Last night I watched the Disney classic “The Black Hole”. I had some thoughts about it so here goes.
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The Black Hole
Drama/Scifi from 1979 starring among others Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian Schell.
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In some unspecified but spacefaring future the research vessel Palomino happens upon a black hole. When closer examined the crew discovers that there’s a ship floating right in the eye of the hole. Upon closer inspection this turns out to be the USS Cygnus, a ship that went missing twenty years earlier. At first the ship is presumed to be a derelict, but when they approach it turns out to be quite alive. The crew lands upon the ship, discovering it to be inhabited by strange robots as well as it’s captain, the eccentric Hans Reinhardt, who has a plan to take the ship into the black hole…
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Well, I was prepared that this would be a cheese-fest and boy was it true. Some scifi-films just boggle my mind at how short-sighted they are. This movie manages somehow to squeeze together virtually every ’70s space-cliché and somehow also manages to add quite a lot of Disney-style clichés to the mix. Admittedly though, it does get some things right though. But these drown in the overall mix of overwhelming cheesiness.
This movie has not aged well. The special-effects which must’ve been quite impressive for it’s time now look extremely dated. There’s a lot of shots where things just look off, and Disney opted heavily for various matte paintings which is quite clear in many shots. I thought most of the model-shots however were quite neat, even though they’re quite clearly model-shots none the less.
I also appreciated some of the craft-design. The spaceship Palomino is a horrible design which looks more at home in a mid-50s b-movie, but I though the Cygnus was quite cool, looking like a gothic cathedral in space. Completely impractical, of course, but cool none the less.
The movie is full of other goofs which generally sour the experience. Cables are visible, actors in suits, and the robots… oh god. The robots. I absolutely hated the robots Vincent and Bob. Those two robots must be the most horribly designed scifi-robots ever.
When I was finished with the movie I felt that the general plot of a madman lost in space was quite interesting. There’s a good movie hiding inside a horrible cheesy ’70s scifi film. The very odd ending didn’t really bowl me over in any positive way, in fact I felt it to be overly pretentious and mystical, but at least it was more unconventional than the rest of the film which is completely standard in every aspect.
So… to summarize. The Black Hole is parts taken from a good movie that’s hiding inside a horrible gaudy cheese-fest of a monstrosity. Maybe a remake some day would be nice, where someone straightens up the plot and focuses on the themes presented.
One thing that struck me after viewing this film was when I compared it to another scifi-flick released in the same year: Alien. Comparing these two movies is like comparing apples and oranges. They have very little in common. While Black Hole is a throwback escapist science fantasy with strong influences from 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea and a godawful Disney-production that only (thankfully) lacks a dog, Alien is a dark and fully believable science fiction movie.
Recommended just for the experience. If you like kitsch then this is a movie for you.
