The Black Hole
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Movie Reviews of The Black Hole
Movie Review: Enjoyed the movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this classic old scifi movie, the Robots steal the show and the extras are so cool!Movie Review: Black Hole
Summary: 5 Stars
Enjoyed it years and years ago. Glad to have it back again..Movie Review: lost masterpiece
Summary: 4 Stars
The first time I watched The Black Hole, I was 5 or 6. Now I'm 32 and it was a movie that made such a lasting impression on me that I decided to watch it again.
I agree with some reviewers here on Amazon: It has its problems. Let's get some stuff out of the way: some claim the ending is simplistic: "the good ones go to heaven and the bad ones to hell." Not quite. 2 crew members actually die and disappear and they are not exactly "bad". The crew of humanoids also goes to hell. Why? There's no explanation for that. (Maybe it's because they're more robots than humans. Nobody spotted that?) The special effects: a bit stiff for 1979, yes. "Strings holding the robots?" Didn't see any. I was more concerned with the atmosphere and the story, and they are both enthralling. "The ship breaks and the humans are not sucked into space." Yes. But Cygnus created an environment where there is some sort of gravity, remember? Well, if someone wants to attack a sci-fi movie, they might even claim that Stephen Hawking didn't wrote it, so it's totally wrong. It's fantasy, folks! "The dialogue is clunky." Yes, it is, but the target audience was supposed to be children so I don't see any problem there, although the line "what cause the cause" was very unfortunate... the "heroic" music does seem overdubbed and makes one cringe, when Holland saves Kate... but the rest is effective, and in fact, the title theme, by John Barry, recreates the spiral of the black hole in a poetic and powerful way.
The Black Hole was a flop at box office. I have a theory for that. There's something rarely mentioned - this is a hybrid film, the target audience are kids (and I know I was overwhelmed at 5) but it has a gloomy side to it. The basic premise is actually quite dark for children, and more adult oriented. The black hole is death, of course, it's the unknown. The mad scientist is trying to be God and turned his former crew into humanoids, living dead! In the end, he gets trapped inside a machine forever! This is almost like a myth or a sinister fable. The good guys go to heaven, yes, and the bad ones to hell. It's a legitimate way to see things, I think. But don't forget the film ends at this point. It's not Herbie by any means!
On the art direction department, the film aged well. The Cygnus is probably the most beautiful ship in sci-fi movies. The black hole is menacing although the effect in itself seems simple. In the days before CGI and computers, filmmakers had to press it on the ideas department. This movie has plenty of interesting thoughts. If The Black Hole were made today we'd probably get state of the art effects and cardboard actors, and some big name director making a fool of himself, like Fincher on Alien 3.
The movie doesn't work at full tilt because it mixes adult elements with light ones: the 2 funny robots with the gloomy atmosphere, the vision of hell and the sombre hallways and light dialogue. The shredding of Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins) was quite scary for me as a child, and it doesn't quite gel with the cheery aspects of the film, like the funny robots talk. It's unbalanced. It's almost as if they thought they had a great sci-fi movie in their hands, but the contract said: "kid's stuff". If some of the light elements were taken away, and the dialogue was worked over, this could be a dark masterpiece. Nevertheless, it remains an interesting film, it's truly the dark side of Disney. It doesn't seem a Disney movie at all, and it's much darker in tone than Star Wars for sure.
If you watched this as a kid, like me, and loved it, maybe now you'll know why!
Movie Review: A classic worth checking out
Summary: 4 Stars
Disney is not known for innovative science fiction movies. It seems there is a reason why Disney is not known for Sci-Fi. With not much to show for in the genre other than Escape from Witch Mountain and The Cat from Outer Space, Disney didn't put much focus in the genre back then. The Black Hole is probably their most ambitious attempt at serious science fiction they have done. It succeeds on some areas and doesn't on others. I guess it will really depend on the kind of stuff you are looking for.
The greatest success of The Black Hole is the model work. When you get to see the main spacship, the Cygnus, close up and the camera pans around it slowly it's a sight to behold. Other models like the survey ship Palomino look good as well. Not too much detail, but just enough to make it both believable and neat. The interior sets, while not top notch, are also impressive and give you a decent representation of the scale of the Cygnus as you see long hallways, large botanical gardens and a massive command bridge. Another VERY neat thing about this movie is the robot design. Every single robot is cool from the intelligent and witty V.I.N.CENT to the intimidating and tough looking Maximillian. The robots and ships alone are worth the price of admission.
