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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.
Brian Roesch
Yes this was a great story, but the way this movie was filmed is remarkable. You'll never see a film made today where the actors were filmed in the middle of the biggest game of the year The Super Bowl. And filming real teams and real players. You have to look into the director's work and what he accomplished to get the movie done. The 70's was a time where you could get close to the players and the stars without the annoying security of police and secret service we are inconvenienced by today. Post 911 will never allow a director to get away with making a movie like this ever again. I would like nothing more than to see a sequel but that's impossible since the teams would fictitious along with penned names. My father in law Jack Adams worked for Wilson Sporting Goods back in this era and walked directly in to the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins locker room unscathed where every player including Bob Griese himself signed a football for him.
LeonLouisRicci
Extraordinary Thriller that Obviously has become more Relevant in the Post 9-11 Atmosphere of Patriot Acts and Terrorist Motivations. In this Movie there is Substantial Screen Time to Backgrounds and Politics.Adding Also a Seventies Viet-Nam Veteran Angst Resulting from Government and Societal Betrayal this is one Mammoth Movie that is Ripe and Thrilling, Suspenseful and Edge of Your Seat Enjoyment. The Combination of Real Life Super Bowl Footage and Iconic Goodyear Blimp Familism the Film is Disturbing as well as Melodramatic.It may be a Tad too Long but it Never seems Stagnant or Boring with Bruce Dern and Robert Shaw Dueling it out in a Landscape of Americana. There is a Pulse-Pounding Score and the Production Looks Great, Except for a Few Dated SFX that are Noticeable but Forgivable, because the Movie is such a Fantastic Film that Really Resonates.Not the Best of John Frankenheimer Films but one Worthy of a Watch for those Seeking Action and Thrills in a Seventies kind of way. It will not Disappoint and Viewed Today is even more Affectious and Holds Up Quite Well, whereas others of its Ilk from the Time Period seem Cheesy and Dated.
ironhorse_iv
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.
