User reviews

There are a number of good things going for this film, among them two things you learn right from the opening credits: (1) John Frankenheimer is the director and (2) it's based on a book by Thomas Harris, the man who created "Hannibal Lechter."

Throw in two intense always-interesting actors, Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller, and you now have a good, no-nonsense story translated to the screen. By that, I mean that when people are shot, that's it, no questions asked, no stupid talking.

Even the football scenes were real-life with actual footage of the Cowboys and Steelers playing in a past Super Bowl.

The suspense was done well, although a bit hokey at the very end (can't say more without spoiling it) but it can't take away from the previous two-plus hours of credibility.

Dern also makes for a good "psycho" (he's almost made a career of it) and Keller is convincing as a villain, too, as she was in a film from the previous year: Marathon Man. Two other consistently- good actors also help make this an interesting film: Robert Shaw and Fritz Weaver.

It was nice to see this film on a widescreen DVD but the picture was a bit grainy. The transfer was okay, but could have been better. The film is worthy of a top- notch print.

John Frankenheimer gets to direct one of the biggest stars...the Goodyear blimp. An ex-Navy pilot and prisoner of war(Bruce Dern) teams with a devout member(Marthe Keller) of the Black September terrorist group to hijack/fly the Goodyear blimp and shoot a quarter million rifle darts into the Orange Bowl. Among the 80,000 football fans in attendance watching the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl X is the President of the United States. Trying to prevent the disaster is an Israeli anti-terrorist expert(Robert Shaw)who is as ruthless as the people he tracks down. This action thriller is based on the Thomas Harris novel. And accenting the action is a gripping musical score by John Williams.

Shaw is solid and determined. Dern is like a lunatic tightroping the edge of sanity. Keller is as solemn as she is fetching. In support are Fritz Weaver, Steven Keats and Bekim Fehmiu. The violence is vivid while the special effects are average for the time period.

For years down to this day since seeing Black Sunday in the theater I've always watched major sporting events with this film in mind. That's the kind of thoughts that director John Frankenheimer plants in your mind with a viewing of Black Sunday.

Black September the Palestinian terrorist organization of the day and the ones responsible for the slaughter of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich have something special in mind for America at one of our major sporting events. Israeli intelligence Mosad learns of it and the guy who learned of it is dispatched to the USA to stop it.

Robert Shaw is the agent that is sent and he gives a carefully controlled performance of an Israeli assassin. The kind you send out after Arab assassins. Shaw is quiet and deadly and most effective in his acting.

The other side is represented by Marthe Keller and note that she's not a traditional Moslem woman in her style of living. Nonetheless both she and Shaw have suffered immense personal tragedies which has brought them to their respective positions. Keller has found a former Navy Pilot who was a Vietnam POW Bruce Dern who is more than slightly unhinged. After a court-martial he's bitter against the USA and wants to commit an atrocity and he has a very specific atrocity in mind.

All three of the leads acquit themselves well in their roles. But the real star is the special effects and an ending that for the last half hour will have you on the edge of your seats.

I predict your reaction to Black Sunday will be the same as mine. You will never watch a major sporting event without this film in the back of your mind.

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

Hollywood has always been keen on disaster movies and I guess movies about a massive terrorist attack could be put in that same category. And it has to be said, terrorism may well be a hot item today, but it already existed in the seventies. Take for instance the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972 during which several Israeli athletes died after being taken hostage by a group of Palestinians. Hollywood saw those images too of course and they were obviously inspired by it. What other explanation could there be for this movie?

A terrorist organization called Black September is planning to attack a large target in the USA. One of them is Michael Lander, a Vietnam veteran, who is psychologically scarred because he was held as a prisoner of war and lost his wife because the government didn't help him. Another member is a German-Arabian woman called Dahlia who leads the operation and who appears to have a personal reason for this attack. When her house is invaded by the Israeli secret service, Major Kobakov has his gun on her, but doesn't shoot. They let her live, but before blowing up the house, the secret service manages to capture some vital information, which they give to the USA to inform them about what is about to happen. They don't know what the target will be, but Kobakov is convinced that there will be plenty of victims and that the damage will be large. With the help of FBI-agent Corley, he tries to stop them before it's too late, but his methods aren't always appreciated by the Americans...

