained.

I was very happy that the film maker let the story tell itself from the actual footage of the time and interviews with Ankie Spitzer and the one surviving 'Black September' terrorist. There was no excessive reliance on voice overs.

There was a good mix of footage from the games themselves which I think captures the spirit of the time.

I read a previous review that claimed the whole doco was a bit thin. Perhaps it was. It did assume a certain level of knowledge. However, I think that even if you didn't know the background, you would still come away with the fundamentals on the event.

While I think the film-maker was perfectly justified in 'kicking' the Germans for their handling of the crisis, I felt he was a little unfair in belittling their efforts at trying to make the Munich games the 'friendly games' after the obvious legacy of the 1936 Berlin Games. While in hindsight the security was lax, it was understandable that the Germans took this approach.

So, I would highly recommend the film. It was entertaining, gripping, educational in its way, and leaves you coming away with a feeling of profound regret that the crisis ended the way it did.

A worthwhile buy.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Unforgettable.
Review: One Day in September is a documentary like no other. Good documentaries will leave you with a sense of what a specific period in history was actually like. One Day in September goes far beyond just giving you a sense of the events which occurred during the Munich Olympics, it seems to immerse you in those events. Before unfolding the actual chain of events in the Munich Crisis, the film does a great job of depicting the political, social, and emotional state of the early 1970's. Then, the film proceeds to lay the hostage crisis out in a seamless sequence of events. Throughout the film, one feels the events escalating and the desperation building. None of the incident is left un-inspected and unreported. In addition, the film is made even more complete by the insertion of present-day interviews with the Israelis and Germans involved, as well as the only surviving Palestinian terrorist who took part in the operation. To hear commentary by those who were personally involved, proved extremely powerful. If this film doesn't give you a true sense of the gravity and horror of the Munich Hostage Crisis, I'm not sure what will.

Rating:
Summary: Terrorism at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.
Review: ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER is an intriguing documentary covering the brutal killings of eleven Israeli athletes by a radical Palestinian terrorism group at the 1972 Olympic Games held in Munich, Germany. First-rate film archives of the unfolding drama are shown throughout this film and are interspersed with present-day interviews of numerous individuals directly involved, including the sole remaining terrorist who remains in hiding to this day in fear of Israeli assassination squads. Although the ending is not a secret I found this film to be gripping and suspenseful.

One of the most compelling aspects of this film pertains to how Germany failed repeatedly to effectively protect the athletes and to successfully rescue the hostages. Participating in the 1972 Olympic Games was a momentous symbolic measure for Israel as German-Jewish relations remained sore nearly three decades after the collapse of Nazi Germany. Security surrounding the Olympic Village was intentionally relaxed and the guards did not carry guns. This apparent loophole enabled the terrorists to infiltrate the Israeli housing complex and carry out their treats to the vicious end.

Watching this documentary is very timely considering present-day political situations in the Middle East and the upcoming summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. It is my dear hope that the Greeks will learn from the mistakes of the Germans and protect all the athletes and spectators from harm. The camaraderie and spirit of the Olympics should not be overshadowed by acts of terrorism. It's sobering to realize that 30 years later the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains in the headlines and claims countless of lives. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: The implications...the implications.
Review: One of the great lines in Stanley Kramer's "Judgement at Nurenberg" was given to Burt Lancaster in his portrayal of Ernst Janning: "The implications...the implications." "One Day in September" is an amazing documentary rife with implications. Not only in the horrendous arc of world wide anti-semitism, and anti-Zionism, but also in who is implicated as a guilty party in the tragedy of the 1972 Olympics.

The events of 1972 are far enough in the past that there are generations of young adults who would probably identify "Black September" as a rock&roll band. That means that though there are many of us who know the history full well, there are also many who will be riveted by a story well told with plot twists that should only be found in a mass market thriller. Twists that might be brilliant if they weren't sadly true. I'll give nothing away but to say the Germans, East/West/and United; and the Olympic Organizers played their roles as if Hitler won. And this stands true for the reminiscences of the German response team in 1999.

If you are interested in the mind of terror, or the psychology of the Palistinian "struggle", or the survival of Israel, this is a must see motion picture. The footage is extraordinary, the editing masterful, the soundtrack perfect, the tone tense - even if you know the outcome, and the implications...

Rating:
Summary: A Good Visual of Munich but the Book is Much, Much Better
Review: Simon Reeve's docu-drama on the 1972 Munich Massacres is certainly worthy of its Academy Award. There's no doubt about that. However, his book is much, much better. He is very detailed in his writing and once you get into the book, you will be very surprised to learn what Reeve uncovered during his research. The video, sadly, does not include Reeve's meticulous details. Learn the whole story. Read the book.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Fantatsic
Review: Simply fantatsic - this film ranks as one of the five greatest documentaries - editing work like you have never seen. Top quality.

Rating:
Summary: This tells more than I expected to know
Review: There are a number of amazing things in this video. This DVD dates back to a time when peaceful competition between national teams was what everyone expected in the Munich Olympic Games of 1972, and even the 1999 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature was before 9/11/2001 made the war on terrorism a daily concern for more people than had previously worried about how the rest of the world matters. Whoever expected to see a documentary in which a group of Germans decided that they were about to engage in a suicide mission and unanimously voted not to attempt what they had been planning to do? People who are inclined to keep track of how often governments lie might be interested in who first announced that the hostages had all been saved, and the terrorists killed. It becomes obvious during the film that one terrorist is still alive, on camera, and you can almost see who he is.

The ending of the film was most remarkable for me. Some government maintains such close contact with the terrorist organizations that it was able, within a few weeks, to arrange a hijacking of a flight to Frankfurt that could be used as a cover for the release of the three survivors, in the interest of maintaining peace with the Palestinian cause for which an enormous amount of publicity had been generated by the event. Few will doubt that two of those survivors have probably died as a result of assassination teams, and it is likely that some government is keeping track of who has been getting killed, so the identity of the survivor at the end is only a secret for people who don't need to know. You can learn a lot else from watching this, and you can even listen to a few lines in German. There might be German subtitles for people who know how to pick the setting. There weren't many other DVD options, but the English subtitles hepled me a lot.