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Never seen the film but I too think this makes it onto my Williams Top 5. Amazing score.
Yavar
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some actors weren't good fits for their roles (Marthe Keller in particular), but I thought Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern did quite well.
I adore the film, I think it's the most insightful ever made about international terrorism, amazingly nuanced and psychologically rich portrait of all three leads, especially the two terrorists.
I disagree about Marthe Keller though, I think she's amazing in it. I'll admit she's unlikely casting, they have to mumble a few nonsense lines in the film about her character being "of Arab-German extraction" to cover her casting as a Palestinian woman with a THICK German accent. That said, she's so compelling in the role that she's like Sean Connery's Scots-accented Soviet submarine captain - perfect casting despite being wildly inappropriate for the role. She conveys her character's intensity and intelligence, and also her fragility and humanity. She's fantastic standing up to Dern and her handler, giving not an inch, with a ferocious passion in her eyes, and also weeping into her pillow the night before staging the attack. It's no wonder Thomas Harris has said her character is the germ of Clarice Starling in his later novels.
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I'm with jamesluckard on this one. Black Sunday is one of my top ten favorite films. I watch it every Superbowl Sunday before the game. Top notch acting, story and score. I do agree with jackfu that the unconvincing visual effects at the conclusion somewhat deflate (pardon the pun) the excitement but that's a minor quibble. Since I have never seen Marthe Keller in anything else I can't really say anything bad about her accent because I have nothing to compare it with. Three classic scores from John Williams in 1977 beginning with this.
I watch it every Superbowl Sunday as well.
Love the music love the movie
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I'm with jamesluckard on this one. Black Sunday is one of my top ten favorite films. I watch it every Superbowl Sunday before the game. Top notch acting, story and score. I do agree with jackfu that the unconvincing visual effects at the conclusion somewhat deflate (pardon the pun) the excitement but that's a minor quibble. Since I have never seen Marthe Keller in anything else I can't really say anything bad about her accent because I have nothing to compare it with. Three classic scores from John Williams in 1977 beginning with this.
Marthe Keller had a bit of a moment in the mid 70s. She was the female lead in Black Sunday and Marathon Man, both produced by Robert Evans, and she dated Al Pacino. I think she's fantastic. The only issue is that the character is Palestinian, while Keller is German/Swiss, with a heavy German accent. The film tries to explain this bizarre element away, not entirely successfully. The linguist who studies the tape recording of her voice says she probably learned English in Germany, and the Egyptian diplomat played by Walter Gotell tells Robert Shaw that she's "of Arab-German extraction", but then gives her whole life story in summary, and it involves life only in the Middle East, in Palestinian refugee camps and at American University in Beirut, none of which explains why she would have a German accent. Again, I think she's so spectacular in the role that it's a minor issue, and she actually looks convincingly Palestinian, it's only her THICK German accent that is the tiniest bit weird.
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I have a good memory of seeing this on its' original release(at
an inappropriate age, mind you) in a theatre not too far from
where the film's climactic events happen..It's a pretty good
snapshot of Miami (particularly the Orange Bowl) during the
mid 70s...
But a clunker it isn't, this is well done by Frankenheimer and
JW's score (thank you FSM) is great, too bad there weren't
more times he could have done other straight conspiracy/
thriller scores along these lines...
PS Love Mario Bava's Black Sunday too
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Posted: |
Apr 18, 2017 - 6:32 AM
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By: |
jackfu
(Member)
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Thanks all, I'm pleased at the interest shown in the film. It seems to be a mostly overlooked movie as some have mentioned, in that it was outshined by major blockbuster films that year.
I wonder if perhaps Black Sunday spent "too much time" with the details of the Black September movement which even though topical at that time, just didn't click with most Americans wanting to see how a blimp could be used as a WMD.
The casting of Shaw, as Kabakov, really wasn't that much different from Keller as Iyad, in that neither was even close in origin to their characters but to me he was more believable. I agree that Keller was great in Marathon Man.
I think one major failing is the almost total lack of levity in Black Sunday. Kabakov and Moshevsky are obsessive in their pursuit of Iyad and her agents, with reason of course, but other than the dark humor of the "interrogations" of Muzi and the freighter captain, Landers' dig about his wife and her counselor and the "Smile!" test of the flechettes on the watchman and the barn, there's really no relief from the tension.
I'm usually opposed to remakes, but this might be a good one for consideration if done right (if that's even possible today). Of course with today's technology and security, it might not be feasible. Also with today's sensitivities, I doubt any studio would shine a spotlight on any particular movement in the same way this one did, except for a totally fictional and unbelievable one (TSOAF). Plus, I can only imagine the subplots and distractions a remake would involve.
I still love this movie and like some of you, enjoy on Super Bowl Sunday.
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Never seen the film but I too think this makes it onto my Williams Top 5. Amazing score.
Yavar
See the movie! I get that as music you feel like it's in your top 5, but if you like it that much, see the movie!
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