The Black Hole (1979)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Gary Nelson

Writers:

Jeb Rosebrook (story) and
Bob Barbash (story) ...

Release Date:

21 December 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Family | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A journey that begins where everything ends!

Plot:

A research vessel finds a missing ship, commanded by a mysterious scientist, on the edge of a black hole.

Plot Keywords:

Black Hole | Robot | Spaceship | Space | Reverse Footage

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 nominations

Cast

Maximilian Schell	...	Dr. Hans Reinhardt
Anthony Perkins	...	Dr. Alex Durant
Robert Forster	...	Captain Dan Holland
Joseph Bottoms	...	Lieutenant Charles Pizer
Yvette Mimieux	...	Dr. Kate McCrae
Ernest Borgnine	...	Harry Booth
Tom McLoughlin	...	Captain S.T.A.R. (Special Troops Arms Regiment) (as Tommy Mc Loughlin)

Also Known As:

Space Station One (USA) (working title)
Abismo Negro (Portugal) [pt]
Czarna dziura (Poland) [pl]
Das schwarze Loch (West Germany) [de]
Det sorte hul (Denmark) [da]
Det svarta hålet (Sweden) [sv]
El abismo negro (Spain) [es]
El agujero negro (Venezuela) [es]
Het zwarte gat (Netherlands) [nl]
I mavri trypa (Greece) [el]
I mavri trypa sto diastima (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Il buco nero (Italy) [it]
Le trou noir (France) [fr]
Musta aukko (Finland) [fi]
O Buraco Negro (Brazil) [pt]

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints) (RCA Photophone Sound Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Chile:TE | Finland:K-12 | Norway:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Canada:G (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:PG (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2004) | UK:A (original rating) | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

Reinhardt's robot was already called Maximilian before Maximilian Schell was chosen for the role of Reinhardt. Reinhardt would end the film merged with the robot, thus being ironically trapped in "Maximilian's Shell".

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The doctor talks about sending probes beyond the event horizon and then having them return. By definition, it is impossible to return from beyond the event horizon, though since this was the mission of the ship and the point of the study, we'll allow it under the faster-than-light/time-travel exception clause.

Quotes:

Dr. Hans Reinhardt: The word "impossible," Mr. Booth, is only found in the dictionary of fools.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Disneyland: Disney Goes to the Oscars (#30.8)" (1986)

Ahead of Its Time

With the advancement of movie technology today, I am awaiting a re-make of this film as I can see the enhancement of the Armageddon-like atmosphere of this movie.

Even though this film came out on the heels of Star Wars I feel that for its time and its budget it was awesome and very much overlooked. I think in this case, being a Disney film, didn't help its image either. As a kid this movie scared the pants off of me. It was dark and menacing and there was the big black hole staring me in the face the whole movie. (I can still recall the extent of the willies this movie game me).

While flawed I see this movie as an artistic and hard core science fiction classic. It uses many of what I see as key elements in science fiction - known science, theoretical science, possible futures, and our fear of the unknown (I personally think even with what we know, we still know very little about black holes).

This movie was made in the feel of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Moby Dick, with the mad, yet brilliant captain, sailing a state of the art ship, knowingly, into certain and utter doom in the name of some idealistic obsession. And as it usually goes you have your idealistic yet rational unwilling passengers who want to get off the ship and survive the mad man's nightmarish dreams.

The robots, while used in a highly symbolic fashion, were original in their concept and design. I particularly liked the way V.I.N.C.E.N.T. and B.O.B. were constructed as the "avatars" of humanity - completely man-made with human-like eyes and a "soul", that only allowed them to see the "right" side of things - as we see them. While on the other hand Maximilian was brilliant as the epitome of evil and twisted humanity in this movie - a man silently trapped and condemned to an inhuman fate as part of a mechanical nightmare.

Lastly, I feel that the space backdrops and the internal renderings of the space ship, which I feel have somewhat of an impressionistic flair, are awesome and were very well done for the period. If you passed on this movie the first time I recommend giving it a second chance. Take in the movie - see its symbolism, its social commentaries and far reaching vision. I think some of the issues the movie quietly addresses are still relative today.