: (John Williams) The spectacular
success of disaster films in the first half of the 1970's had fizzled by
1977, but that didn't stop studios late to the party to attempt their
own thrillers with unlikely plotlines. By the time of
, among others, the genre was no longer
attracting massive box office returns or awards consideration,
especially with the space fantasy era officially in full swing.
Paramount's
stretched the concept beyond the usual
realm of natural disasters and instead fashioned its story as one of
political revenge, though mass terror and death were still the potential
outcome. After the Israelis turn up the heat on the Palestinians in
response to the Black September terrorist attack on the 1972 Munich
Olympics, their battle is carried to America. There, the Palestinians
almost succeed in their plan to smuggle a massive, dart-shooting bomb
into the country, hang it from the bottom of the Goodyear blimp, and
detonate it at the Super Bowl (with the American president in
attendance). After solving logistical hurdles involving the use of the
Goodyear name on the blimp and the shooting of actors interacting at
(and interfering with) actual NFL events, director John Frankenheimer
was left to populate the film's earlier portions with a suspenseful cat
and mouse game featuring actors Robert Shaw, Bruce Dern, and Marthe
Keller. The film was well received critically but failed to generate
much popular interest, a circumstance that extended to John Williams'
score. In the year that otherwise brought
became lost in the mix. By
comparison to its two highly recognized peers of 1977, the score for
was thematically functional but underwhelming,
edited extensively in the final version of the film and, despite the
composer's early intentions, neglected on album. There is nothing in the
instrumentation or constructs of
that can compete
with the memorable elements in Williams' other scores of the year,
though his collectors will undoubtedly find merit in his subdued but
still technically precise ideas for the concept.
While rather straight forward in its thematic constructs,
Black Sunday is often restrained in its presentation of those
ideas, leading to a morbidly somber and perpetually unsettled and
ominous tone until its final moments. The score features two primary
themes and one seldom-referenced secondary idea. By far dominating the
personality of
Black Sunday is the methodical motif for the
Palestinians, represented by a series of four-note phrases that always
begin with straight, almost mechanical repetition in its first phrase.
The theme haunts the score from its opening moments to the final fade at
the end, easily malleable in relation to the other themes and
intensifying in performance depth as the plot to explode the blimp
progresses. While the theme lurks on celesta and woodwinds earlier in
the score, it is finally translated into its final, brass incarnations
in "Miami," one of the film's more memorable scenes (as the blimp is
first seen). Several momentous brass expressions of the theme, in a
style typical to Williams' darker fanfares for his own disaster scores
of the early 1970's, await the blimp's final journey to the stadium and
collision with it. A handful of powerful cello, piano, timpani, and bass
woodwind churnings of the theme produce highlights of the score,
including another driving performance for a great shot in "Bomb Passes
Stadium" (depicting the bomb on its way to be joined with the blimp as
the game is starting). The relentless reminders of this propulsive
theme, extending with stealth into the resolution cue and original end
credits, serves as a reminder of the unyielding, focused threat of
terrorism that spans even beyond this picture. As the theme changes its
meter in its later, more accelerated performances, it takes on a
personality similar to Jerry Goldsmith's tense material for urban
thrillers in the 1990's, a characteristic that applies especially to the
two variations of "The End." Interestingly, as the terrorists' theme is
allowed to merge with underlying rhythms in this score, it begins to
form a very clear mould for Williams' tumultuous motif for the raptors
in
Jurassic Park, especially in the use of rolling bass woodwinds
in the mix. The ending of "Underway" is quite surprising in this regard.
In fact, the connections between
Black Sunday and
Jurassic
Park are plentiful in these passages, including the use of enhanced
synthetic bass effects to expand the music's dynamic reach.