Normally I'm not too much a fan of action or disaster movies, but this one was different. Thanks to the tension that is built up throughout the entire movie, I kept my interest in this film. For a long time this felt much more like a thriller than like the average action movie and that's a very good thing. Also the fact that it isn't immediately obvious why 'the bad guys' want to attack the USA is interesting. Normally that's the kind of information that they give away immediately, but not this time. I really appreciated that. Also worth mentioning is the acting and the relevance of the subject today. It will all feel quite familiar, although I don't think the makers of this movie could ever have thought that it would..

The only 'problem' that I had with this movie is the ending. In my opinion that was a bit too much and quite predictable. It just didn't seem to fit in with everything that I had seen before that and I admit that it spoiled a part of my fun. Still, that's no reason to believe that this movie isn't any good. I still give it a 7/10.

Robert Shaw plays Israeli agent Kabokov, who learns that a terrorist organization named Black September is planning an attack on the United States, which involves a known woman terrorist named Dahlia(played by Marthe Keller) who has enlisted the services of disgruntled Vietnam Veteran Michael Lander(played by Bruce Dern) to fly a Good Year blimp in the next Super Bowl, crashing its bomb-laden body into the stadium, killing thousands, all on national television. Kabokov races against time to stop this plan before it is too late...

Exciting and provocative film(especially today) has an interesting story, good action, and fine acting, which never lags despite its nearly Two & a half hour length.

Based on the Thomas Harris novel, and directed by John Frankenheimer.

"Black Sunday" is a flat out exciting motion picture about the planning and execution of a terrorist attack during the Super Bowl. Robert Shaw plays the head of an agency trying to prevent the attack. Bruce Dern is at his creepy best as a brainwashed Vietnam vet enlisted by the lovely Marthe Keller to help carry out the sinister plan. Dern is a blimp pilot and the perfect person to help detonate a contraption that will send thousands of deadly needles into the unsuspecting crowd. Dern was born to play parts like this and it's a reminder of how terrific an actor he is and how sad it is that he doesn't work as much as he used to.

The final 40 minutes is intercut between the game (actually shot during the real Cowboys-Steelers Super Bowl game of 76) and the unfolding of the final stages of the plot. It's tense and exciting as Shaw and cohorts commandeer helicopters to try to catch the blimp heading to the big game to unleash its deadly attack.

Kudos to director John Frankheimer for keeping the pacing on this 2 hour 25 minute thriller moving. The editing is first rate and the music score by John Williams is one of his best though it is never mentioned when his name comes up.

If you like a good thriller that is never boring and will keep you on the edge of your seat, I highly recommend "Black Sunday."

John Frankenheimer was one of the cinema's best and most talented directors, yet for some reason he rarely achieved the same status of respect as, say, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock, or even Brian De Palma.

"Black Sunday" is based on the novel by Thomas Harris ("Silence of the Lambs"), and is one of four books he's written that does not deal with the character of Hannibal Lecter. The book is pretty interesting (if not great) and the film does a commendable job of translating it to the screen.

It seems all the more prescient today, given the political turmoil in the world and particularly between the United States and the Middle East. Robert Shaw plays an FBI agent who stumbles upon plans by a demented war veteran (Bruce Dern, "The 'burbs") to attack the US Superbowl with the help of Iraeli conspirators.

You may remember this in another film a few years back named "The Sum of All Fears" (2002). That was based on a book by Tom Clancy, who stole from Harris and allegedly had accusations brought against him. (It's not the first time he's been accused of "stealing" from other authors - Elmore Leonard accused him of having stolen the name Jack Ryan from a mystery thriller he wrote named "The Big Bounce").

