The Control Room Where History Happens
| Title: | September 5 |
| Watchable: |  |
| Director: | Tim Fehlbaum |
| Writer: | Tim Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder |
| Lead Performances: | John Magaro (Geoffrey Mason), Leonie Benesch (Marianne Gebhardt), Peter Sarsgaard (Roone Arledge) |
The control room window displays the Olympic village beyond it as staff members inside the room maintain their disagreement about satellite transmission and commercial timing. Fehlbaum maintains this position for a short time to allow viewers experience the increasing sense of contradiction.
History being made in here.History happening out there. What does it mean to witness catastrophe through screens?Geoffrey Mason operates his console to broadcast a sports journalism show which he never learned to present while the broadcast transforms into an entirely different program. "Black September, they know the whole world is watching. When terrorists execute a hostage on national television who gets to tell the story?Is it ours, or is it theirs?"IMDb Marvin asks, and the question hangs there, unanswerable. All modern terrorist operations start by recognizing how security cameras turn ordinary people into involuntary witnesses of their actions.
Magaro brings Mason to life through his dual state of complete confusion and exceptional ability which emerges after he experiences being forced into the water. The man operates with exact technical skill yet his facial expression shows a different emotion. Horror held at bay by procedure. Actually, no, that's not right. The situation evolved from being terrifying into a system which operated through strict rules. Television production uses its language as a protective shield which hides the actual events from view.
The 95-minute duration of the film creates a feeling that time both passes quickly and stretches out endlessly. The crisis maintained its extended duration but its actual duration became shorter throughout the time period. Eisenberg would have shown us the hostages, the terrorists, the helicopters. When they receive false reports that the hostages have been freed, the relief in the room is physical, bodies unclenching, until the truth arrives and everyone seems to age ten years in ten seconds. The room's seventies equipment and cigarette smoke traps us according to Fehlbaum while he forces us to participate in the process of turning tragedy into something else.
The movie showed a disturbing view of journalism because it shows how news reporters face a decision between showing actual facts and making money during their short advertising segments. "Innocent people died in Germany again. We failed. The "Germany failed" statement IMDb Marianne declares after the event turns into a devastating announcement because history continues to develop fresh ways to recreate past failures.
Leonie Benesch shows Marianne the hidden truth because she perfectly understands the situation. The immediate terror of the attack combined with the historical significance of Jewish deaths occurring on German territory during a time when the Holocaust was still fresh in memory. She selects her words with precision when she translates for the crew because she needs to connect two worlds that struggle to understand each other.
Peter Sarsgaard delivers a strong performance as Roone Arledge who continues his aggressive news pursuit even after the bodies have been identified. The character exists outside villainous territory because he recognizes television operates through its own moral system which demands speed over caution. The film presents no judgment against him. The process operates through experience accumulation instead of performing direct judgment assessments.
The final scene returns us to our starting point which shows screens and distant views while confirming that we observed everything from start to finish. Nine hundred million people witnessed murder in real time, and television was never the same. All of us. Or maybe we were never the same.
The film suggests these might be the same thing.I remain fascinated by the space that exists between what we see with our eyes and what we understand in our minds and between what is shown to the public and what people actually do. I remain unsure if any choice actually occurred.
