14/27
It was an honor to see this great film at the AFI Film Festival
Line of Events
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, the American sports team is forced to cover a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. The film is set in the ABC control room in Munich during the 1972 Olympics.
All are excellent in their roles
It realistically depicts both the usual aspects of running a control room during an event and, of course, the tragic Black September attack on the Israeli athletes. In the control room are ABC Sports president Ron Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), up-and-coming producer Jeffrey Mason (John Magaro), Olympic vice president Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), and German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benes).
The realism is further enhanced by the use of archive footage of Jim McKay reporting on the tragedy
The film also accurately demonstrates how technology that was considered cutting-edge at the time looks hilariously primitive today (examples include giant VTR machines, competing for satellite space, manual graphics insertion, etc.). But the key to any thriller is Tim Feilbaum’s writing and direction, which keeps you on your toes throughout the film.
But that complaint certainly doesn’t stop me from highly recommending this great film – you have to see it!
My only minor gripe is with Benjamin Walker’s performance as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right for the handsome and smart broadcaster I remember (I’d probably ditch his character and rely on Jennings’ speech footage from the Olympic Village).