Black Sunday
Dir: John Frankenheimer
1977
****
The clever, and somewhat unnerving, thing about John Frankenheimer's 1977 disaster thriller is that rather than rooting for the good guy (Robert Shaw as an anti-terrorist intelligence officer) the audience sympathies with and almost backs the bad guy, an unhinged and suicidal Good Year blimp pilot who wants to die and take as many innocent people with him (played brilliantly by Bruce Dern). This seems to be a theme with Richard Harris stories, while Bruce Dern's Michael Lander is no Hannibal Lector, he has been wronged and his actions are a horrific result of government wrong-doing and bad treatment towards him after his release from a Vietnam prison camp. His madness even disturbs his partner, a devout terrorist played by Marthe Keller and so his story is easily the most interesting element of the film, rather than the Blimp plot. I wouldn't say you want him to get away with it (crashing the Good Year Blimp into the Super Bowl) but during the era of disaster films, you'd be lying if you said you didn't want to see at least something spectacular and Black Sunday certainly delivers. This makes it an uneasy film to watch, especially when it is based on the very real Black September group, Bruce Dern's character is so well written and amazingly performed, the viewer really can't help but look at themselves when the reality is that they want the bad guy to win and to see the Good Year Blimp cause as much damage as possible. Certain darker scenes, particularly the test run scene, will bring the viewer back down to earth pretty quickly but the stories provocative nature will stick with you long after the film is over. It's a very dark film somewhat disguised as a 70's disaster thriller. It's brilliant, very overlooked but a huge influence on film makers since.