Product Description

A terrorist lures a blimp pilot into a plot to spray the super bowl with darts. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/16/2004 Starring: Robert Shaw William Daniels Run time: 143 minutes Rating: R Director: John Frankenheimer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15267 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2003-10-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 143 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Palestinian terrorists attempt to wipe out a Super Bowl crowd in this 1976 thriller directed by John Frankenheimer (Seconds). Frankenheimer's unique facility with action--the unusual breadth of his view of violence, which stresses sustained drama over escalating thrills--makes this taut movie engrossing from start to finish. The lengthy cat-and-mouse stuff during the big game--much of which was shot at a real Super Bowl--is quite exciting. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Black Sunday: Terrorists Playing at the Superbowl
John Frankenheimer is an excellent action director. In Black Sunday he directs a thrilling story of terrorists trying to blow up the Superbowl with a blimp full of lethal darts. Bruce Dern is great as the bitter blimp pilot who throws his lot with Martha Keller, a Palistinian, who just barely keeps Dern from cracking up. Robert Shaw is excellent as the Iraeli agent tracking down the villians, from the first roots in the Middle East, leading eventually to America, and terminating in a showdown at the Superbowl.The action is good and the actors are well directed by Frankenheimer, who of course did the immortal "Manchurian Candidate," and pilots this action film to a smashing climax. Even after first seeing this movie, I am still haunted by Dern's sad portrait of a broken man and the horrific experiment he performs on an unsuspecting man of his exploding darts that make hamburger out of the man posing for what he thinks is a strange camera. A good example of Frankenheimer's style and art of direction.

Prophetic Thriller Rides High
I remember after this film was first released in the Seventies speaking with someone who saw it, and though they liked it, found it unbelievable. "I just don't picture a bunch of terrorists being able to come over to the US and get away with anything" the person said. Time has shown us how right director John Frankenheimer's film "Black Sunday" was, and that we truly lived in a "sleeping America".

From the almost documentary-like opening title sequence, devoid of music and replete with the sounds of a foreign land, this suspense epic builds slowly and with unique conviction. The terrorists are all played realistically and no one goes overboard into the realm of ham. Shaw is gritty and and steel-eyed as he works against the clock to stop the plot.

Bruce Dern plays an ex-Vietnam helicopter vet hired by the terrorists to aid them in their plot to explode a uniquely devasting bomb at the Super Bowl. He is at his psychotic best, and one scene, late in the film, is particularly intense as we watch him break down before the camera and reveal just how deeply distrubed he truly is.

The score by John Williams is one of his best, using a simple 8 note motif that is introduced early in the film with piano and flute, and by the film's climax, is heard in thudering orchestral glory.

This is suspense thriller with a brain, so don't expect wild action from scene one. It builds slowly, with sporadic action scenes interspersed, as it aims toward it's climx at the big game.

Ironically, the film's achilles heel are it's special effects near the film's end. Cinematographer John Alonzo was alowed to handle the effects shots and later, the director had to redo most of them at the last minute. The result is that by today's standards, the film falls short of being totally convincing in several scenes.

Nevertheless, the editing is wonderful, the score huge, the acting great, and the story intriguing. It more than makes up for a few of those shots.

Seekers of intelligent thrillers will not be let down.

Sunday will never be the same.

Black Sunday
Black Sunday is a prime example of great seventies movie making. Thomas Harris(Silence of the lambs, red dragon) gave John Frankenheimer a lot of meat Here, we are introduced to real characters. Who have real dilemmas. Bruce Dern is haunting as Lander -- a pilot who is pushed(some by his own doing) into insanity. Marthe Keller is wonderful as a terrorist who wants to see the "mission" through. And Robert Shaw. Robert Shaw. Boy do I miss him. Scenes where he is absolutely outstanding: questioning an importer, asking a favor from another terrorist, and of course the ending. Man I wish they would re-make this. But they would probably screw it up. The aerial photography is some of the best put on celluloid. And John Williams' score is awesome. See Black Sunday.