The Black Hole

source: The Black Hole

In the deep space, the crew of the spaceship "Palamino" composed of Capt. Dan Holland (Robert Foster), Dr. Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins), Lt. Charles Pizer (Joseph Bottoms), Dr. Kate McCrae (Ivette Mimieux) and Harry Booth (Ernest Bornine), finds a huge black hole and the missed U.S.S. Cygnus close to the edge of the black hole. They go aboard of "Cignus" and finds that the only human is the scientist Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) and the rest of the crew is composed of robots and humanoids. Dr. Reinhardt intends to enter the black hole with the crew of "Palamino", and they realize that he is actually mad. "The Dark Hole" is an absolutely boring and dated sci-fi. Ironically this flick was nominated to two Oscars (Best Cinematography and Best Effects, Visual Effects) and to five categories in some minor festivals (Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA and Hugo Awards). The coward character of Harry Booth recalled me Dr. Smith of "Lost in Space". My vote is three. Title (Brazil): "O Buraco Negro" ("The Black Hole")

I have actually gone in here and altered and added to my original comments to make them a little less one-sided. Did you ever have one of those mutant pets, like a cat with six toes on its front paws, or an extra ear? Well I didn't either, but you can imagine what it must be like. You'd love the thing all the more because of its flaws, because it'll never be perfect, and because it needs someone to love it. And such is my love for "The Black Hole" (1979). It is an interesting story that is rendered and explored in a mechanical manner--although visually, in terms of its set design and special effects, it is really stunning. It's a Disney product, and like "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," it was put on the slates mainly to cash in on the space opera craze that "Star Wars" had ignited. Movies are commercial art, they exist to make money (hopefully entertaining us at the same time); and the Disney people got their best film-making talent together, assembled a dynamite cast, and cranked this out, in a very lavish and polished way, production-wise. The money is slathered all over the screen, and everything is handled in the tried-and-true Disney Studios fashion of preplanning and choreographing everything down to the tiniest of details (actors don't even PAUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF A LINE unless it was dictated, planned and rehearsed that way)...this was very near the end of Disney's run as a major producer of live-action features, and "The Black Hole" is a fitting finish. It even features cute touches, like the way the nastiest demise is saved for Anthony Perkins. If you're gonna make a slow, mechanical movie, you can at least do it with style, and they did. It is an impressive production. In a certain way you might say I love/hate the movie. The methodical way it's constructed seems lifeless. But at the same time, it is a strange joy to see its methodical construction. It takes tremendous energy to create something so controlled. It's certainly not a film made by accident or unconsciously. "The Black Hole," manages to be strangely trance-inducing. Once I put it on, it's hard to turn it off.

Yes The Black Hole may have some silly dialogue and uneven acting, excepting Maximillian Schnell who is absolutely brilliant, but it is a very underrated film in my opinion. I love the story, it was an intriguing idea and it was compelling and moved at a good pace. The ending is wonderfully haunting and surreal, the direction is secure and the film's villain is one of the memorable ones I have seen in a while, twisted, tormented yet with a touch of humanity about him too. I did connect to the characters, yes even VINCENT and BOB. But what makes The Black Hole are the production values and music. The special effects, cinematography, design of the robots and set/scenery design are absolutely breathtaking and the score from the late legendary John Barry compliments the film perfectly. All in all, a very underrated film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This movie received some hype when it debuted, as critics noted that it was the first non-kids movie from Disney--receiving a PG rating (unheard of at the time for Disney). As a result, I went to the movie with pretty high expectations. The plot and acting would probably merit a score of 4--maybe 5 in a pinch. Not especially good but not terrible. However, the movie really falls apart towards the end. What little momentum the movie generated becomes completely derailed, as it appeared they did not have an ending when they began filming--choosing to just "wing it". Instead of the payoff for this dreary piece, the viewers were treated(?) to a combination of the ending of 2001 and some sort of avant garde art film that made absolutely no sense (unless you are on LSD or mentally imbalanced). You see, everyone is sucked into the black hole and, of course, this results in them flying through some silly corridors in billowy robes. Then, without explanation, they are back on the ship none the worse for wear! Huh?!?!?! PLEASE hit me on the head with a hammer if I ever ask to see this movie again!

I attended the 70mm premiere of "The Black Hole" in Hollywood in 1979. The pre-publicity for this film was huge. Buena Vista Studios pulled out all stops and published full page ads. The house was packed. I never saw so much disappointment in an audience. You could hear the audible gasps in certain scenes along with muffled snickers, it was that bad. Everyone was polite when the house lights came up, but you could tell... it flopped in a big way. This was also the year of "Star Trek - the motion picture" and "Alien." During that 70mm premiere at the Egyptian, the film jumped the track and the 70mm film burned up before our eyes. A woman actually screamed which sent a wave of very loud gasps through the crowd. Fortunately, a friend of mine had other friends in Westwood (showing it 70mm later that day). We ran over there and they managed to squeeze us in. Compared to the "Black Hole" whether that comparison is fair or not, "Alien" was then and still is a sci-fi masterpiece, and complete pushed the "Black Hole" off the page for the year. No one associated with sci-fi would even mention "Black Hole" at the cons. "The Black Hole" tried so hard to be legit Sci-fi. But in the end, a great roster of seasoned actors had a poor script (TV writer Bob Barash's only feature film), poor direction (TV director Gary Nelson's only feature film) and all the wonderful special effects or sweeping score cannot save an inherently bad movie. Disney has yet to make another attempt at Sci-fi that has or will be considered successful.

