Les 21 heures de Munich

This film has the look of a theater film instead of a made for television film. Overall it is very satisfying. William Holden does a very good job portraying the West German Police Captain in charge. The supporting members around him are very good as well.

The Black September kidnapping attempt of part of the Isreali Olympic team at the 1972 Munich Olympic games is not just a tragedy, but cast a bit of a shadow on the Olympics first visit to Germany since the 1936 Nazi affair. Unfortunately, terrorism seems to have gotten even worse than this incident, but this film tells the story very well about 1972 terrorism.

I watched this on an HD broadcast and am very impressed with the quality of the film picture in HD for this 1976 production. The film feels quite authentic, and looks quite so being done only 4 years after the actual events. The Director of this film has over 130 TV & Movie credits in his career and his work here is as good as any on his resume.

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.

Made-for-TV treatment of the slaughter of the Israeli sportsmen by Arab terrorists , being based on real events about one of the most violent episodes in the history of terrorism. It happened at 4:09 am on September 5, 1972 , as eleven Olympic athletes were taken hostages by terrorists. For the next 21 hours the World held its breath.. Israeli goverment presided by Golda Meier follows its policy of no negotiation with terrorists. As some German authorities : William Holden , Shirley Knight , Noel Willman have to negotiate with the Palestinian , but things go wrong .

Nice and well-made reenacting of the infamous attack on Israeli athletes and coaches in the Olympic village is competently chronicled with good actors , adequate period detail and in semi-documentary style , as well as adding some stock footage . The movie was produced using the actual Munich location. Main and support cast are pretty good . As William Holden gives a sober and serious acting , adequate Shirley Knight , an appropiate Richard Basehart as Chancellor Willy Brandt , Noel Willman as Interior Minister , Paul Smith an Israeli hunk coach being kidnapped and Anthony Quayle as General Zamir . Special mention for Franco Nero who steals the spectacle as an extremely nasty terrorist who really shows a deep hateful against Jews . The motion picture was compellingly professionally directed by William A Graham (Amazing Howard Hughes , Birds of Prey , Change of habit , Deadly encounter, Doomsday Fight , Harry Tracy, Mr Inside Mr Outside, Waterhole) . Rating 7/10 , above average . Worthwhile watching .

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.

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.