In a fit of "Black Humor," a joint US-Israeli Black Ops "Homage" to the 1977 film of the 1975 novel BLACK SUNDAY skyjacked the Goodyear Blimp and attacked the Super Bowl as the Half Time Show and ads began. . Posing as "Palestinian Terrorists" the Black Ops dropped leaflets claiming the huge Crowd & Stadium as a Poetic Analogy for the open air prison of Gaza, and its 1.5 million death row inmates. Stating " BUT--No Rockets were launched from inside the Super Bowl, “Presidents Ohmert and Obama ordered the carpet bombing of Gaza. Bettors and advertisers made sure Patriotic Duty prevailed and the game was completed as over Gaza “bombs burst in air—“and over the Stadium “our flag was still there.”
Under a sky grey as the concrete of Fascist train stations a large contingent of Avant Poets contributed readings, performances and brief speeches to the large rally. Fired by the unaccustomed welcome of the crowd’s partisan fervor, a leading Avantist announced: “Many accuse the American Avant of Silence regarding Gaza. Do they not understand Poetics sufficiently to know that “it goes without saying” that such “Silence” “Speaks Volumes” and at “High Volume” our Support of Israel?”
Black Sunday is a 1975 novel by Thomas Harris. It was the first novel by Harris, who went on to write the Hannibal Lecter novels. Harris wrote the novel after watching the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis where Palestinian terrorists took Israeli athletes hostage and murdered them.
[edit] Film adaptation
- Main article:Black Sunday (1977 film)
In 1977, a film was made based on the novel starring Robert Shaw and Bruce Dern and directed by John Frankenheimer.
Plot
Michael Lander (Bruce Dern) is an American blimp pilot deranged by years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, a failed marriage, and a bitter court martial. He longs to commit suicide and take as many people as possible with him, so he conspires with an operative (Marthe Keller) from a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September to launch a massive suicide bombing on American soil. Lander plans to detonate a flechette-based bomb, housed on the underside of a blimp, over a football stadium during the Super Bowl. American and Israeli intelligence agencies, led by Mossad agent David Kabakov (Robert Shaw) and FBI agent Sam Corley (Fritz Weaver), race to prevent the catastrophe. To add further intrigue and a pall of doom, the President of the United States attends the game.
[edit] Reception
The film was a commercial hit when it was released in 1977. Although director John Frankenheimer lamented serious shortcomings in the visual effects of the climax (due to time and budgetary shortfalls), many critics trumpeted the final scene featuring a helicopter/blimp chase over the Orange Bowl as one of the more riveting and unusual in movie history. Black Sunday also features a film score from John Williams.
[edit] Behind the scenes
A significant portion of the filming was done during actual Super Bowl X at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida, on January 18, 1976. In the movie, Kabakov discusses the security arrangements for the game with Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie, who plays himself. In the movie, Jimmy Carter is shown as the President of the United States who attends the Super Bowl, although Gerald Ford was President when Super Bowl X took place.
[edit] Blimps
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company granted use of all three of its U.S.-based blimps for Black Sunday. The landing and hijacking scenes were photographed at the Goodyear airship base in Carson, California with Columbia (N3A); a short scene in the Spring, Texas base with the America (N10A), and the Miami, Florida Super Bowl scenes with the Mayflower (N1A), which was then based on Watson Island across the Port of Miami. While Goodyear allowed the use of their airship fleet, they did not allow the "Goodyear Wingfoot" logo (prominently featured on the side of the blimp) to be used in the advertising or movie poster for the film. Thus, the words "Super Bowl" are featured in place of the logo on the blimp in the advertising collateral.
[edit] Differences between the novel and the film
* In the novel, the Aldrich Rubber Company owns the blimp. In the film, the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company permitted its blimp to be used. A Goodyear representative noted that it is impossible for two people, alone, to launch the blimp.
* In the novel, the Super Bowl occurs in New Orleans at Tulane Stadium. Harris wrote his novel before completion of the Louisiana Superdome. In the film, the Super Bowl occurs in Miami at the Orange Bowl Stadium.
* In the novel, Mochevsky (Kabakov's assistant) survives to the end of the story, but Kabakov, the helicopter pilot, and the FBI Agent Corley are killed in the blimp explosion over the Mississippi River. In the film, Mochevsky is killed; Kabakov is not.
* In the novel, Muhammad Fasil, a Palestinian terrorist who assisted Lander survives and is repatriated to Israel (by Mochevsky) to be tried; in the film, Kabakov shoots and kills him during a gun fight in Miami.
* In the novel, Kabakov has a relationship with a young psychiatrist named Rachel Baumann. The part was originally scripted with either Ali McGraw or Katharine Ross in mind, but due to budgetary issues, the script was revised and the role was deleted.
[edit] In Popular Culture
In Tom Clancy's novel The Sum of All Fears, Mark Russel mentions Black Sunday to the main antagonists when he notes the similarity of their plan to that of the film.
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