The Black Hole (1979) Review

After Star Wars was a huge success, Disney decided to try to try their hand at a serious science fiction film. The result was a very uneven, but visually impressive movie about explorers finding a derelict spaceship near a black hole. Filled with robots, lasers, and an underlying mystery, it was not a great success. But for those of us who saw it in the theater it was a memorable experience and I have a fondness for this very flawed film.  Come, enter The Black Hole with me…

UPDATED & REVISED July 2012: In memory of Ernest Borgnine

The movie has an overture that plays before it starts, which was a relic of a bygone era even in 1979. John Barry’s brilliant soundtrack is introduced here and can be argued to be the best thing about the entire film. It is grand, dark, and mysterious with stately marches mixing with somber swirling statements. An interesting statement of tone, it sets the mood in a very un-Disney way. This was an announcement that the studio would be branching out from their standard family fare.

Once the movie begins, we are treated to what was amazing computer graphics back then depicting a black hole using green vector lines on a black background with the credits overlaid. Dull by today’s standards, it was fresh back then and promised amazing things to my ten year old self. After it finishes, a very utilitarian spacecraft appears on screen.

It is the Palamino, a space exploration vessel containing  a group of four humans and one robot charting unknown space. An unexpected deviation in their course causes the crew to notice a black hole’s gravity well nearby. As they near the nightmarish looking hole in space, they detect an unidentified spaceship impossibly parked outside the gravity well. Their computer database matches the mysterious spaceship to the outline of the biggest boondoggle the U.N. ever built, the Cygnus. Lost 20 years earlier without a trace, they decide to check out the apparent derelict and not just because scientist Kate McRae’s (Yvette Mimieux) father was a crewman .

The flyby to examine the ghost ship reveals there to be some sort of antigravity field around it, which explains why it isn’t being sucked into the nearby black hole. Seeing no signs of life, the crew is distracted and leave the field accidently. Now trapped in the powerful pull of the title subject, the Palamino tumbles and starts taking structural damage.

So far, the story is serious science fiction and even the very marketable robot, V.I.N.CENT, isn’t too out of place. Zero gravity conditions are very well portrayed and the sense of danger is realistic as the crew scrambles to get the damage under control. An odd element is introduced with Kate having a telepathic link with the robot. How or why is never explained in the movie, but I did have the novelization by the capable Alan Dean Foster back in the day. There it is explained as an implant in her brain that allowed the communication.

Now damaged beyond their ability to repair alone, the captain of the ship, Dan Holland (Robert Forster), decides they need to return to the derelict and find a place to land on it. When they do make it back to the Cygnus the crew is startled when the whole ship lights up “like a Christmas tree” as the excitable Lt. Charlie Pizer (Joseph Bottoms)  notes.

Once docked, their welcome is not exactly warm. Not a soul is to be found and automated security is not friendly. Now on edge, the group sans Pizer make their way to the bridge in a sequence that shows just how huge the ghost ship is. It is impressive and makes me wonder if Disney was thinking ahead to a tie-in ride if the movie was a hit.

The bridge of the Cygnus is vast and big as a cathedral. In fact, the visual impact of it reminds me of a grand cathedral too. Humanoids that do not respond to their queries operate the controls, but still no sign of human life. So who is in charge of the ship?

At first, it appears to be a hulking monstrosity of a robot that demonstrates very hostile intentions. But first impressions can be deceiving and a human makes a very theatrical entrance. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell), the organizer and genius behind the Cygnus mission, still lives. A mix of detached and manic, the scientist’s ego is more than even the cavernous bridge can hold.

He tells a tale of mechanical failure a decade ago and the crew abandoning ship to return home, but with the added fact that Kate’s father stayed behind with him only to die a few years ago. Since then, Reinhardt has been researching the black hole and making massive advances in science. Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins) is instantly awed by the other scientist and begins fawning over him.

Holland and reporter Harry Booth (Ernest Borgnine) do not look impressed or convinced, though their scientist companions are.   When the crew splits up to work on repairs and tour the ship, the two doubters take the opportunity to do a little investigating on their own. A strange funeral for a humanoid robot and an attempt to communicate with another deepen the mystery of the Cygnus. While a science fiction flick, the feel of it at has become more like a gothic thriller.

