I'm not sure whether this belongs here or in the Political Lounge, but I'll mention it here.
There is a new movie called September 5 which deals with the terrorists who kidnapped Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics and held them hostage in their rooms at the Olympic village. Eventually the terrorists and hostages boarded a bus for the airport where the hostages and most of the terrorists died in a shootout with German police. Unlike most media portrayals of the tragedy, September 5 does not focus on the terrorists, the hostages, or the police, but, instead the decisions that went on at ABC News about how to cover the event (ABC had exclusive TV rights to cover the Olympics that year.) Much of the film takes place in the control booth, and Roone Arledge and Peter Jennings are major characters in the film.
The movie received very good to excellent reviews and received or was nominated for a number of year-end critics awards (including a Golden Globe nomination for best picture). It has a good chance of getting Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay and Editing, with an outside chance of Best Picture. Like similar films, such as The Brutalist, it opened in December in a small number of theaters to qualify for the Oscars with wider release to hundreds of theaters scheduled for this weekend. Last weekend, it was playing in 20 theaters nationwide.
Within the last few days, local theaters across the country have cancelled scheduled showings of September 5 for this weekend. (That includes several in Atlanta.) I had planned to see the movie next week. Neither Paramount (the studio distributing the film) nor the theaters have given a reason. However, in the last couple of weeks, there has been a considerable backlash against the movie from various film festivals and a very vocal group of Alamo Drafthouse employees. They have called the movie pro-Zionist propaganda and demanded that it be pulled from various showings. That may be the reason that this weekend's release was scrubbed, or it may be that Paramount wanted to wait for the Oscar nominations to come out (they've been delayed for a week due to the LA fires) before releasing the movie. Ironically, on Paramount's website, they still list the movie on their homepage and claim it's opening wide this weekend.
I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know what sort of political statement it makes, if any. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the film is never going to play any wider in theaters unless it gets some major Oscar nominations (like for Best Film). If not, it will show up on Paramount Plus in another month or so.
September 5 Movie
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September 5 Movie
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Re: September 5 Movie
silverscreenselect wrote: ↑Thu Jan 16, 2025 12:04 amI'm not sure whether this belongs here or in the Political Lounge, but I'll mention it here.
There is a new movie called September 5 which deals with the terrorists who kidnapped Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics and held them hostage in their rooms at the Olympic village. Eventually the terrorists and hostages boarded a bus for the airport where the hostages and most of the terrorists died in a shootout with German police. Unlike most media portrayals of the tragedy, September 5 does not focus on the terrorists, the hostages, or the police, but, instead the decisions that went on at ABC News about how to cover the event (ABC had exclusive TV rights to cover the Olympics that year.) Much of the film takes place in the control booth, and Roone Arledge and Peter Jennings are major characters in the film.
The movie received very good to excellent reviews and received or was nominated for a number of year-end critics awards (including a Golden Globe nomination for best picture). It has a good chance of getting Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay and Editing, with an outside chance of Best Picture. Like similar films, such as The Brutalist, it opened in December in a small number of theaters to qualify for the Oscars with wider release to hundreds of theaters scheduled for this weekend. Last weekend, it was playing in 20 theaters nationwide.
Within the last few days, local theaters across the country have cancelled scheduled showings of September 5 for this weekend. (That includes several in Atlanta.) I had planned to see the movie next week. Neither Paramount (the studio distributing the film) nor the theaters have given a reason. However, in the last couple of weeks, there has been a considerable backlash against the movie from various film festivals and a very vocal group of Alamo Drafthouse employees. They have called the movie pro-Zionist propaganda and demanded that it be pulled from various showings. That may be the reason that this weekend's release was scrubbed, or it may be that Paramount wanted to wait for the Oscar nominations to come out (they've been delayed for a week due to the LA fires) before releasing the movie. Ironically, on Paramount's website, they still list the movie on their homepage and claim it's opening wide this weekend.
I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know what sort of political statement it makes, if any. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the film is never going to play any wider in theaters unless it gets some major Oscar nominations (like for Best Film). If not, it will show up on Paramount Plus in another month or so.
There really is only one side to take in that event. I'm interested in seeing this.
I was going to mention the film with Helen Miren about the Mossad's reation to that day, but got The Debt (Helen's movie but a different Massod operation) confused with Munich. Both were good movies.
..what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms.
~~ Thomas Jefferson
War is where the government tells you who the bad guy is.
Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
-- Benjamin Franklin (maybe)
~~ Thomas Jefferson
War is where the government tells you who the bad guy is.
Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
-- Benjamin Franklin (maybe)
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Re: September 5 Movie
I saw September 5 today. This weekend, it expanded to 400 thaters nationwide, which is far from a wide release. None of the Regal Theaters in Atlanta are playing it, although they canceled some showings from last week. It's playing at three AMC theaters, which is where I saw it.
This is an excellent movie. It's not the best movie of the year, but it's better than about half the films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The most recognizable actor in the cast is Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge. It tells the story of how ABC covered the Olympic hostage crisis in 1972 exclusively from the point of view of the people in the ABC control room and nearby. Among the issues they confronted were whether to keep a live feed going when the terrorists might shoot one or more hostages, whether ABC Sports should run the show or hand it off to the ABC News desk in the United States, and whether to publish a preliminary report that all the hostages had been released safely (which wasn't the case). One thing that's immediately apparent is the vast difference in technology between 1972 and today. This was the first Olympics to be televised live, and ABC had to reserve satellite time. They had to switch off with CBS to get a feed that began a couple of hours after their crews were in place. Other interesting notes:
This is an excellent movie. It's not the best movie of the year, but it's better than about half the films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The most recognizable actor in the cast is Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge. It tells the story of how ABC covered the Olympic hostage crisis in 1972 exclusively from the point of view of the people in the ABC control room and nearby. Among the issues they confronted were whether to keep a live feed going when the terrorists might shoot one or more hostages, whether ABC Sports should run the show or hand it off to the ABC News desk in the United States, and whether to publish a preliminary report that all the hostages had been released safely (which wasn't the case). One thing that's immediately apparent is the vast difference in technology between 1972 and today. This was the first Olympics to be televised live, and ABC had to reserve satellite time. They had to switch off with CBS to get a feed that began a couple of hours after their crews were in place. Other interesting notes:
- Several times, they got "live" audio by holding up telephone receivers or walkie talkies to the microphone in the control room.This includes the time that Howard Cosell just happened to be in the area where the buses where being loaded to take the hostages to the airport.
- Peter Jennings was in one of the rooms in the Olympic village where he could report. However, his cameraman had a bulky 16mm camera that shot rolls of film. After he got in the room, the police locked down the Olympic village and limited access to athletes. So, ABC put one of their crew in a US Olympic running suit and rigged up a fake ID, so he could smuggle new rolls of film back and forth to Jennings.
- At one point, CBS took over the satellite feed, and all the ABC cameras went blank in the middle of an interview with an Israeli coach who managed to escape. ABC had to cut a deal with CBS to share the feed, but ABC put a permanent ABC decal in the corner of the picture so everyone would know where the feed originated.
- About 900 million people watched the event live worldwide, supposedly more than had seen Neil Armstrong's moon walk.
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