Black Sunday (1977)

R   |    |  Adventure, Crime, Drama

Black Sunday (1977) Poster

Black Sunday is the powerful story of a Black September terrorist group attempting to blow up a Goodyear blimp hovering over the Super Bowl stadium with 80,000 people and the president of the United States in attendance.

6.8/10
6,730
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57 Metascore

Photos

  • Robert Shaw in Black Sunday (1977)
  • Black Sunday (1977)
  • Robert Shaw in Black Sunday (1977)
  • Marthe Keller in Black Sunday (1977)
  • Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller in Black Sunday (1977)
  • Robert Shaw and Fritz Weaver in Black Sunday (1977)

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Awards

2 nominations.

Reviews & Commentary

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User Reviews
4 November 2005 | ccthemovieman-1
8
| A Solid No-Nonsense Thriller
There are a number of good things going for this film, among them two things you learn right from the opening credits: (1) John Frankenheimer is the director and (2) it's based on a book by Thomas Harris, the man who created "Hannibal Lechter."

Throw in two intense always-interesting actors, Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller, and you now have a good, no-nonsense story translated to the screen. By that, I mean that when people are shot, that's it, no questions asked, no stupid talking.

Even the football scenes were real-life with actual footage of the Cowboys and Steelers playing in a past Super Bowl.

The suspense was done well, although a bit hokey at the very end (can't say more without spoiling it) but it can't take away from the previous two-plus hours of credibility.

Dern also makes for a good "psycho" (he's almost made a career of it) and Keller is convincing as a villain, too, as she was in a film from the previous year: Marathon Man. Two other consistently- good actors also help make this an interesting film: Robert Shaw and Fritz Weaver.

It was nice to see this film on a widescreen DVD but the picture was a bit grainy. The transfer was okay, but could have been better. The film is worthy of a top- notch print.

Metacritic Reviews

Critic Reviews

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie's source novel was inspired from the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics Games as co-ordinated by the Black September organization. The title "Black Sunday" references "Black September". Harris wrote the novel after seeing the hostage crisis on television. These real-life events became the subject of the Academy Award (Oscar) Winning documentary One Day in September (1999).

Quotes

Major David Kabakov: Now, just blink for "yes", or die for "no".

Goofs

Two Goodyear blimps were used for the suspenseful conclusion. The base scenes where shot in Carson, CA using the Columbia. The Super Bowl scenes were shot in Miami, FL using the Mayflower being a much smaller blimp than Columbia. So the blimp shrinks, gets big again and then shrinks again in size.

Soundtracks

Easy Come, Easy Go
(uncredited)
Music by Johnny Green
Portion whistled by Bruce Dern

Storyline

Plot Summary

Synopsis (WARNING: Spoilers)

Genres

Adventure | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Details

Release Date:

1 April 1977

Language

English

Country of Origin

USA

Filming Locations

Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$15,769,322

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,769,322

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