Stage-managed or not, the row that greeted Munich, Steven Spielberg's latest movie based on the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and Israel's subsequent 30-year campaign of vengeance against the Palestinians responsible, couldn't have passed you by.

Hard-line Zionists in Israel and their Palestinian counterparts in various parts of the world, were united in taking exception to what Spielberg described as "a prayer for peace".

What has angered the former is that Spielberg has tried to portray the members of Black September who die in the Munich killings as human beings rather than as devils incarnate; but then he did that also with the Nazis in Schindler's List.

One pro-Israel critic exclaimed: "Israel doesn't need its morality assessed by condescending Hollywood movie producers, than you. It is the only democracy in the Middle East and does an exemplary job of retaining its morality in the face of a relentless and immoral enemy."

Pro-Palestinian critics maintain that Spielberg's film makes no sense if the historical context of Israel's 1967 occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is not given.

Others, who accuse the United States of maintaining an immoral foreign policy in Iraq, cast doubt on the ethics of such a film being made in such a country.

Munich is coming to Pictureville in April. Before then, there are three screenings of Kevin Macdonald's 1999 Oscar-winning documentary about those killings in 1972.

One Day in September can be seen at Pictureville on January 24 and 26.

Described by Irish critic Darrah O'Donoghue as "contentious, exciting and full of dread", the film is narrated by Michael Douglas.

This film has had its critics too, notably the poet Tom Paulin and the late cultural commentator Edward Said. Again, it is the lack of historical context that comes under fire.

Since the film came out history has moved on, at last. Before Christmas the world watched the Israeli Defence Force and security organisations move some 8,000 Jewish settlers out of their homes in the Gaza Strip, and Palestinians come back in.

Viewing One Day in September without taking recent events into consideration might prove problematic, depending on how one views the documentary.

Critics like Darrah O'Donoghue admit that the film is gripping and full of tension as the threat against the 11 athletes moves towards reality, but add that it does tend to turn human tragedy into entertainment.

"The documentary genre is limited.

It can tell us about facts, analyses. It can reveal witnessBut documentary can never get at people's inner lives, and as this is what real life really is, documentaries seem thin and superficial, a betrayal of life.

"And so, ironically, the victims Do become abstract - simply that, victims. We know there is more to people than a handful of photographs and highly partial witnesses."

Presumably, Spielberg's film is an attempt to bridge the gap between documentary reality and the drama of human tragedy.

Munich will be coming to Bradford in the spring; in the meantime One Day in September may serve the purpose of informing those who know nothing about this particular atrocity and may not want to know.

One Day in September shows at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television's Cubby Broccoli cinema on Tuesday, January 24 at 8.15pm and Thursday, January 26 at 5.45pm. Contact 0870 7010200 for tickets.