One Day in September - Criticisms

Criticisms

After the movie's release, film critic Roger Ebert penned a review recommending the movie, stating that it "grips the attention and is exciting and involving. I recommend it on that basis--and also because of the new information it contains". He also stated that "Macdonald brings remarkable research to the film" and "he relentlessly builds up a case against the way the Germans and the International Olympic Committee handled the crisis." But Ebert also criticized the style of the film, the lack of information as to why the Palestinians carried out the raid, and the film's "tasteless conclusion", which was a montage of action shots and photos of victims' corpses with a rock music score. He continued his criticisms after the movie received an Academy Award, claiming that the producer, Arthur Cohn, intentionally subverts the Academy's documentary and foreign film by-laws - which dictate that only members who have seen all nominated films may vote - by limiting screenings of his films to a small group of invited people. "By limiting those who have seen his, Cohn shrinks the voting pool and improves his odds."

Joe Berlinger, director of such acclaimed documentaries as Brother's Keeper and Paradise Lost, joined Ebert in criticizing Arthur Cohn's method of screening his films, but stressed that the problem is the Academy by-laws: "Until there is a documentary branch of the Academy that treats docs like any other film in any other category, nothing will change, despite the recent band-aid attempt to improve the situation."