Black Sunday

Audience Reviews

View More (146)

Stephen C Success in 2 hours and 23 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/27/25 Full Review Brad S. R An interesting thriller with especially engaging performances by Bruce Dern and Robert Shaw, but plagued by some shoddy editing and cost-cutting special effects. Its finale involving an exploding blimp should be an exhilarating set-piece; instead, it lands with all the impact of a deflating balloon. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/01/25 Full Review CodyZamboni Z Solid movie, intense , exciting, memorable performances, With some shocking violence for a PG film, And nice seeing 1970's NFL players, Only demerit, movie is way too long, Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/16/24 Full Review Carlos I Plodding. I saw a review with this in it and I don't think a movie can be more perfectly summed up with one word than this movie is. It's strange, since it has a solid cast and director, with an interesting premise for a disaster movie, but ultimately it just drags out on thriller autopilot. Which didn't keep me engaged in the slightest. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 12/03/22 Full Review Audience Member Michael Lander (Bruce Dern) is a pilot who flies the Goodyear Blimp over National Football League games to film them for network television. Secretly deranged by years of torture as a POW in the Vietnam War, he had a bitter court martial on his return and a failed marriage. He longs to commit suicide and to take with him as many as possible of the cheerful, carefree U.S. civilians he sees from his blimp each weekend. Lander is desperately in love with Dahlia Iyad (Marthe Keller), an operative from the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, who controls and manipulates him. They conspire together to launch a suicide attack using a bomb composed of plastique and a quarter-million steel flechettes. They plan to mount the bomb on the underside of the gondola of the Goodyear blimp which traditionally flies over the Super Bowl football game, and detonate it over the Miami Orange Bowl during Super Bowl X, in order to call attention to the plight of the Palestinians and to punish the US for supporting Israel. During a raid on a Black September unit in the Middle East, the Israeli counter-terrorist Mossad agent Major David Kabakov (Robert Shaw) surprises Iyad while she is bathing. His mission was to kill everyone in the unit; however, seeing her unarmed and naked, he spares her life and turns his attention to clearing the rest of the unit. She escapes. When the raid is complete, Kabakov finds a recorded message which Iyad had planned to publish after the terrorist attack. The recording explains the motive for the terrorism, but does not include any specific information about the attack plan itself. Collaborating with FBI agent Sam Corley, Kabakov tries to learn the details of the plan. Together, they are able to trace the path of a large amount of plastic explosive which Black September has illegally shipped into the USA. During the Super Bowl game, Kabakov figures out that Iyad and Lander have mounted the bomb on the Goodyear blimp. He and Corley commandeer a helicopter and set out in pursuit of the blimp, accompanied by several other police helicopters... Black Sunday was among the highest-scoring films ever in the history of Paramount Pictures test screenings, and was widely predicted in the industry as a "second Jaws". When it was released in March 1977, however, the film performed well below expectations. John Frankenheimer later said the film was hurt by the fact another movie about terrorism at a championship football game, Two-Minute Warning, had come out just beforehand and performed poorly. He also blamed the fact the movie was banned in Germany and Japan. Still, it became regarded by some as one of Frankenheimer's best thrillers. Although receiving generally favorable critical reviews, Black Sunday was appreciated more for its technical virtues and storyline than its character development. Reviewer Vincent Canby from The New York Times tried to rationalize his reaction: "I suspect it has to do with the constant awareness that the story is more important than anybody in it ... The characters don't motivate the drama in any real way." In a later review, Christopher Null took exception and identified the one key character who drove the plot: "... Black Sunday is distinguished by its unique focus not on the hero but on the villain: Bruce Dern ..." John Simon said that Black Sunday "is one of those films that are perfectly enjoyable to watch but which there is not all that much to say". Simon did praise the acting of Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Fritz Weaver, Michael V. Gazzo, William Daniels, Steven Keats and Walter Gotell, but said Marthe Keller lacked power and had no charisma. Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus reads, "A smart, tense thriller from director John Frankenheimer, Black Sunday succeeds on a technical level, even if it fails to bring its characters to vivid life." This partly slowpaced and talky John Frankenheimer thriller takes off in the second half and becomes quite intense and edgy. The focus on terrorism, in this case the Palestinian terrorist group Black September and their violent acts, are unfortunately as current as it was in the 70s. Solid ensemble with Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller (She really has something special). It must have been a nightmare to shoot during the real Superbowl. The inspiration of the story came from the Munich massacre, perpetrated by the Black September organization against Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics, giving both the novel and film its title. The idea of using a blimp as a terrorist weapon was most likely seen unrealistic in 1977, but after 9/11 nothing is. Yes, it does become maybe a bit over the top in the end, but that doesn´t really hurt the film in my opinion. "Black Sunday" is scary and feels current still today. Trivia: The National Football League (NFL) allowed the official use of real plays and logos in the movie, something which wouldn't be allowed today. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review steve d Really effective version that does justice to the book. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Black Sunday

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Most Popular at Home Now