Main Cast: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Steven Keats
Release Year: 1977
Country: US
Run Time: 165 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Bruce Dern is ideally cast as Lander, a crazed Vietnam veteran, in Black Sunday. Lander joins terrorists Dahlia (Marthe Keller) and Fasil (Bekim Fehmu) in a plot to create a bloodbath at the annual Super Bowl. Piloting the ubiquitous Goodyear blimp, Lander is to ram the aircraft into the capacity Orange Bowl crowd, then fire thousands of poisoned darts into the fleeing spectators. Israeli military officer Kabakov (Robert Shaw) struggles to thwart Lander's plan before it comes to fruition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
This slick yet brutal thriller has aged surprisingly well. Black Sunday remains fresh today because it plausibly presents a world where the difference between heroes and villains is minimal; although Kabokov is the story's nominal good guy, he is cold, obsessive and every bit as capable of amoral behavior as his terrorist prey. Robert Shaw appropriately gives the character a reserved, icy facade that periodically slips to let out a bit of humor, regret, or rage. Black Sunday is even more daring in the way it dimensionalizes its antagonists; although Dahlia and Lander set out to commit mass murder, they are painted as misguided souls pushed to the brink by a cruel, unsympathetic world. Marthe Keller and Bruce Dern bring out the wounded humanity lurking beneath these characters' brutal exteriors; Keller is believably steely as a woman who coolly and calculatingly navigates her way through a man's world, and Dern throws out all the stops, creating a character who can shift from amusingly batty to terrifying to pitiful in the same moment. Black Sunday further benefits from a smart script that uses the grim psychology of these characters to flesh out its oft-fantastic plot and tight direction from paranoiac-thriller mastermind John Frankenheimer. His trademark combination of dark humor and gritty action shines in the film's set pieces, especially during a brutal shoot-out on the streets of Miami Beach and the epic Super Bowl finale, which is disturbingly credible despite its disaster-movie conceit. All these elements add up to a thriller that remains quite potent, thanks to its unusual but effective mix of anti-political cynicism and stylish thrills. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Bekim Fehmiu - Fasil; Michael Vincente Gazzo - Muzi; William Daniels - Pugh; Walter Gotell - Col. Riaf; Victor Campos - Nageeb; Walter Brooke - Fowler; James Jeter - Watchman; Clyde Kusatsu - Freighter Captain; Tom McFadden - Farley; Robert Patten - Vickers; Than Wyenn - Israeli Ambassadoe; Joseph Robbie - Himself; Robert Wussler - Himself; Pat Summerall - Himself; Tom Brookshier - Themselves; Tom Brookens; Frank Logan - Lansing; Kristy McNichol; Kim Nicholas - Girl Hostage; Jack Rader - Pearson; Hunter Von Leer - T.V. Cameraman
Credit
Walter Tyler - Art Director, Alan Levine - Associate Producer, Lynn Stalmaster - Casting, Ray Summers - Costume Designer, Jerry Ziesmer - First Assistant Director, John Frankenheimer - Director, Marc Monnet - Second Unit Director, Tom Rolf - Editor, Robert L. Rosen - Executive Producer, John Williams - Composer (Music Score), Bob Dawn - Makeup, Brad Wilder - Makeup, John A. Alonzo - Cinematographer, Robert Evans - Producer, Jerry Wunderlich - Set Designer, Logan R. Frazee - Special Effects, Gene Warren, Jr. - Special Effects, Gene S. Cantamessa - Sound/Sound Designer, John K. Wilkinson - Sound/Sound Designer, Everett Creach - Stunts Coordinator, Ernest Lehman - Screenwriter, Ivan Moffat - Screenwriter, Kenneth Ross - Screenwriter, Thomas Harris - Book Author
The film was a commercial hit when it was released in 1977. Although director John Frankenheimer lamented serious shortcomings in the visual effects of the climax (due to time and budgetary shortfalls), many critics trumpeted the final scene featuring a helicopter/blimp chase over the Orange Bowl as one of the more riveting and unusual in movie history. Black Sunday also features a film score from John Williams.
Behind the scenes
A significant portion of the filming was done during actual Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on January 18, 1976. In the movie, Kabakov discusses the security arrangements for the game with Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie, who plays himself. In the movie, Jimmy Carter is shown as the President of the United States who attends the Super Bowl, although Gerald Ford was President when Super Bowl X took place.
Blimps
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company granted use of all three of its U.S.-based blimps for Black Sunday. The landing and hijacking scenes were photographed at the Goodyear airship base in Carson, California with Columbia (N3A); a short scene in the Spring, Texas base with the America (N10A), and the Miami, Florida Super Bowl scenes with the Mayflower (N1A), which was then based on Watson Island across the Port of Miami. 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 movie poster for the film. Thus, the words "Super Bowl" are featured in place of the logo on the blimp in the advertising collateral.
Differences between the novel and the film
In the novel, the Aldrich Rubber Company owns the blimp. In the film, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company permitted its blimp to be used. A Goodyear representative noted that it is impossible for two people, alone, to launch the blimp.
In the novel, the Washington Redskins play the Miami Dolphins, but in the film, the Dallas Cowboys play the Pittsburgh Steelers (as they did in Super Bowl X). However in Super Bowl IX, the Steelers played the Minnesota Vikings in Tulane Stadium. In both games, Pittsburgh was victorious.
In the novel, Kabakov's assistant Mochevsky survives to the end of the story, but Kabakov, the helicopter pilot, and FBI Agent Corley are killed in the blimp explosion over the Mississippi River. In the film, Mochevsky is killed; Kabakov is not.
In the novel, Muhammad Fasil, a Palestinian terrorist who assists Lander, survives and is repatriated to Israel to be tried; in the film, Kabakov shoots and kills him during a gun fight in Miami.
In the novel, Kabakov has a relationship with a young psychiatrist named Rachel Baumann. The part was originally scripted with either Ali McGraw or Katharine Ross in mind, but due to budgetary issues, the script was revised and the role was deleted.
In popular culture
In Tom Clancy's novel The Sum of All Fears, Marvin Russel mentions Black Sunday to the main antagonists when he notes the similarity of their plan to that of the film.
