The Black Hole (1979)

A team of space travelers locates a long lost, massive spacecraft, the U.S.S. Cygnus, perched in space near an imposing black hole. They meet its commander, the mad genius Dr. Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell), who's created an army of obedient robot slaves and who fully intends to explore this black hole and see what might lay beyond it. It doesn't take our heroes too long to realize that they should get out while the getting is good.

"The Black Hole" came along at a very interesting time during the reign of Disney Studios, when they took some unusual chances with their projects and dipped their toes into genres like fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. Also of note during this time are "The Watcher in the Woods", "Tron", and "Something Wicked This Way Comes". The result is a very dark and highly operatic piece of work that offers great fun, although it will have more appeal to older kids and adults than the very young due to its themes, plot details, and suggestion of violence. (As a matter of fact, some pretty nasty violence is suggested at one point, not that we ever see any blood or gore.) It does play as reminiscent of earlier works - Disney's own production of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Forbidden Planet", "2001: A Space Odyssey", and "Star Wars".

Some of the visual effects may show their age now, 37 years later, but overall, the movie is quite agreeable as eye candy, and looks especially nice in its intended 2.35:1 aspect ratio. John Barry's music score is somewhat repetitive, but also utterly thunderous and ominous, perfectly suiting the material.

The human cast is steadfast and reliable, with Schell making the most of his madman role. It's hard to go too wrong with a group of actors including Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Ernest Borgnine, and the lovely Yvette Mimieux. As was the case with "Star Wars", the cute robot characters tend to steal the show, V.I.N.CENT (voiced by Roddy McDowall) and B.O.B. (voiced by Slim Pickens). The towering red robot thug Maximillian leaves quite the impression as well. Director Gary Nelson cameos as the drone whose mask is removed.

Great fun overall, which is made all the more memorable by its truly haunting ending.

Eight out of 10.

Fmovies: As this episode opens the crew of the spaceship Palomino stop to observe a giant black hole; to their surprise they see another ship positioned near the black hole. It is the USS Cygnus; an exploration vessel that hasn't been heard from for twenty years. The Palomino's crew make their way to the Cygnus. Here they find its commander Dr Hans Reinhardt alone apart from a crew of robots; he claims the original crew left and presumably died. As well as his humanoid robots he has created an army of combat robots and the sinister Maximillian, a large red robot with some unpleasant weaponry. The crew of the Palomino are divided about what to do; some think Reinhardt is clearly dangerously insane as he plans to take his ship into the black hole; others think he is a genius and wish join his mission. Eventually they learn the truth and must struggle to get away before it is too late.

Made by Disney shortly after Sci-fi became all the rage following 'Star Wars' this film is surprisingly dark at times. Early on it feels as though it may be typical Disney fare with a cute robot, Vincent, amongst the crew. Once aboard the Cygnus, and especially after the introduction of Reinhardt and Maximillian, there is a sense that something isn't right. Another cute robot, the battered Bob, later explains the sinister truth about what really happened aboard the Cygnus. The cast is solid enough, Maximilian Schell, is suitably menacing as Reinhardt, and I enjoyed Slim Pickens' uncredited performance as the voice of Bob. This may be a Disney film but there are some disturbing moments... while we may not see what happens and there is no blood seen there is one particularly horrific death! The special effects do show their age at times but are still decent enough. I'm unsure about the ending with its religious undertones but it isn't enough to spoil the film. Overall I'd recommend this to sci-fi fans.

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 fmovies. 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.

"Haunting" is exactly the term for it. I know others have knocked the silly robots and laser guns.

But I have always felt The Black Hole's spooky emotional impact, through the visuals and music. Although the visuals are now dated, what they were aiming for strikes true. It's a vision of the future that strikes a chord in me: dark uncaring space, the black hole a crushing force more powerful than the sun, ego and insane genius, science and what's beyond science, the horror of the old crew's fate. The music with its heavy repeated theme is like the crushing presence of the black hole itself: relentless. A new God if ever there was one.

In my opinion it has more emotional impact than Solaris, which threw in too much "murder mystery" and sort of confused me. The Black Hole is simple: it is clearly beyond knowledge and all the spookier for it.

If you get a thrill from the idea of scientific discovery, give this underrated film a chance. You won't be disappointed.

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.