Hampered by Prolonged Rollout, 'September 5' Presents Riveting Drama of Munich '72 Attack

Critics wrote heaps of praise for Tim Fehlbaum's film "September 5."

For this viewer -- a 1973-born "Munich Olympic Baby" who's been studying the city's 1972 massacre as a journalism undergrad and Games historian during 30 years since college -- the film proved excellent, on par with its predecessors "Munich" by Stephen Spielberg and Kevin Macdonald's outstanding documentary "One Day In September" (on their own merits all three works are "must see"). 

A major asset is Fehlbaum's new perspective on the terrorist attack portrayed through the ABC Sports control room operated adjacent to the scene of the crime: 31 Connollystrasse in the Olympic Village, an apartment built above the road and esplanade named for the first modern Olympic champion. 

Another strength: Whether the hostages' fate is already known, or moviegoers are naive to Jim McKay's unscripted punctuation on the Olympic Family's saddest day ("They're all gone"), all "September 5" viewers seemed captivated by the gripping drama in real life story that takes little time to build tension. 

Before sunrise on Day 11 of Heitere Spiele ("The Cheerful Games"), TV producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) arrives to prepare for another long shift of sports coverage. After viewers learn the studio layout and a few of its players -- such as legend-in-the-making Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) and composite characters like a German-English-Hebrew interpreter Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) -- a pin drop could be heard once gunfire emerges from the neighboring Olympic Village. What follows is a mostly accurate though condensed unfurling of Mason & Company navigating what became the world's first live broadcast of a terrorist attack. 

"September 5" succeeds in sticking to the true story, with minimal detours of creative license. It's forgivable, for instance, that in a lighter moment the control room tracks their disguised-as-Olympian colleague talking his way into the athlete village as seen from their Volkswagen Beetle-sized camera atop Munich's Olympic Tower (about a half mile away). 

More preposterous but laughable: guns drawn Munich polizei storming the broadcast center, prompting Arledge to exclaim "Get the fuck out of my studio!" 

The only other noticeable fiction involved the screenwriter paraphrasing IOC President Avery Brundage with his statement "the Games must go on" a day early (in real life, this quote was delivered the next day at the Munich Olympic Stadium memorial service for the lost Team Israel members). 

Viewers will appreciate the authentic Munich posters, accreditation mockups, team uniforms and other tuned-to-detail touches thanks to the methodical work of costume and set designers who also used actual equipment of 1972 -- from rotary phones and Rolodexes to vintage TV studio monitors and cameras -- to painstakingly create the broadcast set and Arledge's temporary offices. 

The soundtrack gives a nod to previous Munich-centric films with Apollo 100's "Jesu Joy" setting the early-70's tone just like in Macdonald's documentary. There's lots to love about German composer Lorenz Dangel's techno-centered score, with the strings of "Helicopters" played as Howard Cosell defines "shalom" for nearly a billion TV viewers, each note foreshadowing Team Israel's fate at Furstenfeldbruck. 

Another favorite line quipped in response to Mason's team instructions: "You got it, Kubrick!" 

The best unexpected surprise of "September 5" is that, unlike Spielberg and Macdonald, Fehlbaum does not cut off McKay after famously uttering "they're all gone." For the first time in over 30 years of studying this global event, we learn what else McKay had to say after "our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized."

"They're all gone. It's all over. The Israeli Olympic Team is destroyed, much of it. But what will happen to the Games of the XXth Olympiad? None of us know what will happen ... to the course of world history."

For all the film's strengths, Paramount's promotion and release plan proved to be a disappointing head-scratcher. 

After securing distribution last fall and setting limited release in New York and LA during November, according to industry reports, the studio pushed back wider release to December then January, then again when the locked-in mid-January date finally arrived. 

Frustrated by a lack of answers from Paramount's unresponsive national media relations team and vague responses from more local reps when asked "where is this film actually screening?" (as it was nowhere near Atlanta), I reached out to two New York Times reporters who replied with related insights.