Shaw and Dern both give good, solid performances but in the end it is Frankenheimer's thrilling, paranoid direction that makes this worth seeing. Definitely one to check out.

With so much crap on the dvd store shelves, you gotta wonder who's in charge from preventing this (sadly) prophetic minor classic from being available.

Unless this is presented in widescreen, I refuse to see it again because the pan & scan version skips out half of the visuals; it's just not the same movie.

I saw this in 77' at the theater and again at the drive-in and my heart raced twice as fast (the 2nd time seeing it) during the last half of the movie because Frankenheimer had such a grasp on building tension. A couple of years later, I saw it broadcast on CBS, Sunday night AFTER the televised Pittsburg vs Dallas Super Bowl (in the late 70's, the Super Bowl started much earlier...CBS executives must of had a field day on the irony of that match up). I couldn't believe the epic scope that was lost on the pan & scan.

Everyone is top notch (yes, I had read the book). The 'good' guys are almost as ruthless as the terrorists in their quest to prevent thousands of innocent lives lost. Don't expect any snappy one liners after someone is dispatched; these are harsh, brutal portrayals. In these times, the movie is no longer escapism, but a frightening reality that (arguably) may be preventing the dvd release.

And the world lost so much with Robert Shaw's untimely passing. What a range of talent!

8.5 out of 10! One of the most gripping thrillers I've ever seen.

I thought this film was excruciating. Ninety percent of it was crazy people screaming in bad accents. There was no drama, no suspense. The ending was almost comical. The panic crowd scenes were so badly done they are hilarious and the pathetic special effects were painful to see. Robert Shaw performing acrobatic stunts? Oh as if!

Black Sunday was considered a "what if" disaster movie in the '70s, although it's not a disaster movie along the lines of Earthquake!, Flood! or the others. Now of course it seems less like a "what if" movie and some of the lines of "fictional" dialogue have actually been quoted in the news recently. This is an absorbing thriller, and does not rely on the special effects that so many thrillers like "The Siege" (and probably The Sum of All Fears, which I haven't seen) employ. Too bad Robert Shaw passed at such a relatively young age--in all of the movies I've seen him in (The Sting, The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3, Jaws and this one), he created such different types of characters. I didn't even recognize him at first in this one, going from the Irish accent of Jaws to the Israeli accent in Black Sunday. John Frankenheimer gripped my attention for the whole movie, and considering its length (nearly 3 hours) this is no small feat. Even Bruce Dern, doing his usual psycho thing, was good. Highly recommended.

Global terrorists gather in Beirut to plan an attack on America. They plan to attack the Super Bowl. American special forces attack the hideout but the plan is already set in motion. Dahlia (Marthe Keller) is the terrorist. Lander (Bruce Dern) is her American accomplice. Israeli Kabakov (Robert Shaw) leads the pursuit.

This is a brutal thriller from both sides. I'm a little surprised that the good guys are willing to go torture up some info. I wouldn't say that it's that thrilling. It has plenty of action. It doesn't have the standard twists and turns. The story flows in a straight forward manner. If they add in more shaky-cam action, this would be a modern thriller. The use of the actual Super Bowl really adds to its authenticity. In the pre-9/11 world, this would have been outlandish terrorism and threatening torture something unthinkable.

John Frankenheimer tried to steer his career towards novel directions in the first half of the seventies: it gave inti mist works like "the Gypsy Moths" (1969) and "I Walk the Line" (1970) while "the Impossible Object" (1973) flirted with European intellectualism. But these assumed perspectives didn't convince the mainstream public and as they weren't all guarantees of artistic achievement were deadlocks in his filmography. So, the filmmaker returned to a genre in which he excelled: the action film with "French Connection 2" (1975) a less enticing work than its elder brother. If it could be pigeonholed in the same category, "Black Sunday" (1977) based on the first novel by Thomas Harris who will later gain worldwide celebrity as Hannibal Lecter's father could also belong to the disaster movie which was thriving in the mid-seventies. More important, this was one of the first films to deal with the grave issue of terrorism that started to be really prevailing in the seventies. A quarter of a century later, this is a work that stays in tune with the current period.

