I had the honor of seeing this excellent film at the AFI Film Festival
Line of Events
During the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, an American sports broadcasting group was involved in the coverage of a hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. The film takes place in the ABC equipment room in Munich during the 1972 Olympic Games.
with their roles
It realistically portrays both the routine aspects of the operation of the equipment during the event and, of course, the tragic events of the Black September attacks on Israeli athletes. The office is populated by ABC Sports president Rune Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), rookie producer Jeffrey Mason (John Magaro), vice president of Olympic coverage Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and German translator Marianne Gebhardt (Leoni Benes), all of whom do excellent work.
Realism is added by the use of archival footage of Jim McKay covering the tragedy
The film also accurately shows how technology that was considered cutting-edge back then looks ridiculously primitive today (examples include giant VCRs competing for satellite space, manual graphics insertion, etc.). But the key aspect of any thriller is Tim Felbaum’s script and direction, which keeps you in suspense throughout the film.
But this nitpicking, of course, does not prevent me from strongly recommending this excellent film – it is a must-see!
My only minor gripe is the casting of Benjamin Walker as Peter Jennings – he doesn’t seem quite right for the handsome and elegant host I remember (I’d probably cut his character and rely solely on the recording of Jennings’ conversation from the Olympic Village ).