Bear Mann's video: TunePlay - BLACK SUNDAY 1977 John Williams

Easy for us to write about BLACK SUNDAY - it's score one of (if not THE) all time favorite of ours by maestro John Williams. The film - an all time best from the 1970s (the era of CHINATOWN, THE TAKING OF PELHAM and JAWS). And our fave from the late great director John Frankenheimer (THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, RONIN). It is however a film which today remains encumbered by irony; and one of which a great many buffs and cinema students are amazingly as yet unaware. Told, DAY OF THE JACKAL-like, from the alternating POVs of both the antagonist terrorists and the government agent pursuing them, BLACK SUNDAY relates the story of the next sports-related terrorist action (a fictitious one) perpetrated by the PLO's Black September group three years after it's abduction and murder of the Israeli athletes at 1972's Munich Olympics. Because of it's support of Israel, the mainland U.S. becomes the target in a plot to use an embittered, suicidal American pilot (and former Nam POW) to build a massive "plastique and shrapnel bomb"; and to use the innocuous Goodyear blimb to cart and detonate it over the Super Bowl game at Miami's Orange Bowl Stadium, killing over 200,000 people - including the attending U.S. President. The debut novel from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS author Thomas Harris, it would be born (as were the subsequent Hannibal Lector tales) of the writer's years as a crime journalist with the Associated Press. Critically acclaimed upon publication, sales of the 1975 novel were modest at best until word surfaced the film rights had been picked up by mega-producer / former Paramount Head Of Production Robert Evans (LOVE STORY, TRUE GRIT, THE GODFATHER, CHINATOWN). The directorial career of John Frankenheimer, after a stunning debut in the 1960s (the aforementioned films along with THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, THE TRAIN and more), had stalled with a series of not-well-received efforts in the late 60s / early 70s including THE HORSEMAN, THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN and 99 AND 44/100% DEAD. But BLACK SUNDAY was his return to the days of grand, intelligent, and (mostly) intelligently received political thrillers. "MOSTLY intelligently received" because often in Frankenheimer's cinema world (even in newer films such as YEAR OF THE GUN and THE FOURTH WAR) the (often so-called) antagonist / villain receives as much humane character development as does the protagonists, while at the same time the heroes are often "frayed about the edges" (on occasion even morally corrupt), but manage an act of necessary nobility by film's end. Take note of the German officer and French Resistance fighters roles in THE TRAIN for evidence of this. For this reason there were some who erroneously felt Frankenheimer was sympathizing with Black September and their actions, while he was only giving the film characters (even the unhinged pilot - stunningly portrayed by Bruce Dern) more depth than they arguably had in Harris' original novel. Receiving Paramount's highest "pre-release audience test scores" since JAWS, as well as a chorus of critical acclaim for it's overall impact, it was a surprise to all when BLACK SUNDAY failed to ignite 1977's box office. One of the most noted aspects of that impact at the time was composer John Williams' percussive score - having since gone on to be a much imitated suspense thriller / action classic. A self-professed "fanatical fan of film music" it was producer Evans who brought Williams onto BLACK SUNDAY. The film's two main music motifs (they're deliberately not developed enough to refer to them as "themes" proper) are the pulsating "Obsession" ideal associated with the PLO plot (first heard here after the intro in "Building The Bomb"), and that associated with "old dog" Israeli Mossad agent Kabakov (Robert Shaw) - a dark Hebraic / Klezmer-like melody appearing in various guises during his (just as obsessive) search for the terrorists before their deadly conspiracy can explode to fruition. CEJ 1) Building The Bomb (0:00 of 13:36) 2) Preparation (1:52 of 13:36) 3) The Blimp And The Bomb (4:35 of 13:36) 4) The Take Off (7:48 of 13:36) 5) Underway (9:31 of 13:36) 6) Air Chase - Pt.1 (10:11 of 13:36) 7) The Explosion / End Title (11:23 of 13:36) * For more on director JOHN FRANKENHEIMER (incl. audio & film clips, and complete filmography) see our in depth GullCottage Online article "The Directors: JOHN FRANKENHEIMER - Cinema's Grand Sensai" at: http://gullcottageonline.com/-JFrankenheimer_2.html For more "TunePlay" mini movie music suites go to http://www.gullcottageonline.com/TunePlay-ClarkeApril_12.html "Bear Mann" is a YouTube channel of The GullCottage/Sandlot, a film blog and growing reference library "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art" Visit us on the web at: http://www.gullcottageonline.com And on FACEBOOK at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-GullCottageSandlot/129683480458380