When V.I.N.CENT makes a discovery of his own, it becomes very clear that the situation is extremely dangerous for the crew of the Palamino. All is not what it seems, but that is not the only problem. Reinhardt shows his true mad scientist side and declares that he is going to take the Cygnus through the black hole. Why? To perhaps solve the last question unanswered by man: Is God or the truth there on the other side?

Nonstop action takes the film to its final destination, which turns out to be one of the murkiest endings I have ever seen to be executed so beautifully. Death, destruction, madness, and cowardice are all sucked into the whirling maelstrom in a way that will leave you scratching your head.

The characters are fairly cookie cutter, but the actors treated their parts seriously enough, which added to the atmosphere.  Characters that stood out were:

V.I.N.CENT, the intellectual and feisty little robot from the crew of the Palomino, equally ready with a quick literary quote that is barbed and with his built in lasers.  Voiced by an uncredited Roddy McDowell, the cartoonish robot develops a rivalry with Maximilian in the more serious segments while doing an impression of an Old West gunfighter in the rather silly robot arcade scene.

Slim Pickens weary Old B.O.B. was also noteworthy as the informant for the Palomino crew. While he and V.I.N.CENT were clearly designed with toys in mind and to appeal to kids, there are some nicely wistful moments for the character. B.O.B. is the good, but bullied, resident of an oppressed town that rises to the call when the hero arrives.

Dr. Reinhardt, the requisite mad scientist, comes off as driven by a desire to be a god in a literal sense, but also seems strangely trapped by his own creations. Schell plays the part with quiet, dismissive élan and unlike most mad scientists he is utterly secure, which lends strength to his arrogance. Lord of all he surveys, he is in control of everything. Or is he?

Harry, the reporter played by Ernest Borgnine in an atypical piece of casting, makes for an interestingly flawed and acerbic character. People forget what a great actor he was because of his willingness to play any part, no matter how stupid the production was. This man was an Oscar winner and what could have been a throwaway character becomes quite interesting when his devious traits rise to the fore. It is a very good performance.

Maximilian is an imposing and frightening creation guaranteed to give little kids nightmares.  Armed with spinning claws that can cut through almost anything, this demonic looking robot dominates every scene he is in. Always mute, he somehow is able to communicate with Reinhardt, his creator. Is he controlled by Reinhardt or is he controlling the scientist?

 
The Cygnus is a ship and a setting, but it makes such a dramatic visual impact throughout the film that I have to categorize it as a character as well.  A mix of baroque style fused with the Eiffel tower, it is more like a haunted house than a ship in some ways.  It is one of the most beautiful spaceships to ever grace the big screen and still looks spectacular today.

Thoughts

So how does The Black Hole hold up 30 years later when watched through much older eyes?

“Oh, what could have been!” is my first thought after watching it. So much potential, so much was enjoyable, but too flawed to be called a great film. I hesitate in even calling it good, for it isn't a truly bad movie, just a missed opportunity marred by obvious studio executive decisions. In this case, those decisions were part of growing pains on the part of Disney Studios, as this was the first PG rated film they produced.

Put together quickly to capitalize on the surprising and stunning success of Star Wars, The Black Hole looks and feels very unfinished. Though it made more than its budget of $20 million, the marketing and advertising expenses killed any profits from the film. It reminds me of the problems with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, another film rushed out to early to theaters. Unlike Star Trek: TMP, there won't be a director's cut of this film released decades later. Still, it was a film that made quite an impression on me.

Age is supposed to bring perspective and so it did, as I finally figured out why I like the movie. The stilted dialogue by 1970's standards was actually very familiar to me, though only now did I figure out why. It reminds me very much of Robert Heinlein's juvenile science fiction novels from the 1940's and 1950's, books I dearly loved and still do. With so much verbiage, the movie isn't exactly for little kids, except for the parts that are.

Yes that was a strange sentence, but it reflects the contradictions contained in the film. The tone of The Black Hole is very grim and foreboding, serious to a fault at times; yet with jarring comedic sequences involving the robots, especially V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B who were designed to be overly cute as only Disney can. One robot does escape most of the silliness, Maximilian, a hulking crimson monstrosity with multiple arms that barely stays on the leash of his master, the scientist Dr. Reinhardt.

