September 5 (#643)


The third good movie I saw recently was based on a true story but was produced and directed like a documentary using professional actors. The story revolved around the horrendous tragedy at the summer Olympic games in 1972 which were held in Munich, Germany. In the midst of the events, a Palestinian militant group, known as Black September, entered the athletes' living area, executed two Israeli athletes and abducted 9 others. The ABC tv crew were in a position to show the happenings live but were totally inexperienced in news coverage like this because they were a sports team, not a news team. Led by the legendary Roone Arledge, they were able to do the job remarkably well, against all odds. Combing actual footage of the event alongside the on-the-job learning experiencing of televising what was happening made for an exciting, suspenseful and meaningful movie. Acting was first class as was everything else about the movie which was in black-and-white like The Brutalist.  The success of the sports team greatly advanced the careers of men including Arledge and the announcer called upon to be a newscaster, Jim McKay. I knew McKay personally (when he was known as Jim McManus) in Baltimore in the early 1950s. He was either a reporter for the Evening Sun or working at a fledgling local television station and was dating an older sister of a girl I was dating. We felt at the time that he was not the brightest bulb in the bunch, but his subsequent success proved us wrong.  The movie was highly critical of the German government and police in handling the tragedy. 92% of critics and 90% of audiences joined me in praise of this one—a must see movie.  

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