Published on March 29, 2026
Having recently watched John Frankenheimer’s superb *Seven Days in May* again, I became interested in revisiting his 1977 thriller *Black Sunday*. I saw it during its original theatrical run—and that may have been the one and only time. To my surprise, my assessment of the film has not deviated over the last 48 years.
Based on Thomas Harris’ bestseller, *Black Sunday* centers on Michael Lander (Bruce Dern), a mentally unstable U.S. Navy veteran who is exploited by a member of a Middle Eastern terrorist organization (Marthe Keller as Dahlia). Their goal is to capture attention for their cause of people at a large-scale event in Miami. The movie unfolds with suspense, although the film’s poster gives away the plot, stripping away any element of mystery regarding the terrorist plans.
What remains is a cat-and-mouse game between the good guys, led commando (Robert Shaw), and the villains. This structure is reminiscent of the earlier *The Day of the Jackal* (1973), in which an assassin meticulously plans to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle. The key difference is that *Jackal*’s director Fred Zinnemann and star Edward Fox succeed in manipulating the audience into rooting for the assassin for most of that film’s running time.
In contrast, the screenwriters and cast in *Black Sunday* let down Frankenheimer create engaging characters. Ideally, we should feel sympathy for Lander and, to a lesser degree, Dahlia. However, Dern’s acting is so wildly over the top that he loses the humanity in his character. Keller, on the other hand, does not get the chance to express or explain Dahlia’s motives; they are delivered through a quick conversation with Shaw’s character by a Russian spy. This leaves her character as an enigma, efficiently killing one moment and crying for no apparent reason the next. Robert Shaw fares better as the film’s hero, but it’s almost , as his role is underwritten, particularly when reacting to the murder of a long-time friend.
To Frankenheimer’s credit, the final 45 minutes of the film effectively ramp up the thrills as the terrorist plot reaches its climax. Producer Robert Townsend worked with the National Football League to film an actual football game, and Frankenheimer incorporates that footage seamlessly, adding authenticity to the climactic disaster. His deliberately chaotic direction—especially as crowds pour out of the stands—creates an almost cinéma vérité effect. Yet, it’s unfortunate that an exciting sequence involving a blimp contains some unconvincing rear-screen shots.
It’s a shame that *Black Sunday* never fully realizes its potential as a nail-biting suspense film. While the climax delivers the goods, a weak script, uneven acting, and a bloated running time (over two hours) prevent it from generating a rising feeling of tension. The film stands in stark contrast to *Seven Days in May*, illustrating that even a talented director can only do so much with the material and cast at his disposal.
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