Black Sunday

Director: John Frankenheimer John Frankenheimer

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/21/2020
UPC:	0032429338075
Original Release:	1977
Rating:	R
Source:	ALLIED VAUGHN
Language:	English
Time:	2:23:00
Sales rank:	31,610

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Shaw	Maj. David Kabakov
Bruce Dern	Capt. Michael J. Lander
Marthe Keller	Dahlia Iyad
Fritz Weaver	Sam Corley
Steven Keats	Moshevsky
Bekim Fehmiu	Fasil
Michael V. Gazzo	Muzi,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 Ambassador
Joseph Robbie	Himself
Robert Wussler	Himself
Pat Summerall	Himself
Tom Brookshier	Himself
Tom Brookens	Actor
Kristy McNichol	Actor
Jack Rader	Pearson
Frank Logan	Lansing
Kim Nicholas	Girl Hostage
John Williams	Composer

Technical Credits

Ivan Moffat

Kenneth Ross

Ernest Lehman

John Frankenheimer	Director
Ivan Moffat	Screenwriter
Kenneth Ross	Screenwriter
Robert Evans	Producer
Robert L. Rosen	Executive Producer
Ernest Lehman	Screenwriter
Gene Warren Jr.	Special Effects
Lynn Stalmaster	Casting
Logan Frazee	Special Effects
John Wilkinson	Sound/Sound Designer
Gene Cantamessa	Sound Mixer

Editorial Reviews

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.

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