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Black Sunday (1977)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
11 March 1977 (USA)
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Tagline:
There has never been a motion picture adventure like... more
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. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Blimp
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Violence
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American Football
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Psychopath
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Syringe
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Awards:
1 nomination
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NewsDesk:
Movies That Deserve a Second Life: Action/Adventure Edition
(From JustPressPlay. 13 March 2009, 2:12 PM, PDT)
(From JustPressPlay. 13 March 2009, 2:12 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
A long shelf-life
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Robert Shaw | ... | Kabakov |
| Bruce Dern | ... | Lander |
 | Marthe Keller | ... | Dahlia |
| Fritz Weaver | ... | Corley |
| Steven Keats | ... | Moshevsky |
| Bekim Fehmiu | ... | Fasil |
| Michael V. Gazzo | ... | Muzi |
| William Daniels | ... | Pugh |
| Walter Gotell | ... | Colonel Riat |
| Victor Campos | ... | Nageeb |
| Joseph Robbie | ... | Joseph Robbie |
| Robert Wussler | ... | Robert Wussler |
| Pat Summerall | ... | Pat Summerall |
| Tom Brookshier | ... | Tom Brookshier |
| Walter Brooke | ... | Fowler |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
143 min
Country:
Language:
Colour:
Colour (Movielab)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Certification:
Singapore:NC-16 |
Canada:18A (Ontario) |
West Germany:18 (nf) |
Argentina:18 |
Finland:K-16 |
France:-12 |
Norway:18 |
Sweden:15 |
USA:R (certificate #24543) |
Netherlands:16 |
Iceland:16
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
At least some parts of the climatic scene were filmed after the Superbowl, including shots of the nose of the blimp coming onto the field as extras ran about wildly. Only the front portion of the blimp and gondola were recreated for this "head-on" shot and the whole thing was controlled by a crane.
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Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: Obviously reversed film footage when the blimp is being pulled away from the stadium; the guide ropes on the nose of the blimp, instead of trailing away from the blimp (if it were being pulled backwards), are trailing towards the tail of the blimp, just like they would if the blimp was moving forward. In addition, the helicopter's blades appear to be spinning backwards.
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Quotes:
Captain Michael J. Lander:
I wanted to give this whole son-of-a-bitchin' country something to remember me by!
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Movie Connections:
Featured in Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006) (V)
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Soundtrack:
The Star Spangled Banner
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FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (57 total)
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This is such a disturbing film, based on a very disturbing book by Thomas Harris, the creator of Hannibal the Cannibal. I read the book in 1976 and actually believed that cunning terrorists might be able to think up a really spectacular way of killing a whole lot of people at one time, but we'd be able to see it coming and stop them, just like in the book. Little did we know . . .
I imagine what it would have been like to see a mid-1930s era movie about a carrier-borne air-strike against an American naval base. It would have seemed so far-fetched, and it would have drawn fire for smearing the race or nationality of the aggressors. Yet, here's Thomas Harris's novel of a disgruntled POW who is hired by Palestinians to set off an enormous shaped charge, packed with steel darts, into the crowd at a Super Bowl. With John Frankenheimer's skill and a great cast of actors, Harris's story really does come to life, and even with the occasional special effects flaw and some really unpleasant violence, it works! I remember being so excited about the movie--it had Bruce Dern and Robert Shaw and that gorgeous woman from Marathon Man, Marthe Keller. The art work was so imaginative! Even in dopey little Spokane, Washington, the Fox Theatre put up a billboard sized blimp on their roof. Frankenheimer even shot two scenes of the President of the United States coming down to watch the action--one, a Jimmy Carter lookalike and the other, Gerry Ford. The movie felt real, even with, as a I mentioned before, some special effects cheese that, for its time, couldn't be avoided.
In January 1977 I had not seen The Manchurian Candidate--I didn't even know who Frankenheimer was; the only directors I knew were Don Siegel (because I loved Dirty Harry) and Roman Polanski (because of--my chronology might be off here--his little dust up with an underage girl at Jack Nicholson's house, or something like that). If I had seen TMC, I might have noticed certain similarities between Candidate and Black Sunday--the damaged war veteran, the cold manipulators, the driven investigator of the truth, and the interspersal of violent, ugly images. Yet, Black Sunday is truly an action movie; its relation to The Manchurian Candidate stops as the bombs and bullets start tearing up the place.
Finally, it's strange to say that casting Bruce Dern as a psychologically damaged former carrier pilot was inspired--the man got rich and famous off playing wackadoodles--but Dern is more tortured, more pathetic than anything I ever saw him in. His character is so sad, so torn up by his experience in the Hanoi Hilton that, while it doesn't excuse his perfidy, he is as three dimensional as Sgt. Raymond Shaw. But Shaw did right at the end; Lander dies trapped by his own anger and hate.
So, if you can find it, I would strongly suggest renting this film. It is disturbingly topical, intense and suspenseful, and an example of a good movie made about an attack against the Super Bowl, unlike the other winter 1977 football disaster, Two-Minute Warning.