Having watched the ABC Sports coverage of the hostage ordeal at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games live while I was in high school, I am surprised after seeing this recreation of the event that the entire thing lasted only 17 hours. In retrospect it felt much longer. Tim Fehlbaum’s movie has to focus on something more direct than the situation in the Olympic Village, since that has already been thoroughly covered by Kevin Macdonald’s Oscar-winning documentary, One Day in September, so he keeps the action limited to the on-site ABC Sports control room. At only 90 minutes, the movie maintains tension easily, though often the drama has more to do with the journalistic decisions being made than with the hostage ordeal. For those who might have forgotten, a Palestinian organization, Black September, invades the Olympic Village and takes the Israeli wrestling team hostage, demanding the release of imprisoned compatriots in return for the athletes’ freedom, with one athlete being killed every hour until these demands are met. There were no US network news crews at the Games, so it was up to the ABC Sports team to cover the standoff as it happened, a task for which it received ample praise, though Feldbaum’s film shows what they were up against, and not just in terms of staying on top of the story as it unfolded.

In fact, much of the challenge was technical. The broadcast link is via satellite, which ABC can only access during predetermined time periods, so the on-site producer, Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), has to do some serious voodoo to keep the link valid. Meanwhile, the assistant producer, Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro), has to direct the operation in real time, and he has absolutely no news experience. There is a great deal of back-and-forth between the crew and ABC honchos back in New York, who aren’t convinced these sports guys are up to the task, and one of the film’s most pertinent points is that the crew doesn’t really think they’re up to it either, but they’re the only people available who have the means to cover the action. It quickly becomes clear that Mason is more resourceful than he appears, but he is helped considerably by operations manager Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) and the crew’s German translator, Marianne (Leonie Benesch), who has to multitask to beat the band. The need to uphold trite journalistic standards (a lot of precious time is spent discussing whether they can call Black September “terrorists”) gets the better of the hostage story, which can sometimes fall by the wayside, and the viewer might wonder where the priorities lie. 

As Macdonald so convincingly showed, the terrible outcome was significantly a result of the German authorities’ inexperience and fear of being seen as not properly cognizant of the Jewish hostages’ safety. This Olympics was, after all, the first real international event held in Germany since the Holocaust. If that aspect of Feldbaum’s recreation seems insufficiently addressed, it’s because the people involved thought they were on top of the story, but the information kept changing and a worst-case scenario played out in front of their eyes (or, in this case, ears). Feldbaum does a good job of conveying the horror the ABC Sports team felt as they realized what was really going on.

While September 5 works from the DNA of a journalism thriller, the new Captain American movie, Brave New World, is being touted as some kind of political thriller. Having not kept up with the MCU for the past several years, I couldn’t see where the story was going since I didn’t really know where it was coming from. I knew that Steve Rogers had passed the Captain America title on to the Falcon, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), but wasn’t sure what that entailed other than the iconic shield. So there’s a new Falcon (Danny Ramirez), an Hispanic dude who is basically Robin to Wilson’s Black Batman, thus giving this pair some DEI cred that would seem to be out-of-favor at the moment.  Still, I couldn’t quite figure out what their take on world-saving was without the Avengers in tow for context. 

But there’s this new super mineral that was discovered by the Japanese navy and the American president (Harrison Ford) wants to finalize a treaty that would guarantee all the world access to it, but then some super gangster (Giancarlo Esposito) steals it and Cap has to get it back. So far, so predictable, but then there’s an assassination attempt on the president, and it seems that somebody is manipulating minds remotely for ends that are never clarified except to say that that’s what evil people do. According to background I read, the script, written by five guys, has gone through a number of heavy changes in the past two years owing to certain real world events, and the only halfway compelling element I could find in the story is Shira Haas as an intelligence aide to the president who seems to be on loan from Mossad. But even she sounds confused as to who exactly she’s supposed to be fighting against. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be an MCU movie without a bid to end the world, so Cap and his new Falcon sidekick get to prevent the Japanese navy from starting war with the U.S., a hilarious idea if you know anything at all about Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Forces. And then there’s the Red Hulk, which is exactly what you think he is except that he isn’t who you think he is. If I found the action set pieces less than exciting it’s because they seem divorced from the general import of the story, as it were. It makes you sort of miss the Avengers, and I don’t even like the Avengers. 

September 5 now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024). 

Captain America: Brave New World now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Marunouchi Piccadilly (050-6875-0075), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

September 5 home page in Japanese

Captain America: Brave New World home page in Japanese

September 5 photo (c) 2024 Paramount Pictures

Captain America: Brave New World photo (c) 2025 MARVEL