John Frankenheimer was it seems a visionary director. His films always seemed to be ahead of its time. And Black Sunday is no different. While ostensibly based off the Munich Olympics attacks of Black September the attack on the Super Bowl seemed to almost forecast events like 9/11 and the incessant war on terrorism that envelopes us today. Frankenheimer did not stray from controversy. He drew a picture of the terrorists far more than many others might have. We feel the bitterness of Dahlia Iyad (Marthe Keller)on how the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has impacted her life, her family and the Palestinian people. We even have some sympathy for Michael Lander (Bruce Dern) who while playing his crazed best is actually a tortured soul clearly suffering from PTSD and his feeling of embitterness towards his wife who deserted him and his eventually court martial even though he spent years in prison as a POW in Vietnam (probably Hotel Hilton and was no doubt tortured). He may have received the silver heart (or was it purple?) but he was deeply embittered and a perfect foil for the Iyad led terrorists to be the fall guy for their planned attack on the Super Bowl. Lander is an ex pilot and when he was normal he was the pilot for the Goodyear blimp that hovers over the Super Bowl. But it wasn't just the terrorists who were drawn well. Major David Kabakov (Robert Shaw) is clearly a Mossad agent even though it never seems to utter the word Mossad. He is a ruthless killer whose sole purpose is to track down terrorists like Iyad and assassinate them. That he seems to be given a somewhat sympathetic portrayal suggests they needed someone to act like the good guy. But there was little good about him and especially not his ruthless sidekick Moshevsky (Steven Yeats).If there was anyone who actually came off as a bit of a good guy it was the FBI agent Sam Corley (Fritz Weaver).My one complaint about the film was turning Robert Shaw into a latter day James Bond with his phony heroics to hook up the blimp to the helicopter to drag it away from the Super Bowl before it blows up. It was all a bit too neat and tidy.Black Sunday is a superb action and political thriller worthy of Frankenheimer's better pictures. Considerable tension and the music score of John Williams added to the tension. The shot of of the Goodyear blimp coming in over the Super Bowl was superb and the ensuing panic was filmed not CGI'd. We felt the panic. *** out of 4.

Government agents from the United States and Israel team up to prevent a Palestinian terrorist attack on American soil in this action thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. The film notably provides an insight to the way the terrorists think. Of the two main terrorists, we learn that the female one (a Palestinian, played by Marthe Keller) grew up repressed with her family killed. The male one (an American, played by Bruce Dern) is a Vietnam War POW camp survivor whose life was torn apart defending a country that has done nothing for him, adrift after the army convinced his wife that he was dead. The relationship between the pair is curious too as it is unclear whether Keller is just using Dern due his army connections and disgruntlement. Unfortunately neither the chief FBI nor the chief Israeli agent are half as interesting, and the film is a whole lot less enticing when focused on their attempts to stop Keller and Dern, who get up to some fascinating mischief, experimenting with weaponry. Despite their solid characters, Keller and Dern are hardly top rate (her accent is overdone and his high-strung emotional scenes sometimes ring false), but the weakest element here is the fact that the central action (involving the blimp on the DVD covers and posters) is confined to final half-hour with over an hour and half (!) of dialogue-heavy exposition leading up to it. The climax is hardly memorable enough to justify the build-up. Never to mind, a powerful music score by John Williams constantly drums up suspense while the terrorist insights render the film less biased than one might expect.

This is actually a very good movie that's typical of world events that were relevant at the time it was made in the 1970s.Robert Shaw, as always, is absolutely fantastic in this as a Mossad Major trying to find out about and stop a possible terrorist attack upon the US.Marthe Keller and Bruce Dern are also fantastic as the terrorists planning and attempting a world-shattering incident.This is one of those great movies, and, there have been many over the years, that many people liked, but, very few remember.I only write reviews on movies I like (I'd never waste my time trashing a movie that I don't like), and, I really like this movie.Check this movie out as it's very good.