Lead critic Manohla Dargis, who scribed The Times' Critics Pick praise of the film, stated distribution wasn't her bag while offering the Oscar factor was likely in play.

"Once the nominations are announced [viewers] should have some clarity on the release," she said. "I hope that you can see it in a theater."

Fortunately, by that time, I had seen it at a special preview screening, but friends in places low and high were still asking "where is September 5?"

Dargis' West coast colleague Brooks Barnes, for which film distribution is his bag/beat, seconded the Oscar timing theory while adding that some recent flubs and failures of other Paramount releases, combined with an array of recent or upcoming corporate changes, may have been in play, or they just didn't know what to do with the topics the film presents. At least my misery was in good company for lack of response from Paramount PR.

"I sent a query, and if I get an answer, I'll let you know," wrote Barnes. 

Not surprisingly, that was the end of that. 

Even with an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay, within a week of its very limited nationwide release, Paramount perplexingly pulled the critically acclaimed film out of the few U.S. theaters that had it, later rushing it to streaming by early February. 

Paramount's team apparently was so unsure what to do with "September 5" they didn't even add it to their own Paramount + service. 

My grade of their distribution plan: D minus. 

And the question emerges: To what extent was this wutend oder enttauscht for Fehlbaum?

"September 5" is worth the search and price to view it where it is available -- as of this mid-February post, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Plex, Prime Video and Row8 have the film streaming in the $9.99 to $19.99 range. Watch it. 

And if you're lucky enough to find it on the big screen, take it from Dargis' advice and get thee to the cinema. 

Images via Paramount's "September 5" press materials

Munich Olympic History 50 Years In The Making

Fifty years ago this month, two big events shaped my lifetime of Olympic memories. 

First and foremost, my parents wrapped up their European honeymoon in Munich, and this blogger arrived on the scene at an Oklahoma City hospital nine months later. 

Second, not long after their USA flight home, the Games of the XXth Olympiad opened in the Bavarian capital, presenting one of the most memorable and talked about Summer Games, at once creating five-ringed legacies across a spectrum from international tragedy and response to best in class positive results for long-term use of Olympic-built venues. 

This short film from the IOC and Munich Tourism vividly portrays Munich at 50. 

Later this week I'll be heading to Munich for my fourth visit since 2009 (fifth if you count my "baby on board" status as mom returned stateside in 1972), and this time two big Olympic history events will unfold during the visit. 

Starting Friday, the International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH.org) hosts three days of annual General Assembly meetings during which members from across Europe and around the globe will convene to discuss the organization's progress since 2021 and outlook for 2023 to Paris 2024. 

Programmed events include two formal member presentations related to study of Munich's Games, and less formally attendees have an opportunity to visit the Pinakothek der Moderne museum exhibition titled "The Olympic City of Munich" on view through early January (I hope to also peek at the adjacent exhibit "Designing for the Olympics" open through Oct. 3). 

On a more somber note, Sept. 5 marks the 50th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Israeli quarters at Munich Olympic Village address 31 Connollystrasse, steps away from the hotel where many ISOH attendees will stay. As reported by The New York Times and other news outlets, the German government will host memorial services for the anniversary with some Israeli Olympic family survivors' attendance in doubt. 

There are actually two memorial events scheduled Monday, and I applied for media credentials for both, with the first taking place at the relatively new (dedicated in 2017) memorial site just north of the Olympiapark. 

Named the Erinnerungsort Olympia-Attentat (place of remembrance of the Olympic attack), the modest venue built into a berm in the woods provides a quiet place to reflect, read history or view a continuous loop of video details educating passersby about September 1972. 

ISOH plans a wreath-laying presentation as part of its Saturday agenda, with invited dignitaries and media -- and an array of security measures -- anticipated for the Bavarian Government-hosted formal ceremony two days later. 

