Product: One Day in September [VHS] (2006)
Rating: 4.0
Lest we not remember
This film did an excellent job of retelling a significant event that has been downplayed or simply forgotten in the hopes that "progress", coexistence and my personal favorite, "peace" can be attained in the Middle East. This film brought back my first memories as a child watching the Olympics and not understanding why this wonderful event that brings the world together had been brought to a fatal halt in the name of world politics. Unfortunately, as we experienced with the United States boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet/Communist Block boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the Munich Massacre would not be the last time that we would see the Olympic games utilized as a political soapbox. Macdonald did an excellent job of bringing in footage and interviews that we were not privvy to in the pre-cable days of the 1970's. The family interviews showed tragic and destructive memories that continue to pain the victims nearly 30 years later. The sadly unprepared and unqualified German security was unconscionable. Opposition against the Israel had been occuring ever since it was restored in 1948. War was declared against Israel in 1948 by neighboring Arab nations, the Sinai Campain/Suez Canal blockage of the 1950's, and the Six Day War in 1967 just to name a few events that marked the need for increased security for the Israeli team. Not to mention that just the gesture of increased security by the German government would have been a huge public relations boost to rid themselves of their recent reputation ... But they chose not to do so. I had the priviledge of working security at the 1984 Olympics and it was basically a very low key job (there was a large security force plus local police and paramilitary) except when the Israeli team arrived with a surrounding motorcade and chase helicopters from above. Things got very tense and serious. I began to realize the magnitude of the events that occured in Munich. One glaring ommission of the film in its portrayal of the Black September Palestinians is the fact that there is not one mention of Arafat or the PLO throughout the film. It has been well established that Black September and the PLO were one in the same. These acts were not merely done by a fringe group. Arafat has admitted this with his disclaimer that the PLO has since grown more "moderate". The film does not mention this, for fear of perhaps being labeled Pro-Israeli. However, this was a fact that should not have been overlooked. The film portrays the events as an Israeli/Palestinian issue but as we see with the "heroes funeral" the slain terrorists receive in Libya and their earlier request at the airport to be taken to any Arab nation with the hostages, the conflict is, and always has been, an Arab/Israeli conflict and not merely an Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I judge any film by how much I think about it afterward. This film invoked much thought and I've never been prompted to write a review like this with any film I've seen before. It was a good film about a turbulent time that should not be forgotten.