We white-knuckled this film having worked in TV news for CBS, NBC and ABC covering sports and Olympics. But even if you never worked in a TV control room, you’ll feel the tension watching what became the first live television coverage of a terrorists attack and hostage taking at the 1972 Munich Olympics.The Palestinian group Black September took 11 Israeli athletes and coaches hostage in their room at the Olympic Village during the games.
Swiss Writer/Director Tim Fehlbaum gets it right. in fact, he studied film at the University of Television and Film, Munich. Of course, having the stellar cast of Peter Skarsgaard, John Magaro, and Ben Chaplin, and Leonie Benesch, didn’t hurt. The focal point of the film is the claustrophobic control room filled with ABC Sports personnel covering The Games.
The script by Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder and Alex David is gripping. You feel as if you’re standing right there seeing it for the first time just like they did.
Seeing the footage of a terrorist wearing a mask at the window of the room where the Israeli athletes were being held is chilling as you hear Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker) reporting, knowing that the Israeli athletes could be murdered live on television.
What made it feel absolutely authentic was the skillful use by Director Fehlbaum of the ABC Sports archive footage from 1972 of anchor Jim McKay giving up to the minute details, broadcast to 900 million viewers as it was happening in the first live broadcast such an event.
John Magaro is committed and convincing playing Geoffrey Mason, the young TV director who was in the control room orchestrating the coverage from the broadcast center. Closeups of his face as he’s deciding what to do next show how it could affect the outcome since the terrorists could be watching the broadcast.
Peter Skarsgaard plays Roone Arledge , head honcho who ran ABC Sports who had no problem bucking the ABC Network News execs who wanted the news story for themselves. But they weren’t on site. Arledge was adamant that the story was in Munich, and that it should not be told by a talking head from ABC headquarters in New York. His monologue in the control room dictated why the sports division was the only operation who could cover it live as it was unfolding. And they had to bargain for immediate satellite time to show it to the world LIVE. Saarsgard actually visited the former Olympic Village in Munich while he was in Europe shooting Presumed Innocent, noting the gravity of what had happened there. Those apartments are now a school.
Fehlbaum wanted to show the sweat pouring from their brows in that small control room. They actually used those real huge, heavy studio cameras of that era, and some actually still worked. It was a first during that broadcast to move them out of the studio up a hill to get the live shot of the room where the hostages were being held. Young assistant, Gary Slaughter (Daniel Adeosun) was given counterfeit Athlete credentials to deliver film cans to their cameramen, and back so they could put footage of the Village on the air. They taped film cans underneath his shirt, so the police wouldn’t stop him. Gladys Deist (Georgina Rich) plays the woman who created the graphics identifying who and what was being seen on the air. Everyone was put to work.
A real standout who plays a major role in helping the Americans navigate the German mindset is the translator, working in the control room. She is the new generation of Germans still dealing with the guilt of the Holocaust. Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) is soft-spoken, but smart, and deftly picks up on what is going on. She is instrumental, relaying important information to Mason so he can get the latest on the air.
Another is the character, Marvin Bader, (Ben Chaplin) second in command to Arledge overseeing the journalistic ethics of the coverage by asking if everything they reported had been confirmed by at least two sources. But he never wavered in his professionalism while covering another instance where Jewish blood could could be spilled in Germany, 30 years after the Holocaust. Bader was Jewish.
The German government, from police on up at all levels, were inept. Even the negotiator brought in who failed. Fehlbaum and Cinematographer Markus Förderer show the confusion both on the scene and in the control room as Mason and the ABC crew try to figure out now to continue to cover the story. That keeps suspense never ebbing with an ominous chord from composer Lorenz Dangel underneath throughout.
The bold moves by Roone Arledge put him in line to become President of both ABC Sports and News and a broadcasting legend. He was always in control even when AL met him while covering another Olympics for ABC-TV Chicago.
You see how a few innovative, dedicated broadcasters told the world a breaking news story. Without showing the tragic results, Fehlbahm, Magaro, Skarsgaard and Chaplin make you feel as though you are sweating it out with them. They meticulously present how this changed TV news forever. Think about that when you see live news tonight.
Paramount Pictures 1 hour 35 minutes. R
