Reptileenbu
Did you people see the same film I saw?
ActuallyGlimmer
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Deanna
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
cstotlar-1
No, I don't think this remarkable documentary was pro- anything. The Israeli team during the Munich Olympics was featured because they were on the all-star list. In fact all the contenders were stars as they always are during these world competitions. Of course we know their names. We have access to the names of every contestant and finally, every winner and loser. The fact that they come with biographies certainly isn't any surprise. That's the nature of the Olympics. We don't know much of anything about the terrorists. They weren't the athletes in the competition. Why should we know about them? This excellent film does not take sides, as hard as it must have been to avoid, or make any overtly political statements and this has been criticized in some quarters. Instead of presenting a political diatribe or a hate machine or a propaganda film, this documentary sticks to the facts, presented chronologically for the main part, and leaves the viewer to draw any conclusions. There are some conclusions we can hardly avoid but the film doesn't abet in trying to sway us. This is simply a tragedy reviewed and the inability to deal with the circumstances leading up to it in any practical way. The film whizzed by, as painful as part of it was to watch. There wasn't much to see about the personal reactions. That wasn't the purpose of this fine piece of work.Curtis Stotlar
julie_stroup
I believe that what happened at the 1972 Olympics established a template for a good deal of future terrorist activity. This incident demonstrated for the first time that you could gain a world stage and the world's attention by committing an atrocity. The press has played a tacit role in terrorism since that time. Terrorists are looking for media coverage and know that the best way to get that is by executing attacks at prominent events or on large population centers.Re. the film, the fact that the German security forces were unprepared is no surprise as there was no precedent for this type of incident in the past. Sadly, many countries including most western countries are quite prepared now.
Jonny_Numb
"One Day in September," the companion film to Simon Reeve's book of the same title, is a shocking and gripping account of the Palestinian terrorist siege that took place at the 1972 Olympics at Munich. The film mixes archival footage, still photographs, interviews with survivors, and, in one instance, computer imaging (to show the layout of Furstenfeldbruck airport, where snipers were positioned to take out the terrorists) to tell a tale that is still as shocking and relevant today as when it initially happened. Along with Steven Spielberg's more embellished docu-thriller "Munich," "One Day in September" is an impressive documentary that chronicles despair and terror, but also quietly graceful uplift (as shown in a reflective conclusion).7.5 out of 10
mickoc
It hardly comes as a surprise to find that many a rabid left wingers nose will be firmly knocked out of joint with a film such as 'one day in September'. No rose tinted spectacles here. This is not an Al jazeera offering. They are forced to view the murderous nihilistic reality of their beloved freedom fighters. So faced with cold hard facts which cannot be readily explained away they try another defense, namely accuse the film of being one sided and not show the situation of the Palestinians.One question: Is it a documentary about Palestine or about Munich in 1972? To be fair there is quiet a bit early on to put the situation in some sort of perspective and the surviving terrorist and his opinions are given plenty of air time.You don't hear much crying from the same quarters decrying one sidedness or bias when Michael Moore makes one of his ridiculous, so called, documentaries. I think most people are familiar with the Palestinian situation, but i, for one, had not heard anything about the madness that happened in Munich in 1972. When Kevin McDonald set out to make a documentary on what happened there then its hardly surprising that we see a film dealing with the events on that terrible day. If he set out to make a documentary on Palestine and how it was taken off the Arabs by the Jew's then he would have set to that task and not dwelt too much on how the Jew's had been banished from there two thousand years ago after moses had been promised this and that.As with the BBC journalist crying when Arafat was lifted out of his compound for the last time or those who would attempt a defense of the Palestinian murder spree in Munich there seems to be a different reality or level of understanding needed when it comes to issues about Palestine or its people so its hardly surprising that a documentary like this would raise hackles.This is an excellent film.
