Movie review: ‘Black Sunday’

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A promotional still photograph from the movie “Black Sunday.”
A promotional still photograph from the movie “Black Sunday.”

“Black Sunday” is a great film from the 1970s about terrorism, terrorists (both domestic and foreign) and anti-terrorism. It stands the test of time better than many films of that era because of its outright quality and John Frankenheimer’s direction and it’s always quite topical at each year’s Super Bowl because terrorism just never goes away. “Black Sunday” has enough subplots and wonderful acting to energize most film buffs and is therefore solid on a variety of levels and not just a shoot-’em-up action flick. Back-in-the-day, action was important, but so was the overall quality of many “action” flicks. But, remember, you can’t shoot the blimp down, “it’s filled with helium.”

‘BLACK SUNDAY’
(1977; rated R; 143 minutes; directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller)

TERRORISM ISN’T ANYTHING NEW

(NOTE: I first revised this review on Aug. 17, 2014, and then again on Jan. 25, 2016, by updating links and adding trivia. I again expanded the review on Feb. 3, 2018; again on Oct. 1, 2019; again on Feb. 8, 2025; and again on Feb. 4, 2026)

The 1970s brought the emergence of worldwide terrorism and at the pinnacle of the killing and cruel brutality was Black September, a fanatical offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization (but, of course, a fact routinely denied by PLO propaganda). It was proud to evoke fear and terror while making AK-47s the trademark weapon for terrorists and the image of wantonly murdering innocent people.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Black Sunday.”

Former Associated Press reporter Thomas Harris penned the novel “Black Sunday” and after its publication in 1975, he would go on to greater fame with first, in 1981, publishing the novel “Red Dragon” that introduced the character “Dr. Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter” and then his best-known work: “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1988. You can click here to read my review of “Manhunter” (the original film taken from “Red Dragon” and not the Anthony Hopkins-Edward Norton remake) or you can click here to read my review of “The Silence of the Lambs.”

“Black Sunday” came to the big screen two years after the novel became a best seller and it’s the story of an Israeli anti-terrorism commando who uncovers a plot by the Black September group to explode a huge bomb at the Super Bowl.

It is a highly intricate plot that starts with an American – a former POW in Vietnam who wishes to take out his homicidal feelings on the rest of society. Black September is more than happy to help him fulfil his dream and sends a woman to help him with the project.

Now, I’ll tell the film’s story through the headliners:

  • An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Robert Shaw plays Israeli agent “Maj. David Kabakov,” who, in a bit of soft-heartedness, lets Marthe Keller playing terrorist “Dahlia Ilyad” escape (at least until the last scene of the film … sorry, spoiler alert has come and gone). Shaw conveys his character’s purposeful, motivated and deadly countenance well and his voice is perfect for the character. Of course, you’ll remember his signature character from two years earlier in “Jaws” and he’s also been in the 007 mostly forgotten thriller “From Russia With Love” as well as “The Sting” and “Force 10 From Navarone.” I liked him in both “Battle of the Bulge” (click here to read my review) and the original “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” (click here to read my review) and he was nominated for “A Man for All Seasons,” which won six Oscars (including best picture) and the only two it didn’t win was for supporting actor and supporting actress. Shaw died of a heart attack the year after “Black Sunday” was released. He was 51.
  • A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Keller is smooth and conveys her character’s deadly determination as the guiding hand behind the terrorist plot. She is the most facially expressive of the actors and manages to be cosmopolitan in either the United States or traveling to Lebanon to meet with terrorist leaders. Keller is terrific in her cold, calculating fanaticism, which is different than if she had been asked to be more emotional. She has been in “Marathon Man” with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier, for which she earned her Globe nomination, and, from the same year as “Black Sunday” the little-remembered and terrifically boring “Bobby Deerfield” with Al Pacino (click here to read my review). Through early 2025, Keller has 107 acting credits since the first in 1961.
  • A two-time Oscar nominee and three-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Bruce Dern is absolutely pitch-perfect in the role of “Michael Lander,” the psychotic former U.S. Air Force pilot and Vietnam POW, 1who is ticked off enough at the world that he wants to blow up the president and the Super Bowl. He envisions a gigantic end-of-the-world statement using the you-know-which blimp and a bunch of plastic explosives that have air-gun darts as its shrapnel. Wow, that’s a mouthful. Dern easily conveys “Lander’s” bipolar and homicidal personality and gives the best performance of all the actors here. He has had a career of eclectic roles including “Django Unchained,” “Monster” and even comedies such as “Down Periscope” (click here for my review). He was nominated for Oscars and Globes for “Nebraska” and “Coming Home.” Dern was also nominated for a Globe for 1975’s version of “The Great Gatsby” with Robert Redford and Mia Farrow and was in Quentin Tarantino’s epic “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” (click here to read my review).

