Evening in Byzantium (1978) User Reviews (3)

Did a teenage Osama bin Laden catch this one?

[Piper12 · 5 August 2002]

I thought of this TV mini-series after Sept. 11th because the plot was uncannily similar to what actually transpired that awful day.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

In the movie, the terrorists (the "anarchists") simultaneously hijack three civilian airplanes and load them with nuclear weapons, while blowing out of the sky three other aircraft. The first three aircraft then assume the "identity" of the three destroyed planes and the terrorists then plan to crash the nuclear-armed craft into three major cities. Unlike on Sept. 11th, however, fighter planes successfully intercept and destroy the suicide planes.

As I said, not identical, but close enough to send shivers down one's spine. That's really the only reason to ever watch this otherwise pretty standard sudser.

A plot that would make 9-11 look like a TRAFFIC ACCIDENT.

[JSouth1 · 12 April 2008]

It is amazing that this show had a terrorism plot of the type it did. in this case--NUCLEAR terrorism.

A plot that had MANY similarities to 9-11. An attack using commercial planes. Targets cities"" NEW YORK, LA and DC." Hijacked planes flying to those cities. BUT in THIS case--with small nukes on board(IIRC, 20KT yield) Such a bomb, detonated above Manhattan or DC or LA would have killed probably killed 100 THOUSAND people, or more EACH!! ALL of the trade center area, for about 5 square miles around would have been ASHES, had they been fired off over them.

IN the movie, of course, the plot is averted in the final seconds before detonation of the bombs, and only the terrorists and the crews of the hijacked planes die.

A very gripping movie, especially after September 11.

Strangely Prescient with Very Strange Casting

[kevink-22 · 31 August 2006]

The plot premise of Evening in Byzantium really impressed me at the time as being a semi-plausible way that terrorists might be able to attack the US, and even before 9/11 I would sometimes think of it whenever the government proposed spending billions of dollars on missile defense systems that were supposed to protect us from "rogue states".

But the other thing about it that struck me and stayed with me over the years was how strange the casting was. Glen Ford as a scriptwriter wasn't too hard to accept because he becomes an aging action hero as the plot develops. But Eddie Albert was an odd choice in such a serious role, and Shirley Jones (Mrs. Partridge, for heaven's sake!) as a junkie was just bizarre.