Runtime: 143 minutes
Directed by: John Frankenheimer
Starring: Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Steven Keats
From: Paramount
What I watched yesterday evening instead of the Super Bowl.
For a variety of reasons, I've hardly paid attention to the National Football League in recent years. All the controversy revolving around Colin Kaepernick is not the main reason for me although if I was Black, a different tune would be sung. Rather, it's insufferable to me due to various rule changes that have been made (where anything worse than sneezing on the quarterback is a no-no), good defense has been outlawed and sometimes even they don't know their rules, resulting in embarrassing moments-look at what happened to the New Orleans Saints vs. the LA Rams back in January 2019. I did not watch the Super Bowl back in 2019 or 2020 as I went to Walt Disney World instead, which were wise decisions. Yesterday, I stayed in and instead of watching the big game-those not from the United States, that event is a HUGE deal-I viewed a motion picture revolving around an actual Super Bowl from the past which I hadn't viewed before.
A movie from John Frankenheimer which starred Robert Shaw & Bruce Dern and had a John Williams score sounded promising enough to me. The end result was better than I expected, even w/ some effects that have regrettably turned sour and don't look so convincing any longer. What a game of cat and mouse, although the two sides play each role. A European/Arab lady who supports a Palestinian terrorist organization teams up with a Vietnam vet who was long a prisoner of war over there-and what a realization it was that this character was obviously modeled on Vietnam War POW John McCain; I mean, McCain even resembled Dern at the time. No matter what you think of his politics as senator or some of the morally questionable things he did after the war, at least he was not so bitter over his life or how his country treated him where he wanted to pilot the Goodyear Blimp-this dirigible is a common sight at televised outdoor sporting events-and drop a bomb at the Super Bowl where 80,000+ people would be killed.
I've never read the novel-written by none other than Thomas Harris-but for certain, the movie tried to make clear it was not really taking sides on the whole Israel vs. Palestine conflict... of course I will NOT share my thoughts on said conflict as nothing good can come from making that public. Even though Shaw plays an Israeli agent of Mossad who is trying to stop this act, all three main characters are flawed individuals and he is an “old dog” who is tired of fighting this war as a member of counter-intelligence for a few decades now as it is starting to seem futile for him.
Believe it or not, footage from a real Super Bowl (X, to be exact) is used. They were actually allowed to film at this event, so you actually see Shaw walk or run around the Orange Bowl stadium in Miami as the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers face off. Lord knows that will never happen in modern times, a big Hollywood movie filming at a Super Bowl and using footage from the game... the NFL would never want to be connected again to a motion picture surrounding a big terrorist act. You know Goodyear feels the same about an iconic vehicle advertising their product being used as a weapon to potentially slaughter so many innocents. This authenticity definitely helped for Black Sunday. Not so authentic was some of those effects shots and such things as Michael V. Gazzo as a Turkish man... but such things did amuse me rather than take me out of the experience.
The movie has a measured pace which I know won't be for all tastes; me, I was riveted by everything in this almost 2 ½ hour picture. There is espionage intrigue, a long chase that ends on Collins Avenue in South Beach, and what a thrilling final 30 to 40 minutes; I was never bored. The fact that this has a quality Williams score was an asset. For certain, it was a better usage of my time than seeing a noncompetitive game last night which featured a guy that really did not need to win ANOTHER title.
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