My Favorite Themes - Part IV

Score: Black Sunday by John Williams

About the film: A Palestinian terrorist (Marthe Keller) ropes an unhinged Vietnam vet (Bruce Dern) into a plot to kill spectators at the Super Bowl and it falls to an anti-terrorism agent (Robert Shaw) to stop them. I imagine that, in today's touchier-than-a-sunburn-victim post-9/11 climate, this film may no longer be seen as the bit of escapism it was in 1977, but I consider it to be a well-acted, enjoyable and amazingly realistic (if overlong) thriller, well-directed by John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate).

Title: "Main Theme" (pity it's not more original). The theme is a driving melody that gets a major workout in the final reels as the plan is carried out. However, my favorite rendition appears when Major Kabakov (Shaw) discovers that the blimp pilot has been murdered and Capt. Lander (Dern) is above the stadium. The piano is in control here, stomping along with Kabakov (by the way, I must gush about what a cool name this character has) as he rushes down the stadium steps.

Other themes of interest: There is a brilliant one-time melody for the security preparing for a potential attack before the game, as well as a somewhat melancholy theme for Kabakov.

Availability: The score has never been released in full. It mainly exists as a 10:31 suite on the Silva Screen compilation "Close Encounters: the Music of John Williams". It features the preparations music, an exciting suite of the main theme and a rendition of Kabakov's theme. In my opinion, this suite is a damn good representation of the score and is well worth seeking out.