In a post 9/11 world, a movie such as this will never get made in fear of copycats or giving terrorists ideas. Even if it did, with all the political correctness and fear of Muslim threats, it would be a tough task to get it produce. The whole movie would be neutered to death. Pre-9/11 controversial movies such as this could be made. The film was created in 1976 no less than 4 years after the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics, where 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer, by the Palestinian group Black September. For a movie to come out just a few years later after such a tragedy, using similars to that event, it was very surprising that this was even made. Well, in the 1970s movies had more freedom to being made since the majority of the film back then was focus on gloom and violence. Before the Star Wars blockbuster, gloom movies such as this was popular. Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and I thought why not, let's talk about Black Sunday. Let's toss the pigskin around for a bit. Black Sunday was first a novel by Thomas Harris whom would later be known as the man who scare us all in a different way with Hannibal Lector in the book 'Silence of the Lambs'. The book was pick up and made by John Frankenheimer. The director was known for his works in political thriller such as 'The Manchurian Candidate' and 'Seven Days in May' and 'Black Sunday' was no different. Black Sunday is the story of a Black September terrorist group attempting to blow up a Goodyear blimp hovering over the Super Bowl stadium with 80,000 people and the President of the United States in attendance. David Kabakov (Robert Shaw) is an Israeli commando working for the Mossad hunting down members of the Black September terrorist group. Robert Shaw was great. Sort of a humorless Israeli James Bond who doesn't chase women. He is bad ass, but his character was kinda out there. I love the way he pulls no punches in his actions. He takes his actions to extreme. He discovers the Super Bowl plot, masterminded by Dahlia Iyad (Marthe Keller), a brutal female killer assassin. The assassination attempt scene where Dahlia dress as nurse was later pay homage in films like Kill Bill, and Dark Knight with Daryl Hanah and the Joker, by the way. It's clear that Dahlia Iyad is getting help from a deranged Vietnam veteran Michael Lander (Bruce Dern) who captain the blimps during the weekends. Bruce Dern is great at being chilling. The way he longs for suicide, and how he wants to kill the cheerful, carefree American civilians that he sees from his blimp each weekend is dark. In some scenes, even dark horse Dahlia is scare of him. Bruce Dern was everyone's favorite psychopath in the '70s. It's also great to see how author Thomas Harris has Michael Lander and David Kabakov perfectly opposed of each other, but so similar to each other: both men are dark for different reasons. David wants to revenge for Munich against all the Black September terrorists and willing to kill anybody to stop them. Michael is willing to kill others as well as himself just because of his unhappiness. It's nice to see director John Frankenheimer creates a chilling portrait of people obsessed with a cause for which they will die. In an incredible finale, Dern and Keller navigate the lethal airship into the terror-stricken stadium, pursued by Shaw in a helicopter, climaxing one of the most exciting and unusual chases in movie history. While the movie is interesting, it's the same old story between the two psychopaths. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy remembers girl, boy and girl try to kill people with blimp. Goodyear? No, probably their worst. I like how the movie was able to get real NFL logos and teams and the Goodyear just to makes it much more realistic. If they made this today, they'd probably use fake teams and blimp company. Luckily, Frankenheimer had a good relationship with the heads of Goodyear as a result of working with them on his earlier film Grand Prix. While Goodyear allowed the use of their airship fleet, they did not allow the Goodyear Wingfoot logo (prominently featured on the side of the blimp) to be used in the advertising or the poster of the film. Thus, the words "Super Bowl" are featured in place of the logo on the blimp in the advertising collateral. Frankenheimer was even able to secure the unprecedented cooperation of the NFL and the production was allowed to film at Super Bowl X no less. So the game was really the Super Bowl, not staged. The final attack on the stadium was filmed later, using a mock-up of the forward section of the blimp and 10,000 extras. One of the biggest faults of the movie is that the movie suffered the death of "1000 cuts" in this long-awaited climactic scene. It still gives me a headache to watch this one-take figurative and literal screen disaster with deplorable special effects. Oh well, it's not like they had any real competition that year, just that "Star Wars" flick, so no problem. The score John Williams gives in the film add tension and thriller to already action-packed film. The fight scene along with the blimp with the music gave me goosebumps. The movie didn't do any good PR for Goodyear by the way, and thus Goodyear started using the blue and yellow markings after the film was made to save itself. While the movie is a great flick, it's suffers from post-911 fears. After all, it doesn't seem so far-fetched today. If you want to watch a thriller. It's worth trying.