With Steven Spielberg’s upcoming drama about the terrorist attack on Jewish athletes during the 1972 Olympics forthcoming, there have been a couple of related releases that have appeared on DVD as a result. “21 Hours at Munich” was produced in 1976 a mere 4 years after the tragic events that transpired. William Holden plays Manfred Schreiber the Munich Chief of Police who must try and resolve the conflict when 11 Israeli athletes are taken hostage by the Black September terrorist group. In exchange for the lives of the Israeli atletes their leader played by Franco Nero wants 200 political prisoners released. Far from the exploitative drama that I expected, “21 Hours at Munich” takes a matter-of-fact approach to retelling this tragic episode. While the film may lack the stylish direction of a Spielberg, director William Graham with his writers Howard Fast (author of the novel “Spartacus”) and Edward Hume keep the tension level high without resorting to cheap cinematic tricks. Featuring a terrific cast including Shirley Knight, Richard Basehart/st1:Sn> (who probably would have been better cast as Schreiber although Holden does an adequate job) and Anthony Quayle, I’m glad that this film is finally seeing a release on DVD. The image quality is surprisingly good given the age of the movie and the fact that it was produced for TV. The film is presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer of 1.78:1 which is how the film was shown in theaters overseas. The mono soundtrack is a bit tinny and flat at times but the dialogue comes across with nice clarity. ---

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