The second memorial will take place at Furstenfeldbruck, now a decommissioned German air base, where nine Israeli Olympians and one German police officer, along with most of the terrorists, perished in a botched rescue during the early hours of Sept. 6. With a long chart of A-list attendees expected, it's no surprise the media background check procedures are extensive. 

Gearing up for the anniversary, earlier this summer I reread excerpts from Simon Reeve's thorough book about the Munich Massacre. A recent downsizing/cleanup project also yielded my Mankato State University journalism history class paper about the Times' cover stories from Munich in the week following the attack. And thanks to a combination of streaming services, I viewed for the first time, or rewatched, three provocative films about the massacre. 

Each movie provides thoroughly researched and recreated portrayals of Sept. 5-6, 1972, with brief summaries and where to stream summarized here:

"One Day In September" (currently free via Tubi), the 1999 Oscar winner for best documentary, includes a dramatic tour of 31 Connollystrasse with a surviving Israeli Olympic athlete who literally ran for his life to create a diversion that may have helped save other teammates. Director Kevin Macdonald also landed a rare interview with one of the only surviving Palestinian terrorists as well as the widows and surviving adult children of at least two of the Israeli team members. 

Narrated by Michael Douglas and chillingly set to music by Led Zeppelin, Charles Wright, Deep Purple, Craig Armstrong, Philip Glass and Moby, there's not a dry eye in the house at the touching end of this thorough work of nonfiction. Like Macdonald's later documentary "Whitney" there is a doozy of a tragic reveal during penultimate scenes. 

"Munich" (for rental via Prime Video and Red Box) is Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated and stirring drama on Israel's response to the terrorist attacks set to a Grammy-winning score by John Williams. In an unpublished review scribed for an Atlanta newspaper, I wrote in Dec. 2005 that ... 

Through 'Munich' the creator of fiction greats 'E.T.' and 'Jaws' presents his take on nonfiction events at the Summer Games in Germany during which 11 Israeli Olympians died at the hands of Black September terrorists. For those who did not see this tragedy unfold in real time, it was the decade's 9/11 -- 'Munich' is an excellent film that could get people talking around the water cooler. After opening with actual news footage, Spielberg later portrays the events of Sept. 5-6 mostly with historic accuracy and in gruesome detail unveiled through flashback dreams of an Israeli intelligence agent (Eric Bana) chosen to lead a secret hit squad to take down surviving planners of the Munich attack. 

Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush gives and outstanding performance as Bana's primary government contact as the team assassinates Black September members in Rome, Paris, Athens and other landmark cities. With each successful hit the proverb about "first digging two graves before seeking revenge" becomes more apt, and the film succeeds for inspiring questions about retribution.

"21 Hours at Munich" (currently free via Tubi) provided William Holden his other (not "Network") starring role of 1976 as the German response chief thrust onto the world stage in this made for TV movie of American Broadcasting Corporation. 

The inclusion of seldom-seen, once live ABC News footage and authentic scenes filmed in the actual spaces or vehicles of the attack/rescue attempt -- including one of the helicopters flown as part of the athlete and police airlift -- slightly make up for the regrettably dry script that attempted, but did not achieve, the drama in real life tension of three years before. Shirley Knight's supporting role as an Olympic Village staff member is also noteworthy. 

These are just three of more than a dozen films released since the attack, and more are likely to follow. 

Just today, the International Olympic Committee today issued a press release to publicize the new production titled "72 - A Gathering of Champions" (streaming free via Olympic Channel) featuring the 2022 Germany return of 10 Munich medalists including Olga Korbut and Mark Spitz as well as Kip Keino entering their fields of play for the first time in decades. 

The trailer gave me all the best Olympic chills and brought to mind another German term ... verklempt.

