September 5

September 5 is another great addition to the always brilliant but generally underrated genre: the ‘journalism thriller.’

Telling the harrowing story of the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis from the perspective of the ABC news crew, who documented proceedings live to the world.

It makes for a brilliant companion piece to Steven Spielberg’s Munich, a very different film covering the same events and their aftermath.

Immersing us in its 70's television newsroom setting, bizarrely making it a 2025 cinematic companion to Saturday Night, set and embodying the era albeit in a very different way, tension gradually ratchets as the shocking events unfold.

Wisely, the action is largely confined to this setting, keeping proceedings short, tense, and gripping as we learn of the events as the staff do and have to make difficult decisions about reporting them on the fly.

It’s not quite real time but feels like it, the dark hues and smoky, sweaty studio feeling alive and vibrant.

The question of journalistic integrity and the ‘public interest’ are themes that are to the fore here, much as they were in last year’s immaculate Civil War and its not one to take sides, leaving the viewer to debate and discuss after the fact.

Current world events may skew the historical context somewhat and leave an odd feeling but the largely independent ‘tell the story as it is’ aspect here helps with that although the timing of the film’s release is a slightly strange one.

Nonetheless, this is a tightly paced, lean, engaging and thoroughly well made journalism thriller embodying all the best elements of that genre and placing them within the confines of television rather than the more often seen newspaper news room.

This was a world first story and mistakes were made, tragedy unfolded and the world changed, for good or ill.

This film is an honest and realistic depiction of those events and is one to make you think.

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