videorama-759-859391 Now, every time we see a terror related movie, we are currently reminded of the world we live in today. When watching this, considering this actually happened, makes it that more frightening. This is a tight solid well made doco drama, concerning the tragic events of the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, where a group of terrorists took an Israeli group of game's participants, hostage, in a desperate attempt, to release their fellow comrades in jail, where demands were met, and negotiations were played out, rather carefully, tightly, led by a Munich detective in charge (Holden, one of many splendid performances here) who doesn't take to blackmailing lightly. Leading the terrorist group, is the always brilliant and flawless Franco Nero, who in my opinion, is one of the greatest actors in history. Brought in to kind of lighten and mellow the situation, and play an emphasizing ear is a woman, a government official or someone (Knight- Endless Love) where she kind of forms a matey bond with Nero. When explaining his situation, you want to feel for Nero's character, as he's a much more humane terrorist, and normally not the monsters, these people are made out to be, though I don't know how much he and the real person depicted, varied, but I really don't think there wouldn't of been that much variation. Beefy Paul Smith (a Bud Spencer look alike), as one of the hostages, shows another lighter side to the bad guys he usually plays, which kind of put a spring in my step. Although this movie's falls short of the whole story which was depicted in that much longer film, Munich, this again is a solid and well made dramatization of those events, an engrossing watch, and at a couple of points, frightening, steered by great acting, particularly that of Knight and Nero.

Bill357 The terrorism of 21 Hours At Munich seems almost preferable compared to the ritualistic slaughter performed by the modern cult-like Islamic terrorists. I've heard it said that the surviving terrorists of those days are sometimes shocked by the behavior and attitude of their successors!Franco Nero gives an excellent performance that totally humanizes (almost too much) the terrorist ringleader and manages to outshine the top billed William Holden. So charismatic (and well dressed) is he that it becomes easy to see how so many people with limited brain capacity got caught up in the "terrorist chic" of the nineteen-seventies.Nero's character looks dashing and dangerous but in the end comes across as pitiful and naive.Even though everyone who watches probably knows how this ends, It still manages to be suspenseful enough to hold the viewers attention.

kai ringler watched this just a couple of days ago,, and wow, this is a really great made for TV movie,, it doesn't blow everything out of proportion like those Hollylwood movies do, this one tells it straightforward, just as they actually happened, the filming took place on the actual grounds of the 76 Olympics at Munich. William Holden did a wonderful job in this film, as it was near the end of his career. Frances Nero, who i really never heard of before was pretty darn good as the terrorist leader, the movie starts out shortly before the kidnapping of the Israeli athletes, and goes all the way to the final act, i like this one better than Munich cause Munich just concentrated on the aftermath,, investigation,, it didn't do what this film did for me,, and that is to show the planning,, what happened during the kidnapping, and all of that stuff, this film did wonderful explaining to me what really happened that fateful year at the 20th Olympiad.

unbrokenmetal 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.