This movie does fall absolutely dead center in the middle of the road for me. On the one hand, you have decent F/X, great model work, some good performances (Maximilian Schell as the Nemo-like bad guy and Perkins as the obsessed acolyte), a willingness to get down and gritty (witness Perkins' on-screen death), and some nice concepts. On the other hand, you have some bad performances (Borgnine and wooden-faced Forster), unnecessarily anthromorphized robots (no doubt inspired by Star Wars and Disney's desire to lighten the flick a bit), some sloppy science, and a very slow plot. It's good, but to me it just balances right out at a 4-6 rating, depending on my mood when I catch it.

This was Disney's big Christmas release in 1979--a big budget, the first PG rating and big stars. It was a huge bomb which is too bad--it's pretty good. A spaceship's crew (Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux) find a mad doctor (Maximilian Schell) in outer space ready to enter a black hole. He sets out to take them with him...or else. Great special effects are the main attraction here. The debits are kiddie-like dialogue, bad acting, huge lapses in logic and two cutsey robots voiced by Roddy McDowell and Slim Pickens. Still, I liked the movie. It moves fairly quickly and there was always some impressive effects to look at--it's obvious that Disney spent a lot of money on this. This is fine for kids--the PG rating is just for someone saying "damn" and three non-bloody, quick deaths. Adults should like it too.

The Black Hole is probably the only Disney live-action movie (with the possible exception of Cool Runnings) that is even watchable. So the fact that it's incredibly fun just makes it all the more odd. Perhaps it's the overabundance of mediocre effects (even by 1979's standards, considering it was preceded by Star Wars (2 years) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (11 years)), or it could be the overall impossibility of the robot VINCENT, but I am hooked on this movie. Plotwise, there's some new stuff here for science fiction. In general, the black hole had never really been looked into, so combining that with the crazed genius (Maximillian Schell) just creates a story worth watching, despite some obvious speaking errors ("habitable life in outer space") and some scientific errors (the astronauts are exposed to the vacuum of space and nothing happens...). All in all, the fighting, the story, and the utterly bizarre 1970s sets and costumes make this one of my closet favorites. If you are even vaguely interested, buy the video today, because it took 20 years to see it come out to the mainstream. Don't miss this!

The Black Hole was one of many films that were released with the intention of cresting the sci-fi wave created by the huge success of Star Wars (1977). More specifically, this was Disney's attempt at the genre and I think it was the studio's first movie that didn't go for a U certificate. The film that it can best be compared to is Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was also released the same year. Both movies sport fantastic special effects and production values, while both also are surprisingly - and pleasingly - slightly left-field in their approach. Neither really fall squarely into the action/adventure bracket that Star Wars so obviously did, they rely more on atmosphere, some psychological aspects and have some enigmatic qualities which seem to indicate the influence of the earlier hard sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space odyssey (1968). For these reasons, I find both these films to be decidedly under-appreciated and interesting. The Star Trek franchise of course went down a different, more comforting route, from the second feature The Wrath of Khan (1982) onwards, while The Black Hole remained a one off that has become more and more obscure as the years go by. So much so that it could reasonably be considered a cult movie on account of its selective appeal. From the off, this is visually a very interesting film. It has great sets and model work, which make the giant space craft where the majority of the action takes place an evocative setting. The special effects throughout are in general very impressive and still look good today. But the visuals have been constructed for more than mere spectacle as they combine to create a pretty interesting atmosphere on the whole; they ultimately are used also to set up the strange and ambiguous ending which involves visions of Hell and an alternate universe. This kind of oddness stands out these days, as most big budget sci-fi endeavours mostly avoid such ambiguity, but this is definitely a plus point for The Black Hole. Another serious asset is the really effective main theme from John Barry. This is in all honesty one of his best bits of individual music, its sweeping yet mysterious and complements events on screen extremely well. The story itself is pretty simple and boils down to a deep space crew discovering a mysterious spaceship near a black hole, they board it and events escalate. The story is perhaps oddly presented in some ways as there is material quite obviously aimed at kids, like the cartoonish robots (the main one, V.I.N.C.E.N.T., being voiced excellently by Roddy McDowell) but at the same time there are also some decidedly sinister aspects to this one too. So I guess it had a bit of a split focus in some ways, not that that is a terrible thing but it may have accounted for its marginalised position in the sci-fi cinematic pantheon. But whatever the case, I consider this to be one of the best that 70's science fiction has to offer. It's mysterious and left-of-centre nature mean that it is one of the more interesting entries in the genre to revisit.