Black Sunday
Directed by John Frankenheimer, Black Sunday follows Robert Shaw’s David Kabakov, an elite Mossad agent, as he travels to American to stop a disgruntled Vietnam vet (Bruce Dern’s Michael Lander) and a Palestinian terrorist (Mathe Keller’s Dahlia Iyad) from killing thousands of spectators at the Super Bowl. Filmmaker Frankenheimer, working from Ernest Lehman, Kenneth Ross, and Ivan Moffat’s screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced yet predominantly entertaining thriller that benefits substantially from its trio of compelling lead performances, with, especially, Shaw’s often riveting turn as the grizzled Kabakov standing as an ongoing highlight and generally smoothing over the narrative’s periodic bumps. And although the 143 minute running time remains a problem from start to finish, Black Sunday‘s overall impact is heightened by a continuing emphasis on sequences and set-pieces of a decidedly (and surprisingly) electrifying nature, including a gripping chase through Miami Beach and Iyad’s nervewracking efforts at pulling off an assassination within a hospital, and it’s certainly difficult to downplay the effectiveness of the nail-biting climax. (This is despite a reliance on admittedly questionable special effects.) The final result is a somewhat hit-and-miss endeavor that’s elevated by its proliferation of agreeable, engrossing elements, and it’s clear, ultimately, that Frankenheimer’s predictably solid directorial choices go a long way towards perpetuating Black Sunday‘s mostly engaging atmosphere.
*** out of ****
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