The second main theme for
Black Sunday
accompanies Robert Shaw's lead Israeli commando and is a clear precursor
for Williams' redemptive but alluringly tragic theme for "the force" in
Star Wars. This idea, while faithfully developed by Williams
until its first full incarnation in the closing resolution scene, was
considerably damaged in its application to the film due to the score's
significant rearrangement in the editing process. Ultimately, you never
hear this theme in full in the final cut of the film, though its
interactions with the terrorists' theme, as well as its own intriguing
manipulations for the character's thought process, can be appreciated on
album. The third theme in
Black Sunday is only heard on creepy
piano in "Building the Bomb" and disturbed strings and celesta in "The
Last Night," and it represents the doomed love affair between the lead
Palestinian agent and the mentally unstable Vietnam veteran who will
pilot the blimp. This theme is a bit too tortured for even fans of
Williams' 70's romance ideas, its harmony twisted into eerie formations.
A handful of other instrumental touches are used by Williams to
accentuate certain concepts in the film, most notably an array of
clicking percussion as the fuse on the bomb is lit and the distinct
flourishes of the harp to address the vague romanticism of the blimp.
The employment of the celesta, usually in conjunction with strained high
violins, leads to cues difficult to enjoy on album ("Moshevsky's Dead,"
"The Test," etc). Outside of the intermingling of all of these themes
and instrumental identities in
Black Sunday is the standout cue
"Preparations," which bursts with a fugue that foreshadows several
similar, striking multi-string-lined expressions of rhythmic force to
come for the composer. Also of note is "The Explosion," which was
originally deemed too anti-climactic by the filmmakers, so Williams
returned for a later recording session to specifically provide what
would eventually be known as one of his blazing brass fanfares in the
bombastic major key. The replacement 30-second cue for the very end of
the film sounds like a combination of the nobility of
The Towering
Inferno's exterior shots (in the performances of the Israeli
commando's theme) and the show-stopping timpani pounding and sixteenth
notes on trumpets later to grace the composer's
Star Wars
prequels. The tone of this short cue is completely different from the
rest of the score, but a welcome relief.
Overall,
Black Sunday is an accomplished score
but not necessarily a truly memorable one. The relatively archival sound
quality doesn't allow the many intricacies of the instrumental colors to
expose themselves well enough to casually appreciate. Once it starts
cooking in the second half, there is much to like about its outwardly
menacing attitude. Though the first half of the score is equally grim,
it blends into the background much like Williams' just previous
Midway did outside of its major thematic performances. The theme
for the terrorists is afforded some truly fantastic statements that
easily earned him his paycheck (it almost makes you wish they had
accomplished their aim, if only to hear what kind of glorious variation
Williams could have made on this idea). Those who appreciate the
composer's use of low woodwinds to denote suspense (a la
E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial) will love the maturation of this primary theme.
Those nostalgic for Williams' infusion of pop rhythms and
instrumentation into his vintage disaster scores will find equal merit
in the composer's solo trumpet and light jazz arrangement of the
Israeli's theme in his original end titles cue. Thus, altogether,
Black Sunday is the kind of score that will appeal to Williams
collectors but convert few outside of that group. Long represented on
album by only substandard bootlegs, it was finally given proper
treatment by Film Score Monthly in 2010. This outstanding, remastered
presentation of the score allows listeners to hear it as Williams had
intended, which will give them the opportunity to consider an extensive
amount of material dialed out of (or rearranged in) the film. Included
are the source cues recorded by Williams for the game and beyond, as
well as the original end credits cue without the pop percussion and an
edited approximation of the end credits material heard in context.
Unfortunately, the masters of the revised version of "The Explosion"
could not be located, so the score's single most memorable moment
reverts back to mono sound from a seemingly inferior source. Aside from
this one major detraction, the FSM
Black Sunday album will not
disappoint. Had the score been recorded digitally twenty years later, a
vibrant soundscape for the composition would likely have afforded it a
fourth star in its rating. True enthusiasts of the composer can even
extend comparisons of this score to Williams' last music for the screen
before going into semi-retirement in 2005,
Munich. The dark hues
are equally sinister in both scores.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
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