Director Tim Fehlbaum’s new film September 5 is centered on how the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre changed the way media outlets cover major global…
The 1972 Munich Olympics kicked off under the banner of hope and peace, hosted by a country eager to turn the page nearly three decades after the fall of the Nazi regime.
Instead, those Summer Games were marred by tragedy when armed militants affiliated with the Palestinian organization Black September took members of Israel’s Olympic team hostage. By the time it all ended, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a West German officer were dead.
ABC Sports was already on the ground covering the sporting events from its own production complex outside the Olympic Village. As the situation unfolded, the division took the dramatic decision to broadcast live with developments.
These events are recounted in director Tim Fehlbaum’s new Golden Globe-nominated film September 5. The film is set almost entirely in the ABC Sports control room and focuses on the real-time challenges faced by the broadcasters who improvised to get the audience as close as possible to the story.
“It was that group of sports reporters that had to make that switch,” Fehlbaum told NPR’s A Martínez. “They had this almost innocent view. They were not trained or experienced in crisis reporting. And so they made all these decisions on the spot.”
ABC Sports at the time was led by President Roone Arledge, played in the movie by Peter Sarsgaard. Arledge vigorously fought for his division to lead the story, refusing to bow to pressure from ABC News to take over news coverage from thousands of miles away in the U.S.
Some of the team’s heftiest challenges included making sure their live coverage didn’t inadvertently share with the armed extremists — via television screens the hostage takers might access — law enforcement’s moves and potentially broadcast hostage killings to the entire world.
The seminal moment changed how media covers breaking news in real time as journalists grappled with how evolving technologies might impact the subjects of reporting and the audience consuming the media coverage. The broadcast was also an early instance of news becoming infotainment.
Arledge, who created the primetime Monday Night Football broadcasts, won an Emmy Award for his coverage of the 1972 Munich Games and was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame. He produced a total of 10 Olympic Games.
As part of his research for the film, Fehlbaum had conversations with Geoffrey Mason, one of the few surviving members of the ABC Sports team who covered the events. At the time, he was pulled in as coordinating producer of the around-the-clock ABC Sports coverage.
“Everything that they were doing was against a ticking clock. Right. That’s basically the essence of live reporting also, is that you are constantly working against the ticking clock,” Fehlbaum said, recalling one of his exchanges with Mason.
Fehlbaum’s team obtained blueprints of the ABC Sports control room and pictures from that time so that the images on screen were “100% accurate.” All of the equipment shown in the film is vintage technology from the era, obtained from collectors and museums, and the cast was trained on using it.
The director, who is based in Switzerland, recalled how production buyer Johannes Pfaller at one point told him that all early 1970s era technology still in Europe was now in the film studio in Munich.
“I wanted these devices to work because I wanted the cast to be able to interact with this technology,” Fehlbaum explained. “So if John Magaro would give a direction to the monitor wall, it could actually have an effect on the wall. These telephones would really ring. And I wanted everything that comes from the outside to the cast in front of the camera to really happen.”
September 5 makes extensive use of original ABC footage. Securing access to the footage is what initially led the film to become an English-language one with an international production team backed by Sean Penn and his partners John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth.
Combined with a tightly written script, the footage gives a sense of urgency and dramatic tension, all packed in a small room.
It’s also what distinguishes September 5 from past cinematic treatment, such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005), which focuses on the aftermath, or Kevin Macdonald’s documentary One Day in September (1999).
“I thought the media aspect is an interesting story or aspect of that tragic day for today’s audience to learn more about. And we wanted to convey a way for today’s audience to reflect on our complex media environment through that historical lens,” Fehlbaum said.
“The moral and ethical questions are still the same that are being discussed every day. For example, can we show violence on TV or how fast do we let something out just to be the first? Or how many confirmed sources do we need?”
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Barry Gordemer. The digital version was edited by Obed Manuel.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The 1972 Munich Olympics are remembered more for tragedy than medals. Armed Palestinians took members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. By the time it all ended, 11 Israelis, 5 Palestinians, and a West German officer were dead. ABC Sports, not News, covered it live and estimated 900 million people watched. The Golden Globe-nominated movie “September 5” takes us in the control room. Director Tim Fehlbaum told me what inspired him to make the film.
TIM FEHLBAUM: It was a research conversation that I had with Geoffrey Mason. He’s the director of the broadcast. He was a 20-year-old rookie working for ABC Sports, who back then were, like, the coolest TV channel on the lot. They had the latest technology in their studio. And listening to his stories, what they experienced and what questions they were confronting when doing that switch from reporting on sporting events to reporting on that crisis, that inspired us to think about maybe we can completely tell the story from that angle.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, that angle is all about decisions the ABC Sports crew had to make in terms of what to broadcast, how to broadcast. This is how we remember that event, that historic event.
