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September 5 Movie Review

September 5 is a 2024 historical drama thriller film directed by Tim Fehlbaum and starring John Magaro among others. It’s a solid, but unnecessary movie.

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“The Germans are gonna have this taken care of in no time“

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During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. First off, making and releasing this movie during Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians is questionable to say the least. But I am going to critique the final product on its own terms without the current context.

There is very little historical context included as well, but this is not that type of movie. It’s one of those films that is about one event only and it follows it closely during the event, but ignoring everything that came before or after it. So, that is why the movie should be somewhat forgiven for mostly ignoring the context.

As for the film itself, it’s fine for what it is, which is an engaging and intense period thriller. This is a very short film for today’s standards, clocking in at just an hour and a half. This was a phenomenal idea as it led to a tighter and more engaging flick. The pacing is fantastic and the tone of intensity and immediate danger was so well conveyed.

John Magaro is fine in the main role, but I found all of these characters and the actors portraying them to be rather forgettable. They should have developed them more for sure. This film showcases the moral and professional journalism of the era just before it turned into everything but that, so it’s very much a caption of an era.

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But I have to say that the very idea of this movie was one that was unnecessary. I did not need to know all the minute details surrounding this event and certainly I did not need this subject explored again in a film after Spielberg did it in ‘Munich’ and he did it much better.