Image credits: First two photos by Nicholas Wolaver taken at Munich Olympiapark in July 2022; image of 31 Connollystrasse entry door and memorial via this site which credits "dpa"; Olympiapark Memorial photo via this link; image of Furstenfeldbruck on 6 Sept. 1972 via Polizeiarchiv Munchen; film posters via IMDB; Time magazine cover by Michael Grecco; 72 - A Gathering of Champions image via IOC. Photo below by Nicholas Wolaver in July 2022. 

Munich 2018 All The Way

Katarina Witt of the Munich 2018 Olympic Bid may be secretly jumping for joy over today's resignation of Annecy, France, 2018 bid chief.

According to Inside The Games, Annecy's CEO pulled out over government financial support (or lack thereof) as the next hurdle of the 2018 Olympic bid process -- delivery of the bid books to the IOC -- approaches Jan. 11, 2011.

July 6, 2011, is the big day when Munich, Annecy or PyeongChang, South Korea, will take home hosting duties from the IOC session in Durban, South Africa.

I am eager to eventually study the bid books and learn more. For the moment, Munich is my personal favorite as it would be wonderful to see the Games return to Bavaria and for the magnificent Olympiapark facilities of 1972 to see new life (though they remain a thriving legacy of the earlier summer Games).

If you wish to peruse the bid books, head over to GamesBids.com and look at the profiles for each city. Happy reading.

Photo via MotorInsight.com

More Olympic Acronyms Coming Soon

There's a running joke, or trend, or something (can't put finger on how the right noun) from one Olympic organizing committee (OOC) to the next.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) or other National Olympic Committees (NOCs), international federations (IFs) and even the global TOP Olympic sponsors have TMAs -- Too Many Acronyms.

According to the AP -- that's the Associated Press -- and ATR (Around The Rings), two more acronyms are signing up for five-ringed status this week: BMW and P&G.

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG was not a big surprise. After all, BMW provided hundreds of gorgeous new cars used by the NOCs staying at the Atlanta OLV (Olympic Village, where their global CEO -- chief executive officer -- presented me a sweet BMW sponsor pin).

Also, BMW's global showcase BMW Museum in Munich is nestled between the 1972 Olympic Village and Olympiapark (if you haven't seen these three sites, they are worth a round trip flight no matter where you live, and you need at least three days to see them all).

Proctor & Gamble. Well, they aren't exactly a surprise either. In Vancouver they had a broad range of engagement underway, and a lot of their product found its way onto The Colbert Report post-Games. What surprised me is their likely announcement of TOP global sponsor status so close to Dow Chemical's IOC sponsor announcement. But then, Tuesday, July 27, marks the two-years-to-London 2012 milestone, so the timing is right.

What other brands do you want to see in the OAS (Olympic Acronym Scene)?

TTYL.

Photo via this Flickr account

Munich 2018 Olympic Bid Interview

My employer, Edelman, offers some nice perks in appreciation of longtime employees. For one's 10th anniversary with the company, for example, a three-week paid sabbatical/holiday is bestowed. It sure was nice to hit the "official" anniversary earlier this year, and start with a blank slate for potential destinations for a holiday.

While beach time was on my mind, the No. 1 priority -- travel wise -- was easy to name: Munich. This is the city where, as they say, "it all began" for me, possibly in a literal sense as my parents were honeymooning in the 1972 Olympic City just before the Games, and I arrived on the scene nine months later (May 1973).

That's right ... I may be a Munich Olympic baby.

Since my high school days, and looking closely at some of my parents' photos from their own European adventure (including snapshots from their visit to the Olympic Tower in Munich), I had planned, and postponed, and planned again (and delayed ... again, several times repeated) trips to Bavaria. For the sabbatical, it seemed fitting to finally make it there.

Munich is amazing. I'll work to write about the many Olympic connections explored there -- most old (as in Vintage '72) and some new but inspired by the spirit of the XXth Olympiad at Munich.

Before looking to the past, I'm posting tonight about some potential future for Munich's Olympic legacy: specifically, the Munich 2018 Olympic Winter Games bid.

