Watching “September 5” you can’t help but think about another 2024 film, “Saturday Night.” In the latter — director and co-writer Jason Reitman’s dramatization of the moments leading up to the first broadcast, in 1975, of what would become known as “Saturday Night Live” — a very brief but eventful time period is explored, helping the film to crackle with a certain energy. A similar current pulsates throughout “September 5,” although the stakes are much higher here, the Tim Fehlbaum-helmed film dramatizing a horrific event occurring on that day in 1972 during the Summer Olympics in Germany: Members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September killing two people from the Israeli Olympic team and taking others hostage.
Whereas filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s 2015 Academy Award-nominated “Munich” dealt with the aftermath of the Munich massacre, “September 5” examines what happened that day through the lens of the ABC Sports broadcasting team covering the Olympics. On this one important day, they would become newsmen — after fighting for the opportunity — and chronicle something far more important to viewers than a relay race or the gold medal winner in fencing. Early on in “September 5,” men such as executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), young producer Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) and his no-nonsense mentor, Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin), are, perhaps, most concerned with trying to secure an interview with elite American swimmer.