21 Hours at Munich

The film does a good job of depicting the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. Unlike "Munich" which only spends a few minutes dramatizing the terror attacks & spends the rest of the film on Mossad actions tracking down the terrorists, this film shows the horror of the terror attack. A much better film on the subject is the documentary "One Day in September" (1999) which won an Oscar for best documentary. The film does a good job of showing the ineptitude of German police forces & the intransigence of the IOC, which would not suspend the games for even one day while the terrorists murdered athletes & held others hostage.

watched this just a couple of days ago,, and wow, this is a really great made for TV movie,, it doesn't blow everything out of proportion like those Hollylwood movies do, this one tells it straightforward, just as they actually happened, the filming took place on the actual grounds of the 76 Olympics at Munich. William Holden did a wonderful job in this film, as it was near the end of his career. Frances Nero, who i really never heard of before was pretty darn good as the terrorist leader, the movie starts out shortly before the kidnapping of the Israeli athletes, and goes all the way to the final act, i like this one better than Munich cause Munich just concentrated on the aftermath,, investigation,, it didn't do what this film did for me,, and that is to show the planning,, what happened during the kidnapping, and all of that stuff, this film did wonderful explaining to me what really happened that fateful year at the 20th Olympiad.

The film is unintentionally revealing and makes the athlete victims far less sympathetic when they shout "Arabs! With guns!" and "Arabs! Terrorists!" at the start. Their bigotry shows. Arab was scarier to them than guns or terrorists. Some reviews and the description calls them "Arab terrorists." Some of them were German communists, the Red Army Faction, including the Franco Nero character. The RAF and the Arab nationalist Black September were allies, often aiding each other in terrorist attacks in each others countries. The film has a strong documentary feel and does its best to show events accurately, minute by minute, with admirable detail. All the actors did well. Nero has a good German accent, but Holden wisely didn't try for one. It was still believable. Many German speak English with no accent. Well worth seeing, and historically accurate, esp so soon after the attack.

A semi-documentary movie about the terrorist attack on the Israeli team at the Olympic Games at Munich 1972. In opposite to later adaptations of the same historical event, "21 Hours at Munich" was shot on the original locations. However, it is a little bit less of a documentary than it seems at first, it does take a bit of creative freedom in the narration. Which has been criticized by some reviewers, but makes it a better movie after all. Excellent performances by William Holden as the police chief and Franco Nero as the terrorist leader, whose motivation is explained remarkably well. He is not just the one-dimensional Hollywood villain firing bullets in all directions. That was important to make the film believable, as well as the discussions between the politicians. Even it makes the movie quite wordy, the reasons why and when and how the police fights the terrorists are explained well. "21 Hours at Munich" is a movie you should watch, first for the tragic history that hopefully will never be repeated, second for its solid story telling and acting which is above the genre average.

Very well done film about the murders of the Israeli Olympic team members by terrorists. Gripping, heartbreaking, and a good job done by Bill Holden as the police inspector. Everyone involved does a stellar job. A great time capsule of the terrible 70's. See it!

Accurate but cold vision of the frightful events that took place in Munich in 1972 when the Israeli delegation of athletes is kidnapped by a bunch of Arab terrorists.The movie tries to be a faithful documentary of this political disaster but although his serious and impartial view - a good point - the outcome is just a cold and not gripping retelling. I give this a 5 (five).

Now, every time we see a terror related movie, we are currently reminded of the world we live in today. When watching this, considering this actually happened, makes it that more frightening. This is a tight solid well made doco drama, concerning the tragic events of the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, where a group of terrorists took an Israeli group of game's participants, hostage, in a desperate attempt, to release their fellow comrades in jail, where demands were met, and negotiations were played out, rather carefully, tightly, led by a Munich detective in charge (Holden, one of many splendid performances here) who doesn't take to blackmailing lightly. Leading the terrorist group, is the always brilliant and flawless Franco Nero, who in my opinion, is one of the greatest actors in history. Brought in to kind of lighten and mellow the situation, and play an emphasizing ear is a woman, a government official or someone (Knight- Endless Love) where she kind of forms a matey bond with Nero. When explaining his situation, you want to feel for Nero's character, as he's a much more humane terrorist, and normally not the monsters, these people are made out to be, though I don't know how much he and the real person depicted, varied, but I really don't think there wouldn't of been that much variation. Beefy Paul Smith (a Bud Spencer look alike), as one of the hostages, shows another lighter side to the bad guys he usually plays, which kind of put a spring in my step. Although this movie's falls short of the whole story which was depicted in that much longer film, Munich, this again is a solid and well made dramatization of those events, an engrossing watch, and at a couple of points, frightening, steered by great acting, particularly that of Knight and Nero.

