To me, this movie is perfection.

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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!

Having watched the film 21 Hours At Munich the day before, I expected a little more from this and was slightly disappointed. It recounts the actual events very well but little more. Very little time is spent digging into the thoughts and emotions of the principles involved.I learned a little more about a few of the Israeli athletes but the interview with the only surviving terrorist was actually quite pointless. Nothing much was gained from talking to him except the fact that he's still quite proud of the atrocities he committed against innocent people. I seriously hope a bullet finds this man before he is allowed to die of natural causes.I agree with other reviewers that blasting Deep Purple's "Child In Time" while showing a slide show of the burnt and shot corpses of Israeli athletes and their captors was very gratuitous. It would have been more effective and more respectful if that scene were silent.The most disturbing claim of the film (narrator Michael Douglas could hardly hold his disgust) was the charge that Germany colluded with Black September to have the three surviving terrorists released under false pretenses. It's quite ironic that what started as an attempt to clean up the stain of six million murdered Jews ended up not only with more murdered Jews but Germany denying justice for their murders. Hypocrites!Now what I'd like to see is a documentary about the reprisal killings. The fiction that was Sword Of Gideon and Munich will not suffice.

It would appear that many people believe that the documentary format should be held to some sort of objective, news-gathering standard. Whenever two clips are spliced together, regardless of the content there is some editorializing. A documentary is an editorial. If you want nothing more than unopinionated truth, than the only avenue open to you is uninterrupted security camera footage. You can, and sometimes should, disagree with the opinions offered by the documentary filmmaker as a critical viewer, but one faulting the filmmaker for offering an opinion is like criticizing water for being wet. The line that must be discerned is whether the filmmaker is overly deceptive or insidious in trying to convince you of his or her opinion. This is a line that can be very difficult to draw.Mr. Ruvi Simmons of London does not seem to realize these basic tenets of documentary film-making: "One Day in September, however, concentrates more on the human interest of the event itself, neglecting background information in order to convey a one-sided and grossly biased perspective on a tragic occurrence." I am a filmmaker, and I know that as such one must choose a theme and a perspective for a feature length documentary. The main problem that this person has with the film is that he is "that it neither explores the underlying issues behind the Israeli-Palestinian tensions." This is a 2 hour film, not a 40 hour mini-series. There is no way that the filmmaker could have adequately explored the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and still told the story that he or she intended: the story of the hostage crisis at the Games of '72. Mr. Simmons also took offense at the filmmaker for vilifying the terrorists who perpetrated this plot. I do not need to offer a critical retort as any logical person can understand why this statement is foolishness. It sounds as though Mr. Simmons feels as though the terrorists were justified in hurting innocent athletes a continent removed from their conflict. Obviously, this person would dislike this documentary (although he does not mention that the documentarian interviewed one of the terrorists to present his side of their story).If you want to have a solid introduction to the acts of terrorism at the Games of '72, then this is a good work to watch. It is true that the thriller-style is a bit gimmicky, but it does add somewhat to the suspense if you do not know the outcome. If you are intending to see the film, "Munich," then this is probably a good primer (I have not yet seen it as it has not been released). Just remember, this film is just as much an editorial as Spielburg's film will be.~C

This documentary is a revelation for all of us who witnessed on our television sets the hi-jacking of the 1972 Olympics Games by Palestinian terrorists. The ineptness of the German's in every aspect of this tragedy is almost incomprehensible and certainly reprehensible. To hear the interviews with those Germans involved, one would be inclined to share in their obvious amusement at such incompetence were it not for the murder of 11 Israeli athletes. And so one watches this film in three stages, with sadness, disbelief and then anger. For those not yet initiated to the most tragic event in Olympic history, on September 5, 1972, a week into the Olympic Games in Munich, Palestinian terrorists entered the Olympic compound and held hostage 9 members of the Israeli Olympic team, after already killing two who attempted resistance. Their demands were the release of 200 terrorists held primarily by Israel. Israel maintained its policy of "no negotiations with terrorist" while the Germans, anxious to get on with the games, attempted to negotiate a settlement that was never possible. In the end they bungled a rescue operation and all the hostages were murdered. ONE DAY IN September takes a much closer look at the facts, which should be a revelation for those ignorant of the European history of appeasement and the current crisis between radical Islamists and the West. In their desire not to be a target for terrorism, after having three of the Munich terrorists in custody, Germany arranged for the hijacking of a commercial airliner as a means to release their captives with a fictional hostage exchange scheme. One of them still lives to "proudly" tell his tale. The other two were hunted down and killed by Israel, acts that no doubt sparked condemnation from Germany and the UN.