Welcome to the 7th Golden Boy Blogathon hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema and The Flapper Dame! Returning after a hiatus, it’s one of our favorite blogathons. Golden Boy was William Holden’s first starring role, a boxing movie that co-starred Barbara Stanwyck, hence the name.
21 Hours at Munich (1976) played on American television the same year the better known Network was released in theaters. It was an era when movies made for television and mini-series would often have large budgets and feature stars like the mature Stanwyck in The Thorn Birds (1983) and Robert Mitchum in The Winds of War (1983).
In 21 Hours, Holden plays Munich’s police commissioner Manfred Schreiber during the hostage crisis at the 1972 Munich Olympics when Palestinian-led Black September kidnapped and killed Israeli athletes as the whole world was watching. Though dramatized and compacted, the movie stays close to the facts of the disturbing international incident.
The armed terrorists were able to enter the Olympic Village with relative ease since security was nearly nonexistent. The Germans were sensitive about their militaristic image from the Nazi era and had an unarmed security team dressed in baby blue blazers. This proved to be a tragic mistake. After the terrorists breach the Israeli quarters and kill two, Manfred heads the negotiating team to secure the remaining hostages release. It’s an impossible job, but he makes a valiant effort to save lives.
They send a woman from the security team to speak to the hostage takers. The blonde negotiator is played by Shirley Knight. I thought this might be a made-up character, but the woman does show up in documentary footage. Called Anneliese in the movie, she has to walk a fine line between trying to get into the hostage-taker’s head and trying to find the human being behind the terrorist mask. Called Issa, he’s played by the fantastic, blue-eyed Italian star Franco Nero. Anneliese tries to understand Issa’s motivation for committing this terrifying act. How could this possibly create sympathy for the Palestinian cause? Issa explains that his brothers, his literal siblings, are in Israeli prisons and this is the only way he sees of getting them out. Whatever his justifications, the talks break down, resulting in tragedy.
Holden wisely forgoes using a German accent. Still, he brings gravitas and convincingly talks tough to both allies and adversaries when necessary. Manfred takes incoming from all sides including from his own German colleagues who have their own ideas about how to resolve the crisis. The Germans refuse to allow an Israeli strike team to enter the country. Ironically, the timidity and disorganization of the Germans frustrates the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service when the local officials don’t heed his advise.
For more on the story, the excellent 2005 documentary One Day in September, narrated by Michael Douglas, is a good place to start. September 5 (2024) is a narrative film that looks at the crisis from the viewpoint of the ABC Sports news crew that covered it. 