Action-packed stories were Frankenheimer's specialty and "Black Sunday" confirms it. It is filmed with energy, nervousness and almost never gives respite to the audience. The filmmaker is known not to say celebrated among insiders and moviegoers for his innovating choice of camera angles. In the antsy moments, he has recourse to a fresh, novel device at the time: the camera hold at the shoulder which helps to make palpable on the screen a sense of urgency. Later, he will profess that the sequence in which Kabakov hunts Fasil down in Miami was one of the best he ever filmed. The terror on the walk-ons was natural. And certain shots are mind-boggling. I particularly relish the one which goes from Dahlia's car to showcase a part of the full stadium and ends on Kabakov. To give the very long sequence of the super bowl final a larger than life authenticity, most of it was shot on the day it really took place and so, it was real footage that Frankenheimer used with the main actors playing their own roles. The tail and quite fuzzy end of the scene which sees the spectators panicked with the zeppelin just over their heads was shot the eve of the final.

During the film, Frankenheimer even finds time to construe the personality of the threesome of characters. Kabakov hunts down the formidable duo of terrorists with a disillusioned air in his eyes as if he felt that terrorism was here to stay and as one of the characters says to him at one point about Dahlia: "she's your creation". Lander and Dahlia form a terrifying, intelligent pair of terrorists and Frankenheimer tries to understand what prompts them to commit acts of deadly violence. Lander is the most interesting to describe. He is convinced of his own perspective because he was a prisoner of war and never recovered from the humiliations the USA made him endure. "Black Sunday" has even a connection with "the Mandchurian Candidate" (1962), Frankenheimer's magnum opus. Bruce Dern and Laurence Harvey were both brainwashed under different circumstances and act against their native countries. In the same way of understanding, Robert Shaw's behavior could make think of Frank Sinatra's: they try to stop an impending threat. And the two films capture a paranoid aura.

Beyond the simple level of an entertaining action-packed story, Frankenheimer's film makes a bitter assessment of terrorism and arouses major issues still relevant today: how can certain people contemplate such acts of madness? How is it possible to put a break on terrorism or to stop it? How can one struggle against this dangerous will of destruction? This is a film to meditate.

Based on a best selling novel. The book, which I have never read, probably is in the style that Tom Clancy made famous, with a slow methodical setup of the small details of creating the bomb and getting it to the target. In the movie version of "The Sum of all Fears", they threw out all the slow build-up, and made a crackerjack modern thriller. When Black Sunday was made in 1976, John Frankenheimer decided to stick with the slow buildup. IMDb trivia remarks that it has one of the slowest editing rates of a major film. (5.3 seconds). Perhaps influenced by the hand-held documentary style of the cinematography in the successful "French Connection", many scenes are played out with a hand held camera walking around the room as the characters interact. In action scenes, too, the cameraman follows the characters as they infiltrate the compound for Black September.

My recollection of this film when I saw it for the first time on TV, was the big climax scene was choppily edited and looked fake. I also couldn't help but react like everyone else to the ploddy pacing. Which is too bad, because within the extended build-up, there are well executed actions scenes and a well directed thriller. Frankenheimer had a deep well of supporting actors and a good sense of dialogue from directing drama for television. In fact, it seems like they had a tie-in with CBS, with familiar actors from 'Hawaii 5-O' or perhaps 'Kojak'. But for today's audiences, editors know their attention span and edit the pace of the film accordingly. A good contrast was the reaction to the wildly successful "Exorcist" when it was re-released in theatres on the 2000s. I could feel the impatience as I sat with an audience during a showing. The editing pace in the 70s was much slower. The idea of shooting every scene with multiple cameras was not common. Directors such as Spielberg preferred playing out scenes in a wide shot, letting the audience "edit" for themselves by choosing what to look at. It is a brilliant technique that only works if the scene is staged cleverly.

