“Black Sunday”

Director: John Frankenheimer 1977
A few weeks ago, The Wall Street Journal ran a piece stating that the NFL serves up a mere 11 minutes of action on average per game—that over a three-hour running time. So faced with a Super Bowl between the Saints and the Colts (if the Packers aren’t in it, I don’t care) and with the endless parade of loud and often tasteless commercials, plus the bombastic half-time entertainment, I opted to watch “Black Sunday,” John Frankenheimer’s excellent thriller based on the Thomas Harris novel about a terrorist attempt to blow up the Super Bowl by hijacking the Goodyear blimp and packing it with explosives (Harris, by the way, researched the novel with two colleagues from the New York bureau of the Associated Press, who shared in whatever dough was made from the book and movie).
Frankenheimer brings his patented documentary style to the proceedings, and the movie gets extra points for presenting two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. The cast is fine, headed by Robert Shaw as a Mossad agent, Marthe Keller as his nemesis, and Bruce Dern as her nutty pawn.
The action is beautifully paced and edited (hallmarks of a Frankenheimer film), and the climax well staged, despite some obvious rear-projection shots (no CGI in 1977).
A solidly crafted movie with a bit more to say than the average popcorn fare.

Sarah Palin: Watch this Movie!

As you may know, Sarah Palin appeared at a gathering of Tea Baggers this weekend (I chuckle every time I hear the term Tea Baggers—all because of a memorable episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). After her idiotic speech (for which she was paid $100,000), she sat for a Q & A, during which she consulted the palm of her left hand, upon which she had written “Tax,” “Energy” and “Lift American Spirits.” Apparently, Palin, who mocked President Obama for using a teleprompter, needed a crib note on her hand to remember what her core message was. This is hilarious and truly frightening because Palin could very well be a “serious” candidate for president in ’12. Don’t laugh, folks, this is America.
While I’ve avoided politics since starting this blog, I thought I could defend the above paragraph by resorting to my own core message: to write about movies and books. Palin really needs to find a more inventive way to cheat, and so I suggest she rent “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” the classic high school flick directed by Amy Heckerling and written by Cameron Crowe. Towards the end of the 1982 movie, the kids have to take a science final. As the teacher (Vincent Schiavelli) distracts himself with a Rubik’s Cube, the students display brilliance in the places they hide their cribs: written on thighs, concealed in bras, rolled up in the inside of a pen. There are more, but my memory fails me.
So watch the movie, Sarah, and try to be just a tad less obvious when you need help remembering what it is you’ve been told you represent.