While my taste in and analysis of films has changed greatly since my freshman year of college, this is one of the few that I pegged correctly before I really knew what to look for. One Day in September turned me on to the power and importance of documentary films. It is in the upper echelon of documentaries because it stretches your mind by not giving you all the answers and educates without treating you like an ignoramus. This is documentary filmmaking in its purest form- it documents something the filmmaker believes to be important without forcing an opinion on you.
The film documents the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games. After a successful and peaceful start to the games, a team of Palestinian terrorists (of the group Black September) sneak into the Olympic village and take most of the Israeli team and their coaches hostage. Despite the horrific circumstances, the games continue on while negotiators attempt to defuse a veritable powder keg of politics, religion and power while the world watches. Despite tactical expert assistance, every plan fails and the worst possible results becomes a reality.
One Day in September has a great advantage over other historical documentaries. Instead of current historians providing voice-over narration of event footage, this film uses clips of the television coverage of the hostage crisis as it unfolded. This makes for a remarkable experience as the audience not only sees the events unfold but relives it through the thoughts and emotions of people who covered it firsthand. There is no disconnect between what you see and what you hear.
Between footage of the crisis, modern interviews with people who were on the scene illuminate some of the behind-the-scenes information. This helps connect a few more dots than simply replaying the TV footage alone. Security force members talk about the plans that were devised and how some of them fell apart (such as the terrorists watching TV coverage of a tactical squad trying to move in on the Israeli team’s dormitory). Just as illuminating and potentially controversial are the interviews with the lone member of the Black September terrorists involved in the hostage crisis.
This film is able to avoid partisanship and the ideological slippery slope because only the most hardened anti-Semites would view the Munich massacre as anything less than a tragedy. A vast majority of viewers will find themselves in agreement, which gives the filmmakers a chance to push our minds further. They don’t stop at the end of the crisis. Footage is shown and information given detailing the shady circumstances of the release of the three terrorists who survived and rumors of an Israeli black-ops hit squad set loose to find and kill those terrorists.
September briefly touches on the fact that, for many around the world, this was the first time anyone witnessed anything pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict firsthand. From this point on, the conflict over the Palestine region was not isolated to the newspaper or a brief sound bite on the evening news. This was also one of the first major hostage crises to appear on international television. Both of these facts should be discussed by viewers of this film because the Munich massacre had more than just an emotional impact. It changed the way terrorists operated and the way the media responded to them. If September attempts to lead its audience toward anything, it’s discussion of these facts.
And that’s the beauty of this film. It’s not trying to be clever or snarky. It’s not trying to make you agree with a political view or opinion of how things ‘ought to be.’ One Day in September puts forth an event that (almost) every can agree was horrible but it allows you to debate the details. It passes some judgment on the German government for the release of the terrorists but it lets you decide for yourself what to make of the complicated details surrounding a seemingly black-and-white event. On top of it all, it won an Academy Award for Best Documentary, so if you can’t take my word for it, trust the experts. In the case of this film, they’re most certainly right.
While my taste in and analysis of films has changed greatly since my freshman year of college, this is one of the few that I pegged correctly before I really knew what to look for. One Day in September turned me on to the power and importance of documentary films. It is in the upper echelon of documentaries because it stretches your mind by not giving you all the answers and educates without treating you like an ignoramus. This is documentary filmmaking in its purest form- it documents something the filmmaker believes to be important without forcing an opinion on you.
