Black Sunday (1977)
Paramount DVD (region 1)
d. John Frankenheimer; pr. Robert Evans; scr. Ernest Lehman, Kenneth Ross, Ivan Moffat; ph. John A. Alonzo; m. John Williams; ed. Tom Rolf; novel. Thomas Harris; cast. Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Bekim Fehmiu, Fritz Weaver, Walter Gotell (143 mins)
Director John Frankenheimer was noted for his exceptional political thrillers of the 1960s, with The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May amongst them. His triumphant 1970s thriller Black Sunday was a return to a political context, here in the form of a chilling tale of the threat posed to an unprepared USA by Palestinian terrorism. Indeed, this film effectively marked the beginning of the American cinema of terrorism, a developmental stage bookended by the recent release of The Sum of All Fears, which featured a similar premise of terrorists targeting a major sporting event. Most films that sought to explore terrorism as a global phenomenon in all its implications are indeed found between the releases of these two movies. However, although industry insiders expected Black Sunday to be a runaway box-office hit, the film performed disappointingly. Frankenheimer attributes this to the earlier release that year of another film centered around a football stadium, the sniper melodrama Two Minute Warning, and to the declining popularity of the 1970s disaster movie. Although Black Sunday gains immeasurably in retrospect since the events of 9/11, it was the start of a troubled period for the director, who after the silly but popular monster movie Prophecy entered the creative doldrums of the 1980s and alcoholism. When he finally recovered, it was in part with a return to terrorist themes in Year of the Gun.
Black Sunday concerns a plot by the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September (responsible for some of the real-life spectacular acts of terrorism in the 1970s) to detonate a bomb within the United States. Their stated intent is to make America share in the suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the US’ support of Israel. Their operative in the US (Marthe Keller) has secured the assistance of a disturbed Vietnam veteran (Bruce Dern) whose feelings of disaffection for his country’s treatment of him have been channeled into vengeful rather than ideological terrorism. Dern is employed as a pilot on the Goodyear Blimp, and it is now the end of the NFL season. On their trail is an Israeli Secret Service agent (Robert Shaw) who joins forces with American intelligence operatives (led by Fritz Weaver) to stop the plot. Keller has arranged for explosives to be smuggled into the country by ship. Dern and Keller pick up the explosives and evade the Coast Guard. When Shaw is injured and hospitalized, the incident is broadcast on the news, alerting Keller. Shaw renews his pursuit with a newfound but brutal dedication (much to the dismay of the more civil rights conscious Weaver). Shaw learns of the target – the upcoming Superbowl – and urges it be cancelled. When this does not happen he tries to take precautions though is unaware that Dern intends to fly the blimp into the stadium and detonate a bomb. read more