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21 Hours at Munich (1976)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 5/19

21Hour
5/19: Here's a long-forgotten event: the terrorist attack during the 1972 Olympiad in Munich, Germany.

21 Hours at Munich was shot on original locations, doing a nice job of recapping the events because I had no idea what happened or how it went down. Now, I know. It's hard to believe the Olympics was still going on during the hostage crisis.

Unfortunately, it's a boring telefilm. Shirley Knight's supposedly innocent blonde bombshell presence annoys me most of the time. I wish Franco Nero's character would shoot her already for trying to be a conniving bitch. William Holden isn't much of a consolation, either. He's too American to be of any help and acts like "Okay, I am here. What can we do to alleviate the situation so we all can go home and I'll drink myself to death?"

On the positive side, although starting off slowly and looking like a huge stretch to play an Arab, Franco Nero acts well enough to steal the film, almost making me care, if briefly, about the subject matter. The final showdown is eerily similar to what happened at the end in Dog Day Afternoon.

All in all, 21 Hours at Munich should help anyone catch up on the hostage crisis that happened during the 1972 Olympiad.