Black Sunday
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Synopsis
IT COULD BE TOMORROW!
Throughout the 1970s, a wave of daring disaster movies gripped cinemagoers with their combination of bravura spectacle and “ripped from the headlines” plotlines. Among these, John Frankenheimer’s (The Manchurian Candidate, Ronin) Black Sunday endures to this day as among the cream of the crop.
Robert Shaw (Jaws, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three) stars as Major Kabakov, an Israeli agent attempting to avert a terrorist atrocity on US soil. The weapon: a blimp laced with explosives and piloted by Michael Lander (Bruce Dern, Silent Running), a troubled Vietnam vet driven to strike back against the nation he believes has betrayed him. The target: the Orange Bowl stadium, Miami. What follows is a nail-biting race against time culminating in a spectacular aerial climax that will determine the fate of 80,000 spectators.
Adapted from the best-selling debut novel by Thomas Harris (The Silence of the Lambs) and featuring virtuoso performances by a cast headlined by Dern, Shaw and Marthe Keller (Marathon Man), Black Sunday is a nerve-shredding, best-in-class suspense thriller from a filmmaker at the top of his game.
Picture 7/10
Arrow Video presents John Frankenheimer’s Black Sunday on Blu-ray at about 2.35:1 on a dual-layer disc. The 1080p/24hz high-definition presentation is sourced from a high-def master supplied by Paramount Pictures.
Though Arrow is working from an older master (at best scanned from a 35mm interpositive), they’ve done a spectacular job delivering it here. The restoration work looks to have been extensive, without much remaining outside of a few minor blemishes. The digital presentation is also surprisingly strong, despite some weaknesses in the base master. Grain can look messy, but the encode is strong, ensuring that any underlying issues aren’t amplified. This keeps the image relatively clean, and detail levels can be surprisingly high. The film uses several optical effect techniques during the finale, so there are many moments where the image can take on a severely dupey appearance with clarity faltering a bit (as expected). Still, the presentation, on the whole, is very crisp and clean.
Colors can have a duller “70s” appearance, though appear adequate with decent saturation. Black levels can be hit or miss depending on the scene (darker interiors can look very murky), but they’re primarily solid and allow for excellent shadow delineation. There are a couple of stand-out moments, though, the best one being where Dern’s character tests his explosive in a hangar, punching out several small holes into the metal siding of the building. The light seeping through those holes into the darkened interior looks striking, and the range in contrast is wide enough to keep the blacks reasonably dark while the light blends into the shadows. It’s rather impressive, especially for an older scan and master.
The film would still clearly benefit from a newer scan (and it would look incredible in 4K), but Arrow has done an impressive job with this.
Audio 7/10
Arrow includes three audio tracks in English: lossless PCM monaural (single-channel) and stereo soundtracks, as well as a 5.1 surround soundtrack in DTS-HD MA. I listened to the surround and mono tracks while only sampling the stereo track.
The surround presentation isn’t bad for a remix. Most of the audio, especially dialogue, stays focused on the fronts while some action and the film’s score fill out the environment. I thought the mix was pretty good, with nothing sticking out as sounding out of place or off. Dialogue is also mixed well, and nothing gets drowned out. The range is also extensive, best displayed during the film’s finale.
The scenes I sampled for the stereo presentation (mostly centered around action) also deliver a modest range and fill out the environment decently enough. Even the mono presentation can show off a bit. In all cases, dialogue sounds sharp and clear with solid fidelity.
Ultimately, it will come down to one’s own preference, but they all sound rather good.
Extras 9/10
For what is Arrow’s first Paramount licensed title, it doesn’t pack on a lot of supplementary material, but I have to say I was more than impressed by the quality of what has been included. Things start with an exclusive new audio commentary recorded by Josh Nelson, who covers the film’s production from the adaptation process (from Thomas Harris’ first novel) through to its disappointing box office, and then every detail in between. And I must say, he does cover every detail in between. I’ll confess I wasn’t incredibly excited to listen to this track. Though the film is a tautly structured and directed thriller without an ounce of fat to be found, it’s still incredibly long at 143 minutes. I just had a hard time believing there was that much material worth covering around the film in a commentary that runs the same length. It turns out I was completely wrong.
