| One Day in September | |
|---|---|
 Cinema poster | |
| Directed by | Kevin Macdonald |
| Produced by | |
| Narrated by | Michael Douglas |
| Cinematography |
|
| Edited by | Justine Wright |
| Music by | Alex Heffes |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Redbus Film Distribution |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
One Day in September is a 1999documentary film directed byKevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the1972 Summer Olympics inMunich,Germany.Michael Douglas provides the sparsenarration throughout the film.
The film won theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 72nd Academy Awards, on 26 March 2000.[2]
The documentary begins with an advertisement by theMunich Tourism Bureau when the city was bidding for the1972 Summer Olympics, with a local woman inviting the world and the IOC members to vote in a favor of the city, then shows interviews with the wives of some of the murdered athletes, including Ankie Spitzer, widow of fencing coachAndre Spitzer. The film also features the first known filmed interview withJamal Al-Gashey, a surviving terrorist. Al-Gashey, who is in hiding inAfrica, wears a cap and sunglasses and his face is slightly blurred.
There are various shots of the Games getting under way, and attention is given to the lax security the Germans had at the Games. The terrorists are seen preparing for the assault; Al-Gashey claims that he and the other members were trained inLibya before going toWest Germany to begin the assault.
The assault is described by Al-Gashey as well as by some of the German security staff present. Footage ofABC anchorJim McKay is interspersed, along with sound clips ofPeter Jennings, to give an impression of events unfolding as they happened. GeneralUlrich Wegener, founder of the German counter-terrorist unitGSG 9, was also interviewed during the film, and was roundly criticized for his seemingly flippant attitude about the subject matter.
The film offers evidence supporting the allegation that therescue operation was poorly planned and executed; for instance, the German police assigned to the getaway aeroplane voted to abandon this as a suicide mission without consulting the central command, while the snipers were not prepared and were poorly positioned. The film implies that had the German government prepared better, the athletes might have been saved. Former Mossad DirectorZvi Zamir, who was present at the airport during the final gunfight, is interviewed about his views on the failed rescue (he had previously been interviewed on this subject in an NBC profile of the Munich massacre broadcast during the Barcelona Olympics). At the end of the section, graphic photographs of the dead Israelis and Palestinians are shown in a photo-montage set to theDeep Purple song "Child in Time".
The film also alleges that the 29 Octoberhijacking of a Lufthansa jet and the subsequent release of the three surviving Black September members in exchange for the hostages was a set-up by the German government, who did not want their failings to be made obvious in the trial.
After the film's release, film criticRoger Ebert recommended the film, stating that it "grips the attention and is exciting and involving. I recommend it on that basis--and also because of the new information it contains." He also stated that "Macdonald brings remarkable research to the film" and "he relentlessly builds up a case against the way the Germans and the International Olympic Committee handled the crisis." However, Ebert criticized the style of the film, and the film's "tasteless conclusion", which included a montage of action shots and photos of victims' corpses with a rock music score.[3]
Roger Ebert continued his criticisms after the film received an Academy Award,[4] claiming that the producer,Arthur Cohn, intentionally subverts the Academy's documentary and foreign film by-laws – which dictate that only members who have seen all nominated films may vote – by limiting screenings of his films to a small group of invited people; "by limiting those who have seen his, Cohn shrinks the voting pool and improves his odds."[3]
Joe Berlinger, director of the documentariesBrother's Keeper andParadise Lost, joined Ebert in criticizing Arthur Cohn's method of screening his films, but stressed that the problem is the Academy by-laws: "Until there is a documentary branch of the Academy that treats docs like any other film in any other category, nothing will change, despite the recent band-aid attempt to improve the situation."[5]