There are many points where the slow pacing of this film tries your patience, even back then. Bruce Dern is fun to watch as a crazy guy, but his scenes are allowed to ramble on too long. Robert Shaw is an Israeli commando. Marthe Keller is fantastic as the lead, a beautiful woman playing a terrorist. Her performance could have been as Oscar nominee if it wasn't for the clunky finale.

Frankenheimer also had expert help with Tom Rolf editing and John Williams (who also worked with Frankenheimer in TV) composing. So it is hard to fault this film. But there are just too many scenes that drag out the plot or the characters when there is not enough time. For instance, after Shaw is injured, he and his partner talk about the complications involved with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is relevant and provides depth to the plot, but the movie runs 2 hours and 23 minutes. The subject matter does not justify extended runtime.

It is really too bad the level of sophistication with effects were still not developed when this movie was made. Ironically, ILM was born the same year as Black Sunday was released in 1977. The screenplay and dialogue are smart and the subject matter is ripped from the headlines. With a ton of gravitas supporting the film, it only falters as it tries to drum up the tension as Shaw tries to stop the blimp at the end.

See it for the intelligent drama, forgive the laughable effects.

Hang on tight for this one, folks! This flick moves so fast sometimes that you might think you missed something along the way. Basic story line holds up well through the years. Good chase scene on the Florida streets! Excellent camera work all the way through. Cast is excellent--especially Mr. Shaw (as usual). He gives David Kabakov a healthy measure of humanity that sprays out of the film and covers you like a heavy wool coat; his suffering makes your heart ache. And boy, is that blimp a pest! This one is worth the view--from beginning to end. A classic!

I never could figure out why Osama bin Laden would attack the twin towers when he could make a much bigger statement by following this movie and attacking the Super Bowl.

John Frankenheimer, who gave us Seven Days in May and The Manchurian Candidate, knows how to put thrillers together. he did a great job here with Robert Shaw, in one of his last films, as the Israeli agent trying to catch the terrorists, American Bruce Dern and Palestinian Marthe Keller.

Dern is always fun to watch as the heavy, and he plays a crazy ex-Navy pilot to the max. Of course Shaw had a chance to kill Keller early, but he caught her in the shower and was too stunned to do anything. :-) Of course, we all know how it ends as Miami was creamed in the last game in the Orange Bowl this past Saturday.

Just watched this film after not seeing it for decades. It still holds up as a good thriller, strong performance from all the main actors especially Bruce Dern.

"Black Sunday" is a political terror film based on a novel of the same title by Thomas Harris. Harris said his book was inspired by the massacre at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. The Palestinian terrorist group, Black September, kidnapped and killed 11 Israeli athletes in that event. Anyone who watched TV coverage of the event will never forget it.

In this film, a dishonored Viet Nam veteran sets out to commit suicide by taking many lives with him. He contacts the Black September group, which helps him commandeer a Goodyear Blimp to fly and explode over the Orange Bowl during the 1977 Super Bowl game.

Everyone knows the plot from the pilots, trailers and buildup. But the thrill and excitement are in seeing the story unfold. It's a common "catastrophe" thriller that keeps one on the edge of his or her seat. The suspense, action and superb camera work make this a very good and entertaining, if somewhat dark, action film.

Black Sunday is a boring, banal film that is extremely disappointing due to the pedigree. When you see names like Robert Shaw, Ernest Lehman, John Frankenheimer and John Williams; you are usually inclined to believe the picture has potential.

Robert Shaw gives a strong performance,unlike Bruce Dern who is very over the top at times and his entire character feels artificial. This film is one of Frankenheimer's weakest and if you didnt see their names you would never suspect Lehman or William's were attached.

The movie is far too long,which is common among those derived from books, and sputters along never throughly building any tension and ends with a predictable and disappointing climax.