Product: One Day in September [VHS] (2006)
Rating: 5.0
Lessons in History
I remember seeing some of this footage live when I was 12 yrs old watching the Olympics. The games of Mark Spitz and Olga Korbut and terror on Live TV. But this movie shows much more than what we saw on TV back then. It's also somewhat balanced - showing the tragedy of the Israeli athletes, but also giving a glimpse of the plight of the Palestinians. The lone surviving terrorist grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon where he built up his hatred, after his family was pushed out of their homeland. Mainly, I came away with feeling this would be a good training film for SWAT teams and hostage negotiating teams on what NOT to do. My guess is that because this was the first incident of it's kind, the German police were just completely inexperienced and clueless. It was most interesting to hear how the terrorists prepared for this. They were mostly young, trained in Libya, not told of their mission until the day before. Eerily similar to current terrorist acts. There is also a mixed message about negotiating with terrorists. Golda Meier made it clear: if we give in here, every Israeli from now on will be a target. But later the Germans did give in by letting the 3 surviving terrorists go as insurance against future attacks in Germany. Lessons in history.