Editing John Frankenheimer (section)

===1970s===
Frankenheimer followed this with ''[[I Walk the Line (film)|I Walk the Line]]'' in 1970. The film, starring [[Gregory Peck]] and [[Tuesday Weld]], about a Tennessee sheriff who falls in love with a [[moonshine|moonshiner's]] daughter, was set to songs by [[Johnny Cash]]. Frankenheimer's next project took him to Afghanistan. ''[[The Horsemen (1971 film)|The Horseman]]'' focused on the relationship between a father and son, played by [[Jack Palance]] and [[Omar Sharif]]. Sharif's character, an expert horseman, played the Afghan national sport of [[buzkashi]].

''[[Impossible Object]]'', also known as ''[[Story of a Love Story]]'', suffered distribution difficulties and was not widely released. Next came a four-hour film of O'Neill's ''[[The Iceman Cometh (1973 film)|The Iceman Cometh]]'', in 1973, starring [[Lee Marvin]], and the decidedly offbeat ''[[99 and 44/100% Dead]]'', a crime black comedy starring [[Richard Harris]].

With his fluent French and knowledge of [[Culture of France|French culture]], Frankenheimer was asked to direct ''[[French Connection II]]'', set entirely in [[Marseille]]. With Hackman reprising his role as New York cop Popeye Doyle, the film was a success and got Frankenheimer his next job. ''[[Black Sunday (1977 film)|Black Sunday]]'', based on author [[Thomas Harris]]'s only non-[[Hannibal Lecter]] [[Black Sunday (novel)|novel]] up to that point, involves an Israeli [[Mossad]] agent ([[Robert Shaw (actor)|Robert Shaw]]) chasing a pro-Palestinian terrorist ([[Marthe Keller]]) and a [[Post-traumatic stress disorder|PTSD]]-afflicted [[Vietnam veteran|Vietnam vet]] ([[Bruce Dern]]), who plan a spectacular mass-murder involving the [[Goodyear Blimp]] which flies over the [[Super Bowl]]. It was shot on location at the actual [[Super Bowl X]] in January 1976 in Miami, with the use of a real Goodyear Blimp.<ref name="auto1"/> The film tested very highly, and Paramount and Frankenheimer had high expectations for it, but it was not a hit (with Paramount blaming the failure on the special effects work in the climax, and [[Universal Pictures|Universal Studios]] releasing the similarly themed thriller ''[[Two-Minute Warning]]'' only six months prior).

In 1977, [[Carter DeHaven]] hired Frankenheimer to direct William Sackheim and [[Michael Kozoll]]'s screenplay for ''[[First Blood]]''. After considering [[Michael Douglas]], [[Powers Boothe]], and [[Nick Nolte]] for the role of [[John Rambo]] Frankenheimer cast [[Brad Davis (actor)|Brad Davis]]. He also cast [[George C. Scott]] as [[Colonel Trautman]]. However, the production was abandoned after [[Orion Pictures]] acquired its distributor [[Filmways]], and Sackheim and Kozoll's script would be rewritten by [[Sylvester Stallone]] as the basis for [[Ted Kotcheff]]'s 1982 film.<ref>Broeske, Pat H. (November 25, 1985). "The Curious Evolution of John Rambo: How He Hacked His Way Through the Jungles of Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. p. AB32.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=AFI{{!}}Catalog|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56779-FIRST-BLOOD?sid=0506c692-2c7e-4866-aa90-000b66449e7e&sr=9.006926&cp=1&pos=0|access-date=2021-06-11|website=catalog.afi.com}}</ref>

Frankenheimer is quoted in Champlin's biography as saying that his [[alcoholism|alcohol problem]] caused him to do work that was below his own standards on ''[[Prophecy (film)|Prophecy]]'' (1979), an ecological monster movie about a mutant grizzly bear terrorizing a forest in Maine.