20 Awesome 90s Movies The World Forgot

5. One Day In September

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One Day in September could reasonably be called one of the greatest documentaries of them all... so why doesn't it get talked about? 

One Day in September depicts the Massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where Israeli athletes were taken hostage and ultimately killed by Palestinian terrorists. This same event was also depicted in the feature films Munich (2005) and September 5 (2024); Munich is excellent and September 5 is good as well, but this documentary should be called the definitive account of the attack. 

Though constructed almost entirely from archive footage, One Day in September is as gripping and suspenseful as a first-rate Hollywood thriller. It's directed to perfection by British documentary legend Kevin McDonald (who later made other acclaimed factual works such as Touching the Void and Marley), and it makes for a suffocatingly tense, ultimately heart-rending viewing experience for, as most will discover over the course of this film, this story does not have a happy ending. 

Crucially, as well as bring a thrilling watch it's also a sensitive and non-exploitative account of a historical tragedy, so its win for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars couldn't have been more earned. If you're a fan of documentaries, you're doing yourself a disservice by sleeping on this.