September 5 (Blu-ray Review)
Do you ever wonder when The Olympics became something more than a show of sportsmanship between the many countries of our world? Do you ever stop to think of the time when there was less political meaning behind the games and more of a coming together for friendly competition? I often do. As a kid, I remember The Olympic Games as a great source of excitement in 1988, 1992 and 1996. Looking back in history though, it seems as if there has always been a political stance within The Olympics, and one of intolerance. In the case of the 1972 games, this intolerance came to an unbelievably explosive head in Munich between Israel and Palestine. Much like today, the bad blood remains. Perhaps all too timely, September 5 was released to film festivals and in select cinemas in 2024, and then wide earlier this year. The film now makes its debut on Blu-ray, available NOW. Read on for my thoughts on the film!
Film
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, a hostage crisis pushes legendary TV executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard) to thrust an untested sports producer, Geoff Mason (John Magaro), into the spotlight of breaking news coverage. With lives hanging in the balance and the world watching, this pivotal moment, based on a true story, reshaped journalism forever.
The 1972 Munich Olympics have been going on well without issue for most of the time. ABC Sports have been covering the games via satellite and working through the new process well. When the crew begins to hear what they think is gunshots nearby, they begin to suspect something isn’t quite right. As news develops that hostages have been taken from the Israeli weightlifting team, ABC decides to send a news team to cover it, but not before Roone Arledge and Geoff Mason decide to let their sports team handle it themselves.
The pair rely on a game reporter, Peter Jennings (Benjamin Walker) to cover in the field, and Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch) a brand-new German translator, who will help them to understand what’s happening on German TV and Radio, and with whatever Hebrew may come across ABC’s feed. The young reporter and translator are huge helps in getting news from the ground up. The news team learns that a militant group, Black September, from Palestine are the ones leading the hostage situation and they’ve listed demands, which in part are the release of hundreds Palestinian soldiers.
The crew in the field and the crew in the studio are all focused on reporting to the world the events but also want to be careful not to report misinformation or to spread any panic worldwide to families of the athletes. There is also the sensitivity of not wanting to offend any nation. Palestine and Israel cannot hold fault with one another because of an angry militant group, and Palestine may not have known about Black September at all. To say the least, reporting this story proves to be a slippery slope.
As the story progresses, the team begins to infiltrate the living quarters. Peter Jennings and his cameraman get a close look at the apartment where the hostages are being held. He sees women negotiating deals on the street, while the hostages are upstairs held at gunpoint. At one point, helicopters are demanded, and the situation is taken to the airport where another firefight occurs. The crew on the ground goes to the airport and waits to find out if there are any survivors. When German TV reports that the situation has neutralized, ABC has the choice to report it unconfirmed or to wait, and the choice is put onto Geoff whether to report it or not. When he does, this outrages Roone and Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), who heads the operation of ABC Sports.
When the unthinkable occurs following the release of good news, the crew has to find a way to find the light after a massive massacre tragedy, and that struggle is resoundingly difficult. A corrected broadcast reveals the true nature of the airport gun fight, and ABC is able to save face. To this day, the news coverage of the Munich Olympics Massacre is one of the most watched news events of all time, with an estimated 900 million viewers at the time of its live airing.
September 5 goes through the motions of a standard retelling of a major event in history. The passionate retelling does elevate things. Using a very authentic look and a swift pacing, bring things to a breakneck start and finish. The events in September 5 may be well known by now, however we are transfixed by the performances on screen and the sound direction of Tim Fehlbaum. The dialogue comes out crisp and fast, and we follow along as is we are a part of the news team. We want to be in on the events too, and we are sucked right in with every moment.
September 5 may be told in a simple and linear way, but I believe that the film does an amazing job showing you exactly what you need to see, and reminding viewers of the tragedy in a tasteful way that honors the victims and the games in a way that would not have been done in the past. I loved the quickness the film used to get the point across and was refreshed by the restraint the film took when detailing the attacks themselves. I found a lot to like in September 5, and fans of true-crime drama/thrillers should certainly find something to like too.
Video
Encoding: MPEG-4/AVC
Resolution: HD (1080p)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Layers: BD-50
HDR: N/A
Clarity/Detail: September 5 strives to contain the look of 1972. The colors are muted, the blacks are not quite black and there is a washed-out faded quality to the lighting that feels right on target for the artistic look/feel. Details are sold overall with nothing looking soft or out of place during the film.
Depth: Camera work is fluid with movements smooth, giving no chance for blurriness or zoom issues. Depth of field looks great in panning shots also.
Black Levels: Black levels are more gray than black, but I feel like that may be artistic intent, and therefore I can’t say that it’s a bad thing. I will say the black bars from the aspect ratio are darker than the blacks on the film though.
Color Reproduction: Colors are muted and very 70’s styled, but again this feels like filmmaker’s intent.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones are photo real, with everyone looking natural. Nobody on screen looks artificial.
Noise/Artifacts: A small layer of grain, I’m guessing digital is here, but other than that, nothing to see here.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0, Spanish, French Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish, French
Dynamics: The busy control room is captured in 7.1 and the tight space feels claustrophobic and closed in. Dialogue is the priority, but there is plenty of textur4 added thanks to a smattering of surround activity and the occasional LFE moment. When the action does leave the control room, Olympic Village ambience and Olympic Games cheering fill the sound stage.
Low-Frequency Extension: A few moments to shine involve the airport fire fight and a few moments of gunfire/explosion when Peter Jennings is reporting to the news control room from the Israeli living quarters.
Height: N/A
Surround Sound Presentation: The cavernous halls and ceilings of the news tower create echo for the surrounds to play with, and we also hear crowd noise, cheering, celebration, commotion and off-screen noises from whichever direction they’re intended.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue always comes through nice and clear.
Extras
There are no on-disc extras for September 5, but redeeming the included digital code opens the bonus features options. A slipcover is included with this release.
Summary
September 5 was a smaller film released at the tail end of 2024 that ended up being a very big surprise for me when I watched it. It tells a story we know from a new perspective and does so in a tasteful and honorable way, to honor the victims of the tragedy of the Munich Olympics of 1972. This film version of the events of the ABC Sports news crew is taught, lean and incredibly well crafted. While I wish those digital exclusive bonuses were included here, and of course a 4K option were available, at the right price, this solid Blu-ray presentation is well worth a look!
Order your copy of September 5 HERE
Adam Toroni-Byrne
Adam is a lifelong physical media collector. His love of collecting began with a My First Sony radio and his parent's cassette collection. Since the age of 3, Adam has collected music on vinyl, tape and CD and films on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray. Adam likes to think of himself as the queer voice of Whysoblu. Outside of his work as a writer at Whysoblu, Adam teaches preschool and trains to be a boxer although admittedly, he's not very good.
