Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
William Holden | ... | Chief of Police Manfred Schreiber | |
Shirley Knight | ... | Anneliese Graes | |
Franco Nero | ... | Issa | |
Anthony Quayle | ... | General Zvi Zamir | |
Richard Basehart | ... | Chancellor Willy Brandt | |
Noel Willman | ... | Interior Minister Bruno Merk | |
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Georg Marischka | ... | Genscher |
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Else Quecke | ... | Golda Meir |
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Michael Degen | ... | Mohammed Khadif |
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Djamchid 'Jim' Soheili | ... | Touny (as Djamchid Soheili) |
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Walter Kohut | ... | Feldhaus |
Jan Niklas | ... | Schreiber's Aide | |
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Ernest Lenart | ... | Ben Horin |
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Osman Ragheb | ... | Prime Minister Sedki |
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James Hurley | ... | Avery Brundage |
The infamous attack on Israeli athletes and coaches in the Olympic Village during the 1972 Munich Olympics is chronicled in this made-for-television movie and supplemented with archive footage from the actual games. Members of the Palestinian Black September Movement kill two and hold nine others as hostages to exchange for hundreds of Arab prisoners in Israeli jails. The Israeli government adheres to its policy of not negotiating with terrorists, and German Holocaust guilt will not permit West German officials to allow the terrorists to leave the country with the hostages. Therefore, it falls to Chief of Police Manfred Schreiber to delay fulfilling the Palestinian demands through on-going negotiation, but sooner or later he knows that tough decisions will have to be made. Written by duke1029
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.