For years down to this day since seeing Black Sunday in the theater I've always watched major sporting events with this film in mind. That's the kind of thoughts that director John Frankenheimer plants in your mind with a viewing of Black Sunday.

Black September the Palestinian terrorist organization of the day and the ones responsible for the slaughter of Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich have something special in mind for America at one of our major sporting events. Israeli intelligence Mosad learns of it and the guy who learned of it is dispatched to the USA to stop it.

Robert Shaw is the agent that is sent and he gives a carefully controlled performance of an Israeli assassin. The kind you send out after Arab assassins. Shaw is quiet and deadly and most effective in his acting.

The other side is represented by Marthe Keller and note that she's not a traditional Moslem woman in her style of living. Nonetheless both she and Shaw have suffered immense personal tragedies which has brought them to their respective positions. Keller has found a former Navy Pilot who was a Vietnam POW Bruce Dern who is more than slightly unhinged. After a court-martial he's bitter against the USA and wants to commit an atrocity and he has a very specific atrocity in mind.

All three of the leads acquit themselves well in their roles. But the real star is the special effects and an ending that for the last half hour will have you on the edge of your seats.

I predict your reaction to Black Sunday will be the same as mine. You will never watch a major sporting event without this film in the back of your mind.

Black Sunday is another exemplary thriller film from the 1970s that can be put in the same class as THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, JUGGERNAUT, and Roller-coaster. It's another feather in the cap for director John Frankenheimer, a directed who began his career shooting remarkable pictures like THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and ended it still making remarkable pictures like RONIN, and it's one of his strongest works.

The plot is simple, a manhunt slightly reminiscent of DAY OF THE JACKAL. Ruthless Israeli agent Robert Shaw is on the trail of a couple of mad bombers who plan to attack the American Superbowl. The running time is lengthy and the first half slow, but as a slow burner this grips the attention throughout and it builds to large-scale greatness at the climax.

Shaw is excellent, as always, and Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller make for suitably disturbed villains. The only thing dated here are the special effects, but that's irrelevant because the rest of the film is so well made and exciting. Black Sunday is a film that offers grittiness, harsh violence, suspense, strong acting, inventiveness, and fear in equal measure, and another great movie from a decade full of them.

Global terrorists gather in Beirut to plan an attack on America. They plan to attack the Super Bowl. American special forces attack the hideout but the plan is already set in motion. Dahlia (Marthe Keller) is the terrorist. Lander (Bruce Dern) is her American accomplice. Israeli Kabakov (Robert Shaw) leads the pursuit.

This is a brutal thriller from both sides. I'm a little surprised that the good guys are willing to go torture up some info. I wouldn't say that it's that thrilling. It has plenty of action. It doesn't have the standard twists and turns. The story flows in a straight forward manner. If they add in more shaky-cam action, this would be a modern thriller. The use of the actual Super Bowl really adds to its authenticity. In the pre-9/11 world, this would have been outlandish terrorism and threatening torture something unthinkable.