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. 

Family Secrets Revealed Sans 'One Moment In Time' in Kevin Macdonald's Latest Documentary 'Whitney'

The first time I watched a film by British director Kevin Macdonald, the cinema was only steps from the Sydney Opera House.

It was summer 2000, on the eve of the Australian Olympiad, and the story on the silver screen was "One Day In September," the Oscar-winning documentary about the terrorist attack in the 1972 Munich Olympic Village. It was such a great film, I watched again twice before returning stateside.

Macdonald packed 94 minutes with deep history and surprising interviews all in the five-ringed context. 

So, when news arrived that "Whitney" -- billed as a family-authorized Whitney Houston documentary -- got assembled with Macdonald's skilled craftsmanship, my curiosity piqued and I started counting the days to its July 6 release. 

How would the director weave in Houston's Olympic anthem "One Moment In Time," I wondered. 

And would the film billed as "an intimate, unflinching portrait" at last reveal both when and how the singer/actress met her husband Bobby Brown? 

In "Whitney" (now available streaming and on DVD) Macdonald does deliver the goods on Houston in many interesting and revealing ways -- it is so well done, I've already watched it thrice. 

As in "One Day In September" there's no way around the tragic ending, and Macdonald treats the subject's troubling spiral head-on sans varnish. There's great, surprising interviews, and amazing footage of Houston's best performances around the world, starting with her showstopping national TV debut, many of which were new for this longtime fan. 

For more about what "Whitney" does include, please jump ahead seven paragraphs. 

Though Carl Lewis taking an L.A. Olympic victory lap appears in a montage of 80's nostalgia, much to my disappointment, "Whitney" does not include reference to "One Moment In Time," Houston's Seoul Olympic anthem and her seventh single to reach No. 1 on Billboard's chart for Hot Adult Contemporary songs. 

In fact, many of the singer's late-80s/early 90s hits are glossed over while the filmmaker focused on Houston's personal life of this period, highlighting tours and TV appearances during which she defended herself from an Al Sharpton-led movement labeling her "Whitey" Houston (ever the publicity hound, Sharpton makes a later appearance, at 180 degrees, praising the singer on the day of her funeral). 

The film segues to the common narrative that Houston met and flirted with her future husband Brown during the Soul Train Awards, skipping what I believe to be the real narrative, that Brown met Houston while filming the video and recording for the anti-drug PSA "Stop The Madness" (a close look at the credit roll reveals that Houston and Brown, as part of the band New Edition, willingly participated). 

For a peek check the video time stamps of 1:44 (Houston solo), 3:01 (Brown on front row in gray jacket) and 5:06 (end credits listing The New Edition and Whitney Houston as lead vocals).

I am dying to ask Macdonald and his team whether this "Stop The Madness" clip ever met their eyes, and if so, did they ask about it during their interview with Brown or others they captured on film for "Whitney."

Would also love to ask him about the "One Moment In Time" omission. No response to my requests/queries to the Roadside Attractions PR team, so far. 

"Whitney" opens with Houston's own voiceover -- from an early-career publicity interview -- with a vivid description of her recurring dream in which the singer runs across a fiercely swinging bridge while chased by an unknown giant.

"That's the devil chasing you," according to Houston's mother, Cissy, later introduced as a backup singer for Aretha Franklin turned matriarch of the East Orange, N.J., home where Whitney and two brothers grew up blocks from racially-divided Newark. 

Viewers also meet Whitney's father, aunts (including Dion Warwick and her sister, Dee Dee, sometimes tapped as a babysitter when Cissy traveled in pursuit of her own singing career) and other players of Whitney's youth and early career. 

Devoted churchgoers, the Houstons were affectionately named "The Cosbys" of their neighborhood by one Macdonald interviewee, but viewers learn soon enough that choices of infidelity, greed, drug use and other human behaviors all factored as Whitney's star gently rose then took off like a rocket to the moon. 

There are many poignant moments, including mother-daughter scenes in which Cissy imparted wisdom and affection for Whitney. 

And there are professional milestones presented with the perspectives of agents, producers, stylists, friends and ex-boyfriends, and several light-hearted moments showing Whitney at her most playful and upbeat self. One "get" that I suspect Macdonald wanted was an interview with Robyn Crawford, Whitney's closest confidant from high school to the late 1990s, when a wedge (Brown) created a rift too great to overcome. 

Macdonald delves into several darker influences (bullying, racism, drug-using relatives, homophobia) that, all combined, may explain the sharp turns Whitney took around the apex of her success, arguably the months after "The Bodyguard" and the worldwide tour that brought her to meet Nelson Mandela, who dried her tears at their introduction (her performance in Johannesburg stood out for this blogger).

Her private homes, including her childhood abode, an early fame custom-built mansion in a New Jersey forest, and later residence with Brown in Alpharetta, Ga., provide some insightful peeks. 

Atlanta's cameo in the film is anything but flattering, but the panoramic drone views of summer in Midtown are spectacular. 

Interviews with Brown, L.A. Reid and others who deny discussion or knowledge of Houston's drug use left some audience members dumbfounded. 

And much of "Whitney" and the milestones of her addiction are where the film is just plain sad, punctuated by an interview with the personal assistant who found Whitney a Beverly Hilton bathtub. Not a dry eye in the theatre. 

There are also many gut-wrenching revelations into the world and demise of Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina. 

But the big reasons to watch "Whitney" are her astounding live performances as a teenager, energetic and new-to-fame twentysomething and those early 1990s moments in time. 

The backstory about her Super Bowl performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is inspiring. 

And her work on "The Bodyguard" is interesting (Macdonald only really touches on this, her first film, and her final film "Sparkle," leaving out "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife" for unknown reasons -- maybe time as "Whitney" clocks in at exactly two hours). 

I was hoping the DVD would include extended interviews with Kevin Costner, her production company leader Debra Martin Chase, or her film agent Nicole David, who seemed to be the only person interested and actively trying to save Whitney from herself and the demons of her addictions. 

Loved the original albeit haunting music by Adam Wiltzie that scores some of the most sorrowful moments of Whitney's life. 

It's not clear whether Macdonald's latest work will earn the same acclaim as "One Day In September." It would be interesting to see the filmmaker tackle another topic with five-ringed connections. 

My suggestion to Macdonald: Enter the Olympic ring again, this time with heavyweight sports documentary filmmakers like Leni Reifenstahl and Bud Greenspan who captured entire Olympiads of competition for the ages. Macdonald as the official O-film director for a "Tokyo Olympiad" sequel in 2020, anyone? Yes, please.

For the longtime Whitney Houston fan or a younger viewer discovering her music, "Whitney" is an excellent and rounded view a life filled with many big moments in time. 

Images via Roadside Attractions, Arista, HeyUGuys.com