The Black Hole

This is a movie with a great premise, a superb villain in Maximillian Schell as both Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his alter ego Maximillian the robot. Some of the staging and shots are among the best of any science fiction movie. And the ending comes close to the ambiguity of A Space Odyssey especially with its shot of the melding of Reinhardt and his robot ending up in a Dantesque vision of Hell, which is incredible given this is a Disney film. Do not forget the haunting music by John Barry which echoes a faint James Bond sound.

The weakness, and there are too many to note, are best seen in the V.I.N.CENT robot and his mentor bot, Bob. These characters were obviously meant to appeal to the kiddies who were no doubt the target audience.

I imagine there were some mighty discussions on the set of this film as to whether they should be making a classic or childish crap. Unfortunately the latter choice seems to driven the bottom line.

Not only is The Black Hole beautifully made from a technical aspect, it has marvelous performances. Robert Forester (Jackie Brown), Anthony Perkins (Psycho), Ernest Borgnine, Maximillian Schell. It does get a little campy but it is a Disney movie after all and it can be forgiven its attempts at comic relief. This is a very unlikely sort of film for Disney, were it made today it would have been made under the Miramax header rather than Disney, and like another unlikely Disney film, Tron, it is tragically underrated. The special effects and set design are breathtaking, but it is the script which is the best part. The ending is one of the most surreal and haunting in any science fiction film (and especially bold for a Disney film) The characterizations are wonderful and the robots, especially Maximillian (in my book the greatest cinematic robotic villain to date), are unforgettable.

I first saw the Black Hole when I was in college and I remembered just enough to know that I liked it. Others here have commented on the movie in great enough detail, I can only say,"Lighten Up!" Sure the effects are not perfect but they really are pretty good. The acting is acceptable, not oscar level but then neither is the script that they were given to work with. Many of the events depicted are not plausible, but how many movies really are? (Even non SF ones) The Black Hole is in some ways Captain Nemo in space. The Elizabethan structure of the ship in particular. Also Reinhart and Nemo are similar characters. However, Nemo is not truly a villain. His crew is composed of volunteers and they are very loyal to him whereas Reinhart must lobotomize his crew to retain their services. Reinhart cares for no one but himself, but Nemo was concerned, though grudgingly, for the welfare of even his prisoners. In short, Nemo is a sympathetic character, Reinhart is not. This brings me to the point of my review. The mood of this movie is what really makes or breaks it. I must credit my sister for defining it for me because I could not find the right word. The word is CREEPY! There is a feeling of forboding that builds untill the action sequences are finished and our heroes enter the black hole. After that it is just intensely weird and CREEPY. Having not seen this movie for twenty years and remembering only the cool effects and robots I allowed my 5 year old to watch it. Big mistake! He was afraid to go to sleep, and it bothered him for about a week. This kid has handled action and SF movies OK before, although I do not let him watch the more violent or intense stuff. This movie is intense! Star wars did not bother him at all, but the Black Hole . . . Parents of small children beware! The Black Hole is CREEPY!

Despite being almost universally labeled as a failure, The Black Hole is actually not that bad. Not bad at all. The film is generally pleasing to the eye, fairly well-paced, and touches on some interesting issues. The film is hamstrung however by the fact that it is still a Disney film (despite the PG rating) and it therefore has to pander to the kiddies too much.

The story centers around a small spaceship (the Palomino) and her crew who are charting the deepest depths of space in the search for new life. Early on, they come across a giant Black Hole and notice a long-lost ship (the Cygnus) which seems to be parked right by it. The ship appears to be empty until closer inspection reveals it to be full of robots, humanoids made up of the old crew, and a mad scientist type of guy in charge of it all. He plans to take his ship through the Black Hole to see what wonders are beyond it. Needless to say, most of the Palomino's crew can tell what a nut this guy is, and they try to escape before he can take them with him. The story is paced by numerous shoot-outs between our heroes and the robotic army controlled by this lunatic. And what would the film have been without someone going through the black hole? Everyone ends up going through, and what they find might surprise you.

The film has some definite strengths. The film is visually impressive considering how much of it was created with matte paintings and lesser f/x. The ships are particularly nice to look at. There are some truly memorable shots, such as the crew scurrying out of the way as a gigantic meteorite comes rolling after them. Outer space looks very detailed, and the object of record is always spinning away in the background as the cast recites grandiose lines about it. The sound effects are also top-drawer.

There are some considerable faults, however. There are more than a few times where you can clearly see wires holding things up (particularly the robots) that should be floating on their own. This is particularly obvious on the DVD. The acting is passable at best with Schell coming off as the best simply because his character is so charismatic. The robots look like a rip-off from the Star Wars films, and are given cutesy Disney-like things to do and say.

The ending is somewhat intellectual and even dark, considering this is a movie ostensibly made for kids. We are treated to a pretty cool-looking vision of hell where our mad scientist has presumably been sent. As far as what happens to the crew of the Palomino, we can only speculate, but we have a pretty good idea. Small children are bound to be left with numerous questions for mommy and daddy, and their parents may have some difficulty explaining what they've just seen. That may be the biggest problem with The Black Hole. There are some deeper issues that are worth studying, but they get glossed over by the "kiddie" elements of the plot. The film tries to please two audiences, but may not have pleased enough people in the end.

At $18,000,000, this film had a considerable price tag for back then. It failed to make that back in theaters, but the market for home-viewing has more than made up this shortfall since then.

The verdict: 6 of 10 stars. The film is worth seeing, but it falls considerably short of the greatness its makers had in mind.

The Hound has spoken.

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.