That leads me to the effects, which were spectacular most of the time, with only a few let downs. The most obvious is the meteor storm, the scenes outside the ship looks incredibly bad and the meteors look incredibly like glowing orange styrofoam balls. Oddly enough, the same sequence has one of the most memorable scenes as well, with a rolling meteor going through one of the main transit tunnels in the Cygnus. Surprisingly effective, it was followed by another well staged scene of decompression in the hydroponics section of the ship. Hovering in the background in many of the scenes was the well executed malevolent whirling eye of the black hole the movie takes its name from.

But the best part of this movie is the exceptional soundtrack composed by John Barry. The dizzying and sinister main them swirls, much like the astronomical body of the main title. This is Barry at his best, in his later orchestral period, up there with his score for Dances With Wolves. Often hypnotic, the music has a melancholy tinge that helped establish the serious atmosphere of The Black Hole.

I discovered that iTunes had John Barry's soundtrack available for download and that is what prompted me to write the original version of this review. While the movie was a mild disappointment of youth, the orchestral score haunted me ever after and I spent fruitless years searching for a CD. I eventually found The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of the overture with the main theme and downloaded that as a purchase from iTunes, all the while oblivious to the lost album being released in digital only format. It came up as I was browsing for something else and a few clicks (and shekels) later I finally had the score.

Being PG, the film is not for little kids, though they would love the robots in it. There are violent deaths and very intense imagery that would freak many a kid out. By the time they are in double digits this movie will not be scary, but could be very boring for them in places thanks to the exposition.

The soundtrack I love and highly recommend to lovers of good orchestral music, while the movie I will recommend to those willing to forgive weaknesses in a film and enjoy a moody mystery in a science fiction setting. Think of it as a B-movie with an A level budget and cast.

Technical

When I first wrote this review in 2009, it was after watching the Anchor Bay release on DVD. Since then, I have gotten the much better Disney DVD, but I will be reviewing both DVDs.

The older 2002 Anchor Bay release was the only game in town when I purchased it years ago. There were audio glitches on some DVD players, but I never experienced that and it played consistently across three different players over the years. Sound was remixed to Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, though it was not a dramatic remix in my opinion. Barry’s score comes through well and the sound is never muddy, so I cannot complain.

But the big shortcoming was the letterboxed 4:3 presentation of the film. Not being anamorphic (or mastered for 16:9 TVs), the 2.35:1 widescreen was not really widescreen, but shrunk to fit older television sets. While the quality loss was not apparent on the old generation tubes, scaled up on a modern HDTV it looks terrible.

Here is where the later Disney release comes partially to the rescue. It is an anamorphic transfer and looks much better on widescreen TVs. Unfortunately, you can tell the film was not digitally restored, so there are lots of scratches, blemishes, and faded areas. Though I do have to say the colors are decent, so I can only imagine how impressive they would be in a restored version. The same 5.1 mix is used for sound on the Disney disc.

Another place the two releases differ is in the extras.

Both include the extended theatrical trailer, which was filled with far too many spoilers. It also sold the film more like a horror movie and played up the suspense elements. This is not the first or last time Disney marketing ends up baffling me. Anchor Bay included a nice gallery of production stills as their only other extra and I used the picture of the fully lit Cygnus from that in the review.

Countering that and beating it handily for interest is the documentary on the Disney disc. Through the Black Hole features Harrison Ellenshaw, the matte effects supervisor, recounting the experiences making the movie. His father was in charge of all the effects and it was the last time Disney did all their SFX in house for a movie. There is a lot of good information revealed here, including what the ending was about. I’ll discuss that in the spoilers section.

Behind the scenes photos and concept art help illustrate Ellenshaw’s reminiscences. The sheer amount of matte paintings used is amazing, as was the huge model of the Cygnus. That shot makes me want to find the model kit that was put out thirty years ago.

Other than for collecting, the Anchor Bay release is not worth purchasing if you run into it. The only thing superior about it is the packaging, which has better artwork based on the theater posters. Buy the Disney edition instead.

It would be nice to have a fully restored Blu-ray put out, but I am not holding my breath. Unless a remake is produced, the odds are very low of this happening.

