In 1972, as the Munich Olympics were winding down, Palestinian terrorists stormed the Israeli quarters in the athletes’ village, killing two and taking nine others hostage. An ABC crew was of course on the scene just a stone’s throw away, and as fate would have it, they were for the first time in broadcast history sending live satellite images out to almost a billion viewers.

While there to cover the Games, they were nevertheless trained journalists, and after battling their own network’s New York-based news division for the story (“This is way over your heads!”) and rival CBS for satellite time, they won approval to become the prime source of information about the rapidly unfolding tragedy.

Then it got messy. First were the moral concerns of showing the possible murders of young athletes on live TV, in front of their families, as it were. Then came the tactically more frightening issue of possibly supplying the terrorists with live images of what was going on outside the dorms. The outcome is in the history books. That said, director Tim Fehlbaum packs an unbelievable amount of suspense into this
behind-closed-doors, you-are-there story, making the inherent ambivalence part of the narrative. He’s aided by a terrific cast that includes Geoffrey Mason as the on-site director, Peter Sarsgaard as network sports mucky muck Roone Arledge, Ben Chaplin as producer Marvin Bader, and Leonie Benesch as German translator Marianne Gebhardt.

The movie stays on point, resisting dramatic subplots and sensationalism. It also includes fascinating archival footage of Jim McKay, who won an Emmy for his anchoring. (95 min)