Black Sunday

Back in the 1970s when Black Sunday was released, a terrorist attack on American soil was pretty much solely the stuff of movie thrillers; nowadays it's a reality. This change in the state of the world actually makes this film much more up-to-date than it really should be. Let's just say, it aged well.

Bruce Dern is a former Vietnam War POW who is extremely bitter after being court martialed. He teams up with members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September in planning a massive attack on the 80,000 football fans at that year's Super Bowl. The FBI and an Israeli agent (Robert Shaw) only know part of the plan and race against time to find out the where and the when of this imminent massacre.

When the movie first started, I was afraid that it was going to be bogged down by too much intrigue. However, the action quickly moves away from Beirut (where the film begins) to America, focusing on Dern's mental deterioration and Shaw's investigation. John Frankenheimer's direction is excellent as usual with his signature style of setting the action smack dab in the middle of real people and real situations.