FEHLBAUM: Oh, yeah, I’m glad you see it like this. It was that group of sports reporters that had to make that switch. So in a way, they had this almost innocent view. They were not trained or experienced in crisis reporting. So they made all these decisions that you were referring to on the spot, working against the ticking clock in a way.
MARTÍNEZ: I want to play this scene from the film. ABC New York is trying to tell Roone Arledge, the president of ABC Sports – who is in Munich, who is basically running this whole show – to let them take over this big news event. Let’s hear that.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, “SEPTEMBER 5”)
SOLOMON MOUSLEY: (As Roone’s Assistant) ABC wants news to take over.
BENJAMIN WALKER: (As Peter) You’re sports. You’re in way over your head.
PETER SARSGAARD: (As Roone) We’re a hundred yards away from where this is happening. We are the only people capable of following it live. This is our story, and we’re keeping it.
MARTÍNEZ: So, Tim, I had a very long career in sports before I got into news. And so that line from your film really hit home for me because there was always this sense that because I was in sports, that I didn’t have an idea of what was newsworthy.
FEHLBAUM: Yeah, Roone Arledge said something that is, of course, very true. They are there, only a hundred yards away from where it’s happening. And what they clearly could handle was live television, right? Sports was much ahead of news on the developments of live television. And then they just had this idea of, why don’t we wheel out one of the two studio cameras that we have, do the coverage in the studio just with one camera, and the other one could give us a live shot of the apartment where the tragic events are unfolding inside? And they were the only ones to have that live image. And that, of course, was also the reason why we chose the perspective of ABC Sports, because there were other TV channels on the lot on that day, but they were the only ones to have that live image.
MARTÍNEZ: A lot of what happens in news today takes their cues from sports. So when you see someone in front of a large electoral map of the United States, that was done a long time ago, people breaking down highlights on a screen with a pen to make circles and to show where a play is going. So for news to have that attitude, I’ve always wondered why that persisted for so long, as if sports reporters had no idea of what something newsworthy could be.
FEHLBAUM: Yeah. And I also want to add, like, I did a lot of research, of course, during the preproduction of this movie. And I went to a lot of control rooms because I wanted to feel the vibe within these rooms. And I am deeply fascinated and have the highest respect of the work that these people do – just this energy that once they go live, the countdown comes, and even if it is that regular Knick’s game, there’s a certain urgency and energy that is very unique to that world. And I want to add one more thing to what you just said. Sports TV, at the time, was much ahead of news on how to make things also entertaining for the audience, especially under the lead of Roone Arledge.
Roone Arledge revolutionized sports TV. Before Roone Arledge, there was this – almost a deal between the organizers of the venues and the TV channels that the viewer at home should never have the better seat to the game than the person at the stadium, right? Because they were worried that they would stop selling tickets. Roone Arledge completely changed that and said, no, the person at home should have the best seat, should be the closest to the game. So as you said, many of the developments that we have in media is coming from the sports world.
MARTÍNEZ: Roone Arledge went on to create “Nightline,” “20/20” and “Monday Night Football.” So he had the chops, yeah.
FEHLBAUM: Yeah. He’s the first person to ever be the head of a sports and a news division of a TV channel. And in his biography, he says that obviously this day for him was the day where he could prove that he could handle news.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Now, the entire 90 minutes or so of the film takes place inside that ABC Sports control room – a very small, cramped space. What made you decide to impose these restrictions on yourself? And how did it work? Did it work the way you hoped? Because it definitely – I felt like I was in that cramped, crowded room with all of them.
FEHLBAUM: Oh, I’m glad that you had that feeling. That was exactly the tension that we had. And I find it an interesting challenge. How can I tell a story almost entirely from one location with the monitors as these only windows to the outside world? And I said, if we have this strong cinematic concept, we have to go really through with it and not show anything that they couldn’t see.
MARTÍNEZ: That equipment’s pretty old. I mean, was that actual equipment? Did you build it? Where did you dig it up?
FEHLBAUM: No, no. All these devices are real devices. I also wanted these devices to work. So if John Magaro would give a direction to the monitor wall, it should actually have an effect on the wall. These telephones should really ring because I wanted the cast to be able to interact with these technologies.
MARTÍNEZ: What sort of lessons do you think ABC Sports’ coverage of this massacre holds for today’s media?
FEHLBAUM: I would say in a way, to talk with Marshall McLuhan in a way, also, the medium is the message. People who saw the movie that are working in today’s news told us they watched this film, and they were obviously struck by how much the technology has changed. But the moral and ethical questions are still the same. For example, can we show violence on TV? Or how fast do we let something out just to be the first or how many confirmed sources do we need?
MARTÍNEZ: That’s director Tim Fehlbaum. His new film is “September 5.” Tim, thank you very much.
FEHLBAUM: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF LORENZ DANGEL’S “GET THE CREW IN”)
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