WHERE DOES one start with this documentary? It is such a mess. I could point out that it is grossly unfair, that its portrayal of the shocking events that occurred during the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage, is one-sided and simplistic. The documentary focuses on the stories of the hostages, showing footage of their beautiful weddings and interviewing their now grown-up and fatherless daughters. The terrorists, on the other hand, don't have it so good. Outside of mentioning that one of them has two kids, the documentary neglects to present a reason (or reasons) for their actions. This neglect, which dehumanizes the Palestinians, reinforces the general opinion that Arabs are terrorists by blood; they can't help it, they must bomb embassies, hijack commercial planes, disrupt global events like the Olympics. Other races come to the Games to display their athletic prowess (Ethiopia, long-distance running; China, ping-pong playing); the Arabs only come to torture, murder, and make impossible demands.

Beyond the blatant favoritism, there is also the matter of the documentary's presentation--the way it looks and sounds. Because the actual event was captured by hundreds of TV and movie cameras, it offers no mysteries, gaps, cracks, fissures that can be sealed or filled. And how does the director solve this enormous problem? How does he imprint his identity on something that is so saturated with information that it can narrate itself with no assistance? Instead of doing the right thing (which would have been to excavate the news footage--opening it up, turning it over so that the mechanics of the event are revealed), he does the wrong thing (ornamenting the news footage with action-movie sound effects, rock music, and even a computer animation sequence). The result is terrifying: We are forced to witness this already hypermediated political event through the distorted lens and frame of a Hollywood spy thriller! As if this weren't enough, the damn thing is narrated by a big Hollywood star, Michael Douglas. In the end, what is lost is reality itself; it is extinguished by the bright camera lights, strangled by the loud rock music.