Too much of everything

Memorable, crazy movie

Good start, but then it gets ruined

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I had never heard of this movie before tonite, when I watched it on cable. from reading other reviews I understand that I didn't get to view some important but gruesome scenes. those scenes may have made the film even stronger, but believe me, "One Day in September" still packs a punch.the documentary covers the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, with an emphasis on the blundering (West) Germans who made a mess of the situation. Michael Douglas narrates, beautifully. for me, the interviews with survivors and family members were less interesting than the live-action scenes of the terror attack as it happened. it was especially moving to see Jim McKay ("They're all gone") and a little astonishing to watch the newspeople giving a play by play about the rescue attempt, which the terrorists were watching on TV along with the rest of us!I dimly remember the event, but I had either never known or had forgotten the details. for example, how truly craven the Olympic officials were--after Israel flew its dead back home, the games continued. (it's interesting watching it now, after the IOC's refusal to give a moment of silence at the 2012 London Olympics.) this is a very important movie for people to see. among other things, it reminds us that haters can always find a pretext for killing the people they despise. that's something we should especially remember these days, when another film is setting the Muslim world on fire, literally. I will definitely watch it again--this time with no cuts!

I can only agree on what most of the user comments here have pointed out: Notwithstanding the thrilling and gripping style - great editing for instance - in which the events are presented, the film as a whole is fairly questionable because of its undeniable intention to bash the Germans and their police force for what happened while at the same time refusing to investigate into other directions. Furthermore, it gives us little more than a glimpse of the terrorists' motivations, feeding the impression that we're watching a piece of propaganda that is - without a doubt - well executed. The probably most unbelievable faux-pas is that at no time during all the interviews the name of the witnesses are shown. Very amateurish! 8/10 for film-making, 2/10 for subject treatment. See it, but be aware of its slanted view!

I found this film, with its blurred boundaries between thriller and documentary, rather compelling and hard to look away from. My comments here are really more about the criticisms of the film than the film itself. I've read several comments about ONE DAY IN September from Europeans lamenting its treatment of the Germans and Palestinians. As an American, I admit much more sympathy for Israel than Palestine (despite the USA's shameful record on race, at least we didn't launch the Holocaust), but the film is more about the killing of the innocent (and bungled German efforts to save them) than a deep historical treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (For that, I'd recommend FIFTY-YEAR WAR, a PBS Frontline documentary.) And I'm not sure it's totally unfair to condemn the Germans for failing to even have an anti-terrorist unit, considering that terrorism was already a rising problem in Europe by 1972. This film isn't objective and isn't obligated to be -- if a counterpart film appears, I'd certainly watch, but I don't expect it to elicit much sympathy on my side of the pond. (And, in case anyone thinks I'm a right-wing lunatic, I've never voted Republican and oppose the current war.)

I hate to say this, but one need do nothing more than read the other reviews of this film to see just what kind of film it is.This is a film about a terrorist event made with the sole intention of showing the event in an arrogant and accusatory way. The descriptions one can find on the IMDb for this film astound me. Things such as "shows the Palestinians for what they are; happy to kill Israelis" and "shows the nature of good and evil." All of which is exactly what most people tend to do in situations such as these: personalize and humanize the victims while demonizing the proponents.The film fills in backstory on the German government. Just enough back story, that is, to make one angry at the German government for being "criminally negligent" (despite the fact that this assumes they had any reason to suspect that such an event would take place at the Olympics). It also goes to great lengths to show the Palestinian celebration of the dead men upon their return home, but makes no effort to show what could drive men to such acts... Again, assuming the presence of evil, rather than a logical motive. And the film focuses its efforts on one victim and his widow; clumsily humanizing the story in a way which makes it even more ghastly, yet, as was previously mentioned, by the time the film reaches it's conclusion, we feel absolutely no remorse about the deaths of the terrorists.This is the kind of film that proposes eye for an eye in regards to terrorism, and inflames hatred of Arabs in the eyes of those who do not understand the motives and do not wish to.It is blame wrapped up in a convincing package. Using a human tragedy as ammunition to incite anger at the terrorists rather than intelligent reflection on the horror of the action.It is possible to loathe the action without seeing the perpetrators as inhuman... But you won't find it in this film.Shameful.