September 5

September 5, a title referencing the date when the Munich Olympic Games took a terrifying turn, involves the traumatic events during the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. Although not the actual film title regarding the events, Robert De Niro starred in Munich (2005) a spy thriller directed by Steven Spielberg, where Israel, mourning the loss of the athletes, proceeds to take revenge through secret operations, we'll examine the events through the lens of a fictional scenario based on actual events. In this film, an American sports broadcasting crew consisting of several members - consisting of broadcasters like Bob, Ted, two camera men, and a group of experienced crew members who are there, scheduled to work at the 1972 Olympic Games. A prestigious event they've all been excited to broadcast and display to their millions of fans all across America. The Munich games in 1972 marked a time of politics intertwined with sports and what appeared to be the world joining together as one - but all of that came crashing down when a group of eight Palestinian terrorists, all members of the separatist group Black September, stormed into the Olympic village. The terrorists took control of the Israeli team, eventually separating and executing 11 Israeli athletes, one police officer, and a weightlifter, hijacking a school bus and making off with the hostages. The entire world watched in dismay while CNN's existence was in its early stages, yet the unfolding horror continued. Back at the broadcasting crew, in a race against time, there's the chaos of learning about what's unfolding, while trying to understand these actions and attempting to notify the rest of their network. The Olympic committee soon steps in in response to the crisis requesting reporters not to give air time to the Palestinian terrorist group, so an 'embargo' was put in place. The group's main priority had been to cover the athletic competitions, their main job at the games. However, they had little choice other than risking it to get to the truth to share with their networks and their audiences worldwide. Thus, the real questions and conundrums in this critical film emerge. The complex environment forces them to endure inhuman situations leading them into making difficult choices. Here lies a scenario where compassion, ethics, patriotism, and a universal love for human life set the tone. In this impossible scenario, teamwork starts to crumble within their team due to differences during extraordinary times like these. The more difficult questions Bob struggles with throughout, though, relate more to deciding between sharing the news thus compromising fairness, but he eventually understands its urgency to bring it into the public eye in a way that calls for human rights and action. As the entire crisis is ultimately unfolding, the crew finds themselves embedded with the German security team taking part in the special commando operation to rescue the Israeli athletes. In the attempt to maintain professionalism amidst un-seen turmoil, these American sportscasters turn into undercover agents trying to get critical information and coordinate between different forces involved. As you can assume, there must be consequences associated with this catastrophic event since they've involved themselves with so many parties with conflicting interests. This kind of real-life covert operations raise questions about 'should they just do the right thing?' their moral character undergoes thorough re-evaluation when a US government mandate is established. As these seemingly invincible reporters on US television encounter massive, historically monumental responsibility all while pursuing and witnessing a massive operation that takes a massive life toll, facing unprecedented chaos, ethics seem to blur, tested to its limits, forming strong conflicts between people on their team due to different values - truth being seen from diverse directions. Ultimately they endure in the battle against time when they face a historical cataclysm in which many perished as well as uncover the truth behind the unsavory forces that have formed a very large power network while on this deadly cover-up mission that leaves devastating impacts leaving little joy - but does motivate to relearn their own definitions of ethics in human actions and understanding towards fellow humans in a world trying its best to keep hatred at bay.