As I already stated, Nelson extensively covers the film’s production and the climate in Hollywood and at Paramount during its making—which all proves surprisingly fascinating—and he does all this while segueing naturally into other loosely related topics that help contextualize the film to the period (whether it be the political climate or the types of films Hollywood was churning out), address controversies or criticisms that came up (featuring Palestinian terrorists, even though the primary villain is a disenfranchised American), or even what may have drew some of the actors to the film (Shaw may have been attracted to themes shared with his play The Man in the Glass Booth). But what’s most impressive is that he never resorts to material to fill time. Even when he talks about cast and crew members, it’s to address what they bring to the film. This leads to some wonderful appreciations, including a lengthy one around co-star Steven Keats.
He eventually even gets into why the film more than likely flopped (or underperformed), bringing up some thoughtful points and keen observations and even references the writings or comments of others. This includes comments from Bruce Dern, who worried he made his villain far too sympathetic, and even Roger Ebert, who feared (probably correctly) that the film ultimately failed because, in a time when audiences were more interested in spectacle rather than craft, it didn’t have the big “payoff” at the end. This also leads to a discussion around the transition from the “New Hollywood” era to the “Blockbuster” era and where this film sits between the two.
I really, really liked this track. It was well-researched, tackled several subjects in an organized and clean manner, and never felt like Nelson was ever reaching to fill time. It’s also delivered interestingly and entertainingly. This release doesn’t feature much material, but this, all on its own, would have made that more than satisfactory. It’s an unexpectedly excellent track.
Sadly, there are no interviews, though, to be fair, there aren’t many left from the film, and I’m not sure how likely it would be for Dern, who turns 87 this year, to sit and discuss his work. I’m also unaware of Marthe Keller ever sitting for bonus interviews. At the very least, Arrow includes a new visual essay by Sergio Angelini, entitled It Could Be Tomorrow, and running 29 minutes. At first, I feared it would more or less be a summary of Nelson’s commentary, with Angelini initially talking about the novel and the early days of its production. Yet it becomes more technical and expands on areas that Nelson only touches on. Though Nelson does talk about the adaptation process (with Ernest Lehman turning in an initial script that would have led to the film being 7 hours), Angelini’s essay ends up providing a more thorough analysis of how Thomas Harris’ novel was adapted, pointing out individual sequences (running a few minutes) that manage to condense pages and pages of exposition to keep things moving while not losing anything important. He also brings up the films that directly influenced Frankenheimer in how he would shoot the film (The Battle of Algiers, for starters) and does an excellent job breaking down and analyzing the editing in the film’s action scenes. It’s a great addition to the track.
From there, Arrow also includes a 2003 episode around Frankenheimer from the program called The Directors, which runs 52 minutes. Made up of new (for the time) and archival interviews with those who have worked with the director (Frankenheimer, who would have passed away the year before, even showing up), it offers a rather thorough profile of the filmmaker, though unsurprisingly rushes through some of his more significant misfires (The Island of Dr. Moreau, Reindeer Games). Getting past that and the chintzy graphics (they’re straight from 80s video editing), it’s still a great crash course on the director.
The disc then closes with an image gallery featuring production photos and lobby cards, the latter in English, German, and Italian. Arrow also includes a 15-page booklet featuring an excellent appreciation of the film written by Barry Forshaw (though it does more-or-less summarize content found on the disc features).
Yes, there doesn’t appear to be much on here, but the new material provided by Arrow goes well and beyond expectations.
Closing
It’s disappointing that Arrow could not get their hands on a newer restoration. Still, they have done what they can and delivered a more-than-satisfactory presentation. They have also put together a couple of superb new special features—a very easy recommendation.
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