Black Sunday (1976)
Picture: B
Sound: B- Extras: D Film: B
Out of nowhere, John Frankenheimer pulled off anther great
thriller with Black Sunday. With
the exciting pace of the action in Grand Prix and The Gypsy Moths,
but with a thriller story as smart as The Manchurian Candidate or Seconds,
Frankenheimer was just coming off of the sequel to The French Connection. Yet, he had not made an outright action
thriller unto itself, so he went all out when Robert Evans pulled the project
together.
First, there is the cast.
Robert Shaw, best known for his role as henchman Red Grant in the 1963
James Bond film From Russia With Love, just had the biggest hit of his
career with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws in 1975. Bruce Dern was also on a roll, with films like Silent Running
(read about the classic on the review elsewhere on this site), The King
of Marvin Gardens (both 1972), The Great Gatsby (1974), and Alfred
Hitchcock’s released but never totally finished Family Plot. Dern got a big break with The Master of
Suspense, on his 1964 opus, Marnie.
Add great character actors like Fritz Weaver, William
Daniels, Bond regular Walter Gotell (reuniting with Shaw here after From
Russia With Love), Victor Campos, and female lead Marthe Keller (also in
John Schlesinger’s Marathon Man) among others, and you have a cast that
pulls-off the intensity Frankenheimer was attempting.
Then there is the story, in which some anti-Israeli
terrorists intend to kill thousands at a Super Bowl in the old Robbie Stadium
in Florida, transporting explosives and a device that will launch thousands of
deadly darts via the Goodyear blimp. In
producer Robert Evans wisdom, he believed in the novel by an upstart writer. That turned out to be Thomas Harris, who
later wrote Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal. Even his initial novel shows exemplary
storytelling, plotting, and exists in a real world you can buy into, never
pulling punches about human nature and high stakes situations.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is surprisingly
good for an older film, though there are still parts of the print that have
dirt, artifacts, and show there age, you also get many exceptionally
transferred materials that are in really good shape. John Alonzo, A.S.C., was the cinematographer on Roman Polanski’s Chinatown
(1974) and a master of the scope frame.
He demonstrates that just as strongly here, creating some amazing
footage and clever moves that build on an already intense story. The sound has been remixed for Dolby Digital
5.1 AC-3 multi-channel from the original theatrical optical monophonic sound,
with the major component being a fine score by John Williams. Before becoming over-familiar with the Lucas
and Spielberg cannon of films, Williams, was turning out exceptional, dark,
smart music for thrillers at this time.
Other such scores of the time include his work on Brian De Palma’s The
Fury (1978), The Eiger Sanction and Family Plot. The only problem with the mix is that the
mono dialogue is too restricted in the center channel.
Very sadly, there is not one extra here, not even a
trailer. Why no commentary with Robert
Evans or even Thomas Harris. Paramount
did a commentary with Frankenheimer on Seconds, now on DVD and
originally on LaserDisc, but really missed a great opportunity here now that he
is gone. The trailer for the film is
awesome, which is out on VHS, but is the least that Paramount could have
done. Why no behind-the-scenes footage? This has to exist somewhere. On the DVD case, the Goodyear blimp has been
repainted a less-menacing off-white and the tire company name is badly airblown
off of it on the back, but at least the blimp has its original color.
What is great is the film, a thriller that gets more and
more intense as it goes on like few we see getting made today. Evans was on a roll bringing all the right
elements together, and Frankenheimer would only equal the intensity here one
more time with 1997’s Ronin. Black
Sunday has so many reasons to see it, that it is a reissue you cannot miss.
- Nicholas Sheffo
