Overview: Throughout the 1970s, a wave of daring disaster movies gripped cinemagoers with their combination of bravura spectacle and “ripped from the headlines” plotlines. Among these, John Frankenheimer’s (The Manchurian Candidate, Ronin) Black Sunday endures to this day as among the cream of the crop.

Robert Shaw (Jaws, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three) stars as Major Kabakov, an Israeli agent attempting to avert a terrorist atrocity on US soil. The weapon: a blimp laced with explosives and piloted by Michael Lander (Bruce Dern, Silent Running), a troubled Vietnam vet driven to strike back against the nation he believes has betrayed him. The target: the Orange Bowl stadium, Miami.

What follows is a nail-biting race against time culminating in a spectacular aerial climax that will determine the fate of 80,000 spectators.

Adapted from the best-selling debut novel by Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs) and featuring virtuoso performances by a cast headlined by Dern, Shaw and Marthe Keller (Marathon Man), Black Sunday is a nerve-shredding, best-in-class suspense thriller from a filmmaker at the top of his game.

Blu-ray Verdict: John Frankenheimer was it seems a visionary director. His films always seemed to be ahead of its time. And Black Sunday is no different. While ostensibly based off the Munich Olympics attacks of Black September the attack on the Super Bowl seemed to almost forecast events like 9/11 and the incessant war on terrorism that envelopes us today.

Frankenheimer did not stray from controversy. He drew a picture of the terrorists far more than many others might have. We feel the bitterness of Dahlia Iyad (Marthe Keller)on how the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has impacted her life, her family and the Palestinian people.

We even have some sympathy for Michael Lander (Bruce Dern) who while playing his crazed best is actually a tortured soul clearly suffering from PTSD and his feeling of embitterness towards his wife who deserted him and his eventually court martial even though he spent years in prison as a POW in Vietnam (probably Hotel Hilton and was no doubt tortured). He may have received the silver heart (or was it purple?) but he was deeply embittered and a perfect foil for the Iyad led terrorists to be the fall guy for their planned attack on the Super Bowl.

Lander is an ex pilot and when he was normal he was the pilot for the Goodyear blimp that hovers over the Super Bowl. But it wasn’t just the terrorists who were drawn well. Major David Kabakov (Robert Shaw) is clearly a Mossad agent even though it never seems to utter the word Mossad. He is a ruthless killer whose sole purpose is to track down terrorists like Iyad and assassinate them.

That he seems to be given a somewhat sympathetic portrayal suggests they needed someone to act like the good guy. But there was little good about him and especially not his ruthless sidekick Moshevsky (Steven Yeats). If there was anyone who actually came off as a bit of a good guy it was the FBI agent Sam Corley (Fritz Weaver).

My one complaint about the film was turning Robert Shaw into a latter day James Bond with his phony heroics to hook up the blimp to the helicopter to drag it away from the Super Bowl before it blows up. It was all a bit too neat and tidy.

In conclusion, Black Sunday is a superb action and political thriller worthy of Frankenheimer’s better pictures. Considerable tension and the music score of John Williams added to the tension. The shot of of the Goodyear blimp coming in over the Super Bowl was superb and the ensuing panic was filmed not CGI’d. We felt the panic!

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original restored lossless mono audio, presented for the first time on Blu-ray
Optional restored lossless 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio options
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary by film scholar Josh Nelson
It Could Be Tomorrow – brand new visual essay by critic Sergio Angelini, exploring the film’s adaptation and production, and its place within the pantheon of 70s terrorism thrillers
The Directors: John Frankenheimer – an hour-long portrait of the director from 2003, including interviews with Frankenheimer, Kirk Douglas, Samuel L. Jackson, Roy Scheider, Rod Steiger and others
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain

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