Paramount Pictures’ September 5 premiered in US theaters on Dec. 13, 2024 and was released in home media formats including digital on Feb. 11 and Blu-ray Disc on Feb. 18, 2025. Unfortunately, the film is currently not available on Ultra HD Blu-ray, but can be purchased in Digital 4k UHD on platforms such as Apple TV 4k, FandangoAtHome, and Prime Video.
This political thriller from Director Tim Fehlbaum didn’t get much distribution in theaters. Nevertheless, it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for the 97th Academy Awards. The film stars Peter Sarsgaard as ABC Sports President Roone Arledge who is in charge of covering the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics. But during the events, Arledge’s focus changes as terrorists kill eleven Israeli Olympic team members.
This is an exceptional piece of filmmaking that in our opinion should have also been nominated for Best Editing. It’s a fast paced, anxiety-driven narrative that spends most of its time jumping between production studios and offices at ABC’s headquarters in Munich, in an almost claustrophobic way, with vintage footage intertwined that gives viewers the sense of actually watching the broadcast.
How does the video look at home? September 5 is a dramatic film and so the cinematography and lighting emphasize the historical period of the time, which means it looks more like a high-quality production from the 70s than a new Marvel production, but with modern technology delivering a flawless image. Some footage was shot in 16mm, but the majority of the action was shot digitally in RedCode RAW, allowing plenty of flexibility in exposure and color grading. The results are evident on Blu-ray and in Digital 4k UHD, both of which offer a finely-tuned presentation.
With Dolby Vision HDR we see a bit more details in the shadow areas given the expanded color depth. But even in 8-bit on Blu-ray the video has a nice earthy quality to it that plays nicely into the film’s themes. The video image is very sharp in both 2k and 4k, as we can see details in eyeglasses, control panels, and facial hair. The Blu-ray disc played at an impressive 35 Mbps on average, which is pretty darn good for a BD release.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 provides a mostly frontal approach and is dialogue heavy in the center channels. The sound is very crisp and it’s interesting to note the use of many analog audio signals, such as old telephones and 2-way radios, adding to the authenticity of the time. There is one moment at 1 hour and 34 minutes that really drills the low frequency range. This is when a helicopter is flying above, filling the audio stage with vibrations. In fact, this is probably the only time when we really experienced subwoofer channels, although some LFEs are omnipresent throughout the film.
In summary, the physical media release is somewhat disappointing given the lack of a 4k Blu-ray and any bonus features provided with the Blu-ray (although, there is almost an hour of extras included with the iTunes digital code provided). However, given the quality of the movie we expect a long lasting shelf life and possibly an eventual more robust disc release. The Digital Intermediate of the film was produced in 4k, which means September 5 wouldn’t have to go through any type of remastering to give us a 4k Blu-ray print. For now though, both formats provide a quality image and sound experience especially on large screens or projections.
