I was fortunate enough to see this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival
Plot
During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, an American sports broadcast team must adapt to the live broadcast of Israeli athletes being held hostage by a terrorist group. The film takes place in the ABC control room in Munich for the 1972 Olympics.
It realistically depicts both the typical aspects of running a control room during an event, and, of course, the tragic event of the Black September attack on Israeli athletes
The control room is staffed by ABC Sports President Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), rookie producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), VP of Olympic coverage Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), and German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leonie Benesch). Their roles.
giant VTR machines, satellites competing for space, manual graphics input, etc)
The film accurately showcases technology that was considered cutting-edge at the time but seems amusingly primitive today (e.g. But the key to any horror film is Tim Fehlbaum’s writing and direction, which keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire film.
Adding to the realism is the use of archival footage from Jim McKay’s reporting on the tragedy
The only minor issue I have is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right to play the handsome and elegant anchor I remember (I probably would have cut his character and relied solely on the tape of Jennings speaking from the Olympic Village). But that joke certainly doesn’t stop me from highly recommending this excellent film – it’s a must-see!