BEWARE! HERE BE SPOILERS!!!

 

 

 

 

 

When you saw how dark the plot had gotten in this movie, you realized Disney had changed in 1979.  The humanoid robots being revealed as the lobotomized former crew of the Cygnus was bad enough, but then Dr. Durand being internally pureed by the spinning blades on the arm of Maximilian really got my attention.  The way they burrowed right through the book of notes being held up as a shield, the cut to Anthony Perkins shaking face, and then the falling body were shocking for a Disney flick.  Suddenly, this wasn't a comfortable film where the good guys would face some obstacles before saving the day -- with smiles all around at the end.

More death followed, with Harry the reporter panicking when a rescue of the only woman from the Palomino is launched just before the Cygnus begins moving toward the black hole.  With everyone else captive or going off to fight, he fakes a leg injury to stay behind.  What follows is a classic end to a coward, but with disastrous results for the rest of the heroes.  Unable to fly the Palomino, Harry takes off anyway and crashes into one side of the larger ship, causing a chain reaction of explosions that damage the protective anti-gravity force field shielding the Cygnus.

Not only were things uncomfortable, now they looked dire to the ten year old sitting in the theater.  Then things escalated, with a large battle between the heroes and security robots, with an unfortunate use of the overture as background music.  It simply was too bombastic and didn't fit the rhythm of the fight, which seemed awkwardly staged, as if it was the result of multiple tries before settling for what they got. 

Another death occurs when B.O.B. takes too many laser hits and says a sad, but proud, farewell to V.I.N.CENT.  Meanwhile, Reinhardt finds himself pinned under a fallen view screen in the control tower as gravitational forces begin to tear at the failing Cygnus.  Was anyone getting out alive?

That was amazing back then, a Disney film that made you wonder if anyone would survive, much less save the day.

After a final confrontation between good and evil robots, the heroes make it into the probe ship used to explore the black hole earlier in the film.  Launching it, they find themselves locked into a pre-programmed path through the event horizon. Surreal images of the various characters flashing back to dialogue in the movie unspool as the ship goes into the black hole. What follows is still one of the strangest endings to a film I've ever seen for it is right up there with 2001: A Space Odyssey.  It simply has to be seen for there is no straight forward explanation given.

Pulled into the black hole, the bodies of Reinhardt and Maximillian are seen floating in space, where they merge together, with the mad scientist now enclosed in the robotic shell of his greatest creation.  A pull back reveals this abomination standing on a rocky tower, overlooking hellish flames and robed humanoids swaying below him.  It is a vision out of Paradise Lost, with Reinhardt ruling in a hell of his own creation.

Then a sudden cut shows an angel flying through a series of crystal arches, apparently leading the probe through the black hole into another universe before vanishing.  The astonished heroes find themselves approaching a planet orbiting a star.  And that is how it ends!

People are still trying to figure the ending out twenty years later. Some off them think that Mormon theology was involved and I have gotten hits on this post from search terms along those lines. Being a Latter-day Saint, it looked more Roman Catholic to me.

Now thanks to Through the Black Hole, the answer can be found out. It is Roman Catholic inspired and in fact a pullback from Michelangelo’s  Sistine Chapel painting was originally proposed to be used. Not that it would have made anything less confusing for the audience, I think. Instead they decided to just put things up there that looked cool.

So yeah, the ending visuals do not make sense and that is the way it was made.

Much of the film’s theme was about the consequences of pursuing knowledge at any cost, especially that of humanity.  There is a mournful air about the Cygnus, with a scene of a humanoid funeral and the empty quarters of the crew  adding to the feeling of loss that permeates the huge vessel. The Cygnus is more of a tomb than a haunted house when you look back at it.  Durand becomes a fawning acolyte of Reinhardt due to a desire for more knowledge and he pays the ultimate price for his brown nosing.  It is a grim and gothic morality fable, warning against man playing god throughout.  The portrait of damnation for Reinhardt and salvation of the heroes in the surreal ending hammers the point home.

Frankly, that's deeper than anything Lucas attempted in Star Wars two years earlier. Every time I watch The Black Hole I end up in a contemplative mood, so they did accomplish something with the movie that most movies fail to.  For that alone, I have to like it.