There is one major flick flub that is a spoiler. The nature of it is such that it sort of makes me wonder about the authenticity of the entire film. You never see Peter Jenning's face but his voice is in the film filing reports. At about the 1:05 mark, he reports that in the transport of the hostages from the apartment to the bus to the helicopters, it was learned that there were 8 terrorists. At 1:05 he says, "there are only 5 police men (snipers) waiting at Ferstenburck (sp?) airfield. Then literally a minute later when the helicopters take off, Jennings again says that they do not know where the helicopters are going.
Now I understand that you can get audio clips out of sequence but I don't understand how Jennings can first say there are 5 snipers waiting at the airport (and how he would know this intricate detail--the number of snipers???) and then say that he didn't know where they were going.
I can only conclude that someone impersonated his voice for one or both of the sound bytes.
There may be a logical explanation for this but if there is....it is not immediately apparent.
As for the other 99.5% of the documentary, loved every bit of it. The build up was logical and well paced. You're not thrown right into the action, characters are developed in terms of the hostages. They don't delve too much into the terrorist's families but the plight of Palestine and it's people was discussed.
The documentary does get to the attack at the 20 minute mark. It is revealed that the East Germans provided logistical support to the terrorist. At about the 25 minute mark, you get a taste of just how nakedly chaotic it was. Nobody knew how many hostages there were. Nobody knew how many terrorists there were. Later it was highlighted that the press reports--newspapers--said that all hostages were safe.
As for production values, a red digital clock highlighted what time it was during the day when major events came and went. I think they could have used some more diagrams detailing how they moved from the apartment to the bus; the bus to the helicopter and the helicopter to the airfield.
At 1:30, the documentary is pretty short. I think they could have pushed it a bit further. As with other documentaries there was an epilogue that tied up some loose ends. One glaring loose end that still remains (maybe for good reason) is this: What would happen in 2021, 2022, 2024 if there was some sort of major disruption by criminals at the Olympics. In the documentary, a lot is made of the bizarre (in my view) decisions to continue events, decisions to pause the games after pressure was exerted, and then resume the events after the gunfight at the airport was over. I would imagine that the International Olympic Committee has a plan in place to not repeat this sort of thing.
I am both happy and a little melancholy that they didn't turn it into a "E True Hollywood Story" where they talk to random celebrities about the attack. But I think they could have used some heft in the area of 'What does this say about the Olympic ideal?'. Jennings was still alive at the time it was released; as was Jim McKay. They would have more altitude than someone like Bob Costas or Tom Brokaw.
Aside from the continuity issues, I highly rate this documentary. I wish that the director would do similar projects for subsequent terrorist attacks.
Now I understand that you can get audio clips out of sequence but I don't understand how Jennings can first say there are 5 snipers waiting at the airport (and how he would know this intricate detail--the number of snipers???) and then say that he didn't know where they were going.
I can only conclude that someone impersonated his voice for one or both of the sound bytes.
There may be a logical explanation for this but if there is....it is not immediately apparent.
As for the other 99.5% of the documentary, loved every bit of it. The build up was logical and well paced. You're not thrown right into the action, characters are developed in terms of the hostages. They don't delve too much into the terrorist's families but the plight of Palestine and it's people was discussed.
The documentary does get to the attack at the 20 minute mark. It is revealed that the East Germans provided logistical support to the terrorist. At about the 25 minute mark, you get a taste of just how nakedly chaotic it was. Nobody knew how many hostages there were. Nobody knew how many terrorists there were. Later it was highlighted that the press reports--newspapers--said that all hostages were safe.
As for production values, a red digital clock highlighted what time it was during the day when major events came and went. I think they could have used some more diagrams detailing how they moved from the apartment to the bus; the bus to the helicopter and the helicopter to the airfield.
At 1:30, the documentary is pretty short. I think they could have pushed it a bit further. As with other documentaries there was an epilogue that tied up some loose ends. One glaring loose end that still remains (maybe for good reason) is this: What would happen in 2021, 2022, 2024 if there was some sort of major disruption by criminals at the Olympics. In the documentary, a lot is made of the bizarre (in my view) decisions to continue events, decisions to pause the games after pressure was exerted, and then resume the events after the gunfight at the airport was over. I would imagine that the International Olympic Committee has a plan in place to not repeat this sort of thing.
I am both happy and a little melancholy that they didn't turn it into a "E True Hollywood Story" where they talk to random celebrities about the attack. But I think they could have used some heft in the area of 'What does this say about the Olympic ideal?'. Jennings was still alive at the time it was released; as was Jim McKay. They would have more altitude than someone like Bob Costas or Tom Brokaw.
Aside from the continuity issues, I highly rate this documentary. I wish that the director would do similar projects for subsequent terrorist attacks.