Black Sunday

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Production:

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Cast:

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Notes:

Bruce Dern plays a former navy blimp pilot who is now a Goodyear blimp pilot. He joins Black September terrorists to shoot thousands of steel darts into Miami Orange Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday to kill all 80,000 spectators. The film uses a semi-documentary style and footage from the Superbowl X Pittsburg Steelers-Dallas Cowboys game, won by Pittsburgh 21-17. Director John Frankenheimer is in a cameo as a TV director covering the Miami game. The film did not do very well at the box office because of the parallel release of "Two-Minute Warning" that had a similar plot. The late 1970s was a period in American history when terrorism was becoming a real-life threat. Harris wrote his novel following the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.

Scenes:

ca. 1'30 - Dern has learned he was not chosen to fly the blimp on Super Bowl Sunday, is sitting in his living room in Navy uniform, shows his medals, including good view of half-wing emblem of a blimp pilot, talks about "how it was"

Links:


History Department | Filmnotes | revised 8/30/99 by Schoenherr