While in Germany, I took time to look up the Munich bid committee, which recently set up shop in an industrial park only a few hundred meters west of the vast Munich Olympiapark (well, it's probably more than a kilometer, but the Olympiastadion to the east is so vast, it seems closer).

With sincere thanks to the communications team and the Muenchen 2018's executive team, their office made time for me to sit down with Mr. Richard Adam, joint director of the Munich 2018 Bid Committee. The video with this post includes details on the Munich 2018 bid program, which is very new (the IOC process to select the 2018 host city has only just begun this summer).

It was surprising to learn Mr. Adams' candor about the 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy, and how many in the city, if not all of Germany, wish to write a new Olympic chapter for the region -- as a manner of moving on while remaining respectful to the victims from Sept. 5, 1972.

Some interesting notes from the Munich 2018 press kit and conversation (off camera) with Mr. Adam include:

• Katerina Witt, the figure skating Olympic champion, is the newly named chair of the Munich 2018 board of trustees. Witt's quote in a recent Munich 2018 press release states, "[The] Olympics have been a key feature in my life ... I have taken part in three Olympic Winter Games, and personally experienced the power of sports of bringing people together. This is why I support, with all my heart, the commitment to bringing the first Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to our reunited Germany."


• Munich's joint bid includes the 1936 Winter Olympic site, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Alpine village south of Munich -- they refer to this as a "two-cluster concept" for the bid, with the urban "Ice Cluster" in Munich (mostly at Olympiapark) and the "Snow Cluster" at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Sliding events (bobsleigh, skeleton and luge) would be held in Schonau am Koningssee in the Berchtesgadener Land (I am scrambling for an atlas). The medals plaza would be in Central Munich beside the Town Hall (see map at top of this post).


• A key component and plus for the bid is the sustainability tied to the '72 Olympiapark. Several venues there -- designed to last the ages (they have held up very well) -- have been "embraced over the decades [more] than any other Olympic facility and thus constitutes a major symbol of sustainability," according to the bid press kit.
  
• As in 1972, the athlete village and media centre would be adjacent to the Olympiapark, in new facilities to be converted to urban housing post-Games (the 1972 Olympic Village fulfilled its purpose as a very early "Green Games" construction project as the now-37-year-old Village is fully-occupied residential apartments covered with lush planters and trees growing out of several multi-level planters).

More information is available at http://www.muenchen2018.org/.

Images via http://www.muenchen2018.org/.

"I Will Stand" for Chicago 2016

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Associated Press, NBC 5 in Chicago (great video) and several other outlets, on July 14 Chicagoans turned out and chipped in up to $12 million in support of the city's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. It was a bit of extended celebration of the city making the latest IOC downsizing of the candidate pool. Man, I wish I had been there! They even debuted a new bid song titled "I Will Stand."

To me, Chicago is a perfect candidate. I've grown to love the city's rich history of commerce, architecture, sports and culture. My count on visits to The Windy City for fun (starting with a quick walk downtown during a Union Station layover heading east to New York on Amtrak, to most recent July 4 Weekend/Taste of Chicago holiday weekend with my girlfriend) is approaching a couple dozen. It would be remarkable for world visitors to experience the Games and all the city has to offer.

The other 2016 bid cities have a lot going for them, too. Madrid has got the goods, but with 2012 in London, the European proximity may sway votes to other candidates based on geography. Tokyo hosted in 1964 and has an amazing list of credentials (I believe it is currently the favorite on GamesBids.com, which tracks the competition). Rio has a potential advantage since the Games have not yet visited South America and this is the city's fourth attempt to win the bid (and the scenery would be an amazing postcard for the Olympics -- the city's heavy crime rate seems to be an Achilles' Heel for this bid, however).

The big vote is not until 2 October 2009, so there's plenty of time to speculate. Curious what other cities folks would like to see as future candidates (this week's announcement that Munich is giving it a shot for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games was very cool).