Released only one Olympic cycle after the actual events occurred during the 1972 Olympics, this film documents many of the behind-the-scenes events that happened while the world watched the horrible drama unfold. As a big fan of the Olympics, I was watching as news stories interrupted the peaceful competition to explain the unthinkable had happened. Terrorists had invaded the Olympic compound--the ultimate symbol of peaceful coexistence--and killed Israeli athletes, taking others hostage as leverage to demand the release of comrades held in captivity. As a viewer, I vividly remember the shadowy image of a man on a balcony, a man who threatened the Olympic principles and the world at large, but somehow, though he was visible, was beyond the reach of retaliation. It was frustrating and tragic, but hostages' lives were in the balance. This film was no doubt an attempt to fill in the blanks for many people who only saw those shadowy images from a distance. But is it more than a documentation? Is it a warning to the world or to those who would use terrorism for their political purposes? Or a tribute, perhaps, to those who did their best to tragic events that unfolded or those who were the victims of those who promote the initiation of violence (even against civilians) as a means to an end? The narrative seems to bear few embellishments to the actual events of 1972. Hostage situations--with all of the accompanying negotiations and strategizing--are dramatic enough. William Holden, as chief of police, adequately portrays a man who will forever second guess his decisions. The leader of the terrorists (Franco Nero), becomes more than a shadowy figure as the film shows moments when his humanity is revealed. Presented with the option to walk away from further bloodshed, he says, "And have people think I am a coward?" When I first heard this line in 1976, I thought it referred to the world at large, but now I wonder if he was thinking about others who sympathized with his world view.

21 Hours At Munich tells the tragic story of the Black September terrorists who took Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Olympics and issued a demand to the government of Israel that a couple of hundred of their comrades be freed for the lives of these athletes. It was a story that gripped the world at the time and is still sadly relevant for today. This was a new phenomenon at the time, mindless terrorist acts against civilians and governments then and now can't quite come to grips with the concept of pure evil wrapped in a political cause. Black September no doubt picked the target as Munich not only because of the Olympics, but because of the special significance the city has in the rise of Adolph Hitler. Maybe they thought some sympathy from the authorities might linger from Nazi days. In that they were much mistaken. The West German government was as mortified and embarrassed by the events as anyone else in the civilized world. This was their opportunity to exhibit a post Nazi Germany to the world and it was horrifyingly blown. William Holden played the head of the Munich PD in charge of dealing with the problem and it's a sincere and level performance he gives. Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany is played by Richard Basehart who is the liberal politician who can't grasp even after Hitler there are some folks that just can't be reasoned with. Other performances of note are Franco Nero as the charismatic Black September leader, a picture of homicidal malevolence just itching to kill and Shirley Knight the negotiator for Holden and the Munich PD. Stephen Spielberg did a great job in putting this film together which should be required viewing for those finding justice in brutal acts of homicide.

The murder of Israel's Olympic team by a Palestinian group at the 1972 games got addressed in Steven Spielberg's "Munich", which focused on Mossad's efforts to find the perpetrators, and an agent's misgivings about his mission. The actual hijacking is the subject of William Graham's "21 Hours at Munich". The movie does manage to find a balance between showing the kidnappers' brutality and addressing the issues that they wanted to bring to the world's attention (namely the Palestinians' expulsion from their land). It was particularly ironic that the kidnapping happened since Germany wanted to atone for its past by ensuring that the Jews would be safe this time. Admittedly, the movie takes such a neutral approach that it comes across as flat. But it at least addresses the issues. The cast includes William Holden, Franco Nero* (the original Django, and also Vanessa Redgrave's husband), and Paul Smith (the guard in "Midnight Express"). *He and Redgrave met during the production of "Camelot", which I recently saw. Redgrave has long been a supporter of the Palestinian cause, and called attention to their plight while accepting her Oscar for "Julia". Her and Franco Nero's son Carlo directed her in a TV adaptation of Wallace Shawn's politically charged play "The Fever", co-starring Michael Moore and Angelina Jolie. Nero appeared in "Django Unchained" as the guest who knows that the D is silent.