Munich 1972

'Munich 1972 tells the compelling story of the most controversial of all modern Olympiads within the turbulent context of simmering global tensions: the ongoing Cold War, political posturing between the two Germanys, seemingly endless warfare in Indochina, lingering recriminations surrounding decolonization in Africa, and, of course, the cauldron of religious and ethnic hatred known euphemistically as the 'Middle East Conflict.' It was, of course, this last conflict that spilled over so tragically into the Munich festival, which will forever be remembered for the murder of eleven Israeli Olympians by Palestinian terrorists: a grisly episode that ruined a much-anticipated coming-out party for newly democratic West Germany and for 'new Munich' itself, the erstwhile 'capital' of Hitler's Nazi movement. What began as a putatively 'merry' celebration of peaceful play and beery bonhomie turned into a tragic milestone in the signature horror of our times: political and religious terror'--