Black Sunday (1977)

Director:

John Frankenheimer

Writers:

Thomas Harris (novel)
Ernest Lehman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 March 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

There has never been a motion picture adventure like...

Plot:

An Isreali anti-terrorist agent must stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet cooperating in a plot to commit a terrorist plot at the Super Bowl.

Plot Keywords:

Bizarre | Assassination Plot | Blimp | Super Bowl | Terrorism

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Robert Shaw	...	Major David Kabakov
Bruce Dern	...	Captain Michael J. Lander
Marthe Keller	...	Dahlia Iyad
Bekim Fehmiu	...	Mohammad Fasil
Fritz Weaver	...	FBI Agent Sam Corley
Steven Keats	...	Robert Moshevsky
Michael V. Gazzo	...	E. Muzi
William Daniels	...	Alan Pugh
Walter Gotell	...	Colonel Riat
Victor Campos	...	Nageeb
Joseph Robbie	...	Himself
Robert Wussler	...	Himself
Pat Summerall	...	Himself
Tom Brookshier	...	Himself
Walter Brooke	...	Fowler

Runtime:

143 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Movielab)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo | Mono

Certification:

Canada:18A (Ontario) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Singapore:NC-16 | Argentina:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Netherlands:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Carson, California, USA

Company:

Gelderse Maatschappij N.V.

Trivia:

Lynn Swann's (Super Bowl MVP) touchdown can be seen from behind the end zone in one of the scenes.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Two Goodyear blimps were used for the suspenseful conclusion. The base scenes where shot in Carson, CA using the Columbia. The Super Bowl scenes were shot in Miami, FL using the Mayflower being a much smaller blimp than Columbia. So the blimp shrinks, gets big again and then shrinks again in size.

Quotes:

Major David Kabakov: What is this thing you Americans call the Super Bowl?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Soundtrack:

The Star Spangled Banner

Perceptions Change

Despite being set in the 1970s I couldn`t help noticing that Robert Shaw`s Mossad agent Kabakov is shown as being a violent ruthless cold blooded killer who`s almost as bad as the terrorists he`s hunting . This goes slightly against the common perception in much of the world at the time of Israelis being heroic and plucky freedom fighters striving to defeat terrorism and it should be remembered Israel carried out the legendary raid on Entebbe the year before . It wasn`t untill Israel`s invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that this perception changed towards the state of Israel somewhat . Well I suppose the producers should be congratulated on bringing ambiguity to the story . Likewise the " villain " Lander is a terrorist motivated by the fact that his country has turned his back on him . Sent to fight people in South East Asia he was shot down and left to rot in a North Vietnamese POW camp and on returning home from the most dirty and needless war of the 20th century he finds that even his own wife has forgotten about him . The point being that terrorists are never born but made .

BLACK SUNDAY is a very good political thriller full of good but often violent action scenes which means it`s not a film for everyone . Likewise watching this film in the 21st century which involves a plot to kill tens of thousands of innocent people at a public event means many viewers will be uneasy watching this . Sometimes you can take a plot and make it a little too realistic