The story itself is actually good, but it suffers from some odd twists here and there. This is especially true in the final scenes, which start to absolutely makes no sense whatsoever. You will wonder what they bozos were thinking by the time you get to the end. Another weak point in the movie is the action scenes. While some do the movie justice most seem to be put there just to try and add more excitement while not lending itself to the story whatsoever. Still both these shortcomings, as boneheaded as they seem, are fewer than the well executed stuff. Acting is good for its time and considering the production company, with Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian Schell giving the more dynamic performances.
Special effects are comparatively weak even for the late 70's with exception to the model spaceship work. Lasers and stuff like look tacked on. You can see the wires on the actors on zero gravity scenes. Stuff like that. The soundtrack is great though. You get a nice full orchestral piece that has both a grand and eerie sound to it. Hats off to composer John Barry. Conventional effects and lighting are mixed bag with some very cool stuff and some either over the top or half-baked stuff sprinkled throughout the movie.
There are various versons of this movie out on DVD. The ONLY one you should be looking for is the one that includes the "Through The Black Hole" featurette. These days it costs about the same as the other versions and you get a documentary that gives more detail than I expected (including an explanation regarding the horrible final scenes). You also get the cleanest transfer of all, digital surround sound, French and Spanish language tracks and the movie trailer. Considering all you get is the movie from other versions this is like striking gold for any fan.
All in all if you like focusing on the story or are really into robots and neat ships then The Black Hole will do you good. If you have to have intense and believable action then maybe this movie isn't for you. Keep in mind that this movie is by no means perfect. It goes off on some weird tangents that not even Stanley Kubrick would have come up with. However it's another one of those footnotes in the annals of the science fiction genre and is worth a look.
Movie Review: Into The Black Hole
Summary: 4 Stars
If Walt Disney's 1979 sci-fi extravaganza, "The Black Hole," must be looked back upon as a failure, it is an excellent failure. Granted, this sci-fi tale about the crew of the U.S.S. spaceship Palomino encountering a madman scientist (Maximillian Schell) whose own spaceship, the U.S.S. Cygnus, is impossibly perched upon the edge of a black hole, has some very obvious flaws in it. Some of the dialogue is cheeseball, the very *idea* of Dr. Kate McCrae (Yvette Mimieux) having E.S.P. with the robot VINCENT is just plain silly, you can easily see the wires holding up the actors and the robots when they are supposed to be weightless, and the actors should've damm well been wearing spacesuits at the film's climax, when they're crawling to the top of the escape probe ship in open outer space! (Why did director Gary Nelson let his actors get away with that one?) Ah, but still...I cannot help but thoroughly enjoy "The Black Hole." The film blew me away as a child, and now, looking at the movie again as an adult, the child in me had a wonderful time all over again---even if you can still see the wires! The main achievement of "The Black Hole" is the *look* of the film---it's outstanding. The art direction, cinematography and visual effects of this film are extraordinary (utilising over 150 matte paintings). The long, spacious corridors of the Cygnus look like they stretch out for miles, the Cygnus command tower is a total feast for the eyes, and I could go on and on. John Barry's rousing musical score is arguably the best film score he's done outside of the James Bond films (and when will it be released on CD? C'mon, Disney, you released the "Tron" soundtrack, so where's "The Black Hole"?). And while the movie's screenplay isn't as polished as it could've been (Mimieux's line about "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots" still makes me cringe, to name one example), the film's basic plot is still a compelling one, and the movie has a suitably eerie tone to it as the Palomino crew walk through the massive corridors of the Cygnus, and slowly unravel the dark, terrible secret harbored by Dr. Reinhardt. Reinhardt's giant red robot Maximillian, with his huge frame and pulsating red eyes, is still THE scariest robot ever put on film. And the all-star cast of Schell, Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms and Ernest Borgnine are all good in their roles, even if these aren't the greatest performances of their respective careers. There's genuine excitement towards the end as the Cygnus is torn apart by the black hole and the surviving Palomino crew make a mad dash to the escape probe ship, and finally go *into* the black hole itself (and there are definite echoes of "2001" during this amazing sequence). And the film's surreal, cosmic ending, although confusing for many, is, for me, completely haunting and unforgettable (even if it does leave certain questions unanswered). It still disappoints me that "The Black Hole" was received so poorly back in 1979, and is not remembered with much fondness today. I just think audiences & critics at the time compared it too unfairly to "Star Wars." "The Black Hole" sure ain't "Star Wars," but on it's own, there is much to admire about it. Though not an entirely successful movie, it's still very, very ambitious, and if nothing else it's a visual masterpiece for it's technical achievements alone. "The Black Hole" is a daring film that truly deserves another look. And kudos to Walt Disney Productions for taking such a big gamble with this unique (and controversial) sci-fi movie.