Now, let’s take a look at some of the supporting cast:

  • An Oscar nominee (not for this one), Michael V. Gazzo, who is more remembered for his nominated role in “The Godfather: Part II,” is solid as the importer “Muzi” who helps the terrorists. He has that whiny, petulant personality that works wonderfully in both aggression with federal agents as well as whimpering at the end of Shaw’s pistol. He died of a stroke at 71 in 1995 and his career included many roles on TV including on such diverse shows as “Columbo” and “Fantasy Island.”
  • A Primetime Emmy nominee, Fritz Weaver, who was also in “Marathon Man” as well as the remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair” (click here for my review), is good as FBI agent “Sam Corley” and is very efficient conveying his character’s basic lack of fortitude. His Emmy nomination was for the mini-series “Holocaust.” Weaver died at 90 in 2016.
  • A Primetime Emmy nominee, Stephen Keats puts aside the wishy-washy whiny role he played as the husband of a mugging victim in “Death Wish” (click here to read my review) and does a nice, aggressive turn as Israeli agent “Robert Moshevsky,” who’s the right-hand-man to Shaw. Keats is tough and aggressive to the end, but he didn’t really manage to elevate the character as he could have. I also liked him in the quirky “Turk 182!” (click here to read my review). He also played gun seller “Jackie Brown” in the noir crime drama “The Friends of Eddie Coyle” (sound familiar, Quentin? – click here to read my review). Keats died at 49 in 1994 in an apparent suicide.
  • Finally, Walter Gotell plays “Col. Riat” and is an enemy who Shaw blackmails into giving information about Keller. In his short time on screen, he projects his character perfectly and deserved a bigger role. Gotell is much more familiar to movie audiences as “Gen. Gogol” in the “James Bond” franchise. Among those films for him are “The Spy Who Loved Me” (click here for my review) and “Octopussy” (click here for my review). He died at 73 in 1997 of cancer.

In the final analysis, the real star is Dern, who shines throughout. His best scene is looking at streaks of sunlight coming through thousands of dart holes in a warehouse wall where he tests his bomb device. Thanks, Bruce, it is quite wonderful work that stands the test of time.

In the end, the best thing I enjoy about this film is how it is an “action” film uncharacteristically driven by character development.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Black Sunday.”

In a personal historical note, I was at the Orange Bowl in Miami for a Miami Dolphins football game during some of the filming of the exterior blimp scenes and will always remember the hilarious “helium” comment just before the film’s climax that I mentioned in the introduction for this review. It’s still interesting and fun to recall all these years later. Some of the exteriors were shot at that game, not the Super Bowl pictured in the on-field scenes of the movie.

As I already noted, Harris was a reporter for the Associated Press when he and a couple of other reporters reportedly came up with the idea of terrorism at the upcoming Super Bowl. Harris was working in New Orleans before Super Bowl IV in January 1970 and it becomes the site in the book. He and a couple of other AP reporters came up with the idea. He bought the others out and took the idea and ran with it solo.

The book and the film dovetail overall, but with some differences in locales, such as where the game is played – New Orleans in real life; Miami in the film. The movie gets a 1970s “R” rating for mild violence, brief semi-nudity and mild cursing (don’t concern yourself if the “R” might be a speed bump – you’ll find worse on MTV today).

“Black Sunday” was the 29th  ranked films at U.S. box office in 1977 with $15.7 million in ticket sales, according to IMDb.com. The No. 10 film “Annie Hall” had $38.2 million while the No. 1 film of the year was no surprise – “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” and it made a near-unbelievable $307.2 million (about 41 percent more than the No. 2 film “Smokey and the Bandit” also with Burt Reynolds had $126.7 million – click here to read my review of that film). Here are the other films (and one television series) I have reviewed that were released that year:

Additional cast and film notes via IMDb.com (the opinion expressed is mine):

  • Shaw’s middle name was Archibald; Dern’s middle name is MacLeish; and Steven Keats’ birth name was spelled Stephen Paul Keitz.
  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Black Sunday.”

    The late Joe Robbie, original owner of the Miami Dolphins, has a cameo which he scoffs at the idea of cancelling the Super Bowl … more than a generation before you’d have to move heaven and earth, much less a terrorist plot, to stop the football game. His turn in front of the camera here is great.

  • Directly from IMDb.com: “(Author Thomas Harris) has said in a new introduction to the film’s source novel that the character of terrorist Dahlia Iyad was a precursor and early inspiration for the character of Clarice Starling who appears in his novel of “Silence of the Lambs” as the foil to Hannibal Lecter.”
  • A friend and I liked “Black Sunday” so much that we watched it for five straight showings back in the day when you could sit in a theater through five straight showings.
  • The mid-1970s saw a new generation of weapons and silencers used in films, especially the SIONICS silencers on MAC-10s and Israeli UZIs. “Black Sunday” has this type of weapon and silencers in the Israeli commando raid on the Black September fortress at the start of the film. They were also used two years earlier in Robert Redford’s espionage thriller “Three Days of the Condor” (click here for my review).
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company changed their blimp’s markings from silver-and-black blimps to blue-and-yellow after this movie was made and released.”
  • Kid star Kristy McNichol was to be in the supporting cast, but her scenes were cut.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Movie cameras used in filming during the Super Bowl game were disguised as TV cameras with CBS logos.”

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