23/25

I had the privilege of seeing this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival

Story

During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcast crew is drawn into coverage of a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. The film is set in the ABC control room in Munich during the 1972 Olympics.

in their roles

It realistically presents the routine aspects of control room management during the event and, of course, the tragic event of the Black September attacks on Israeli athletes. In the control room are ABC Sports president Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), budding producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), Olympic coverage VP Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch), all great.

Realism is also added by the use of archival footage of Jim McKay reporting on the tragedy

The film also thoroughly demonstrates how technology that was considered cutting-edge at the time appears ridiculously primitive today (examples include giant VCRs, competition for satellite space, manual graphics insertion, etc.). But the key aspect of any thriller is Tim Fehlbaum's writing and direction, which keeps the viewer in suspense throughout the film.

However, this caveat certainly does not prevent me from highly recommending this excellent film - you must see it!

The only minor quibble concerns the casting of Benjamin Walker in the role of Peter Jennings - he doesn't seem to fit the role of the handsome and elegant presenter I remember (I'd probably cut his character and rely only on footage of Jennings speaking from the Olympic Village).