Product: One Day in September [VHS] (2006)
Rating: 2.0
A Boring Disappointment
Many of the more positive reviews seem to have been written by Israelis. Unfortunately many of the qualities they found in this film will be completely missing in other people's experience.The average viewer who watches this film to either understand the incident or to gain some insight into the Isreali/Palastinian conflict will be disappointed. So will those seeking the vicarious thrill of watching a real life action-drama unfold.Much of the film attempted to appeal to the emotions of the audience dwelling on the personal tragedy of one hostage's family and to a lesser extent that of another. That did little to give purpose or coherence to the film. There was considerable padding with footage of the Olympics, in case you have no idea what goes on there, footage of policemen, people lounging, and what felt like 20 minutes of terrorists staring out of windows and doorways. It could easily be pared down to an hour and serve as midweek PBS fodder. The early 70's rock music in the soundtrack, chosen perhaps to lend period mood, was cheesey and extremely annoying.One positive comment I have is the movie explained some of the mystery behind the very bad performance of the German authorities. The greatest problem was lack of control (TV crews had free access allowing the live broadcast of an attempted police ambush which the terrorists were able to watch on TV) and lack of communication, both attributable to lack of training and appropriate organizational structure. The Germans at that time had no counterterrorist police units and their laws prevented military intervention. The police snipers had no radios, body armor or even proper sniper rifles. One policeman was accidentally killed and another officer accidentally wounded.