One Day in September (1999)

Director: Kevin Macdonald

Composer: Alex Heffes

Starring: Michael Douglas, Ankie Spitzer, Jamal Al Gashey, Gerald Seymour, Axel Springer, Gad Zahari, Shimuel Lalkin, Manfred Schreiber, Walter Troger, Ulrich K. Wegener, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Schlomit Romajo, Magdi Gahary, Zvi Zamir, Dan Shillon, Heinz Hohensinn, Esther Roth, Hans Jochen Vogel, Anouk Spitzer

More info: IMDb

Tagline: 1972. The Munich Olympic Games. 121 Nations. 7,123 Competitors. Over a billion views...and 8 Palestinian Terrorists.  For the first time in 25 years, the truth is revealed.

Plot: The 1972 Munich Olympics were interrupted by Palestinian terrorists taking Israeli athletes hostage. Besides footage taken at the time, we see interviews with the surviving terrorist, Jamal Al Gashey, and various officials detailing exactly how the police, lacking an anti-terrorist squad and turning down help from the Israelis, botched the operation.

My rating: 8/10


Will I watch it again? Nah.

Damn.  What a roller coaster of a ride and what a huge clusterfuck the Germans had on their hands and how they handled it.   I remembered a few things of the event but this film excels in filling in the blanks by going step by step, interviewing key people (including one of the surviving terrorists) as well as the family members of the hostages.  Most of the footage is from news crews on site as it happened.  The fuck ups are staggering.  I was gasping in awe as I watched ABC News anchors, Jim McKay and Peter Jennings, give us a play by play (this was live television) on a rescue attempt minutes prior to a deadline set by the terrorists.  Can you believe this bullshit?  No one realized that there were TVs in every room where the hostages were being held.  Yes, the terrorists knew what was going on all around them because of the fucking retarded news crews.  That's just one of many amazing blunders made during this ordeal that lasted about a day.  It's a fascinating story regardless of what side of the fence you sit.  This picture won the 2000 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature so you'd think the Sony DVD would have some decent extras, right? Well they don't.  You get cheap text 'talent files' and trailers for ANNE FRANK REMEMBERED, CENTRAL STATION and SAVIOR, none of which look particularly interesting but that could be the trailers (except ANNE) aren't well made.