The Black Hole

Still a decent classic after all these years. And still as corny but interesting as the era that made weird movies were. Still worth a watching.

The first time i saw this movie was when it came out. I was 9 years old and me and my familly saw it on december 22,1979. It was part of a double disney movie day at the local theater in Corpus Chrisiti, TX. The theater was two blocks from the bay. It started off with The cat from outer space. Well seeing that one before i was being a 9 year old. Well the main feature, the black hole started at 715 pm. And for the next 98 minutes i don't think my back touched the seat or my elbows left my knee's, or my hands left my face. From the ever popular opening music score to the heaven and Hell ending i was completely taken away by the movie. From giant spaceships to flying robot's. This was at the time the largest, most costly movie Walt disney had ever made. And i still think it is the only movie with Walt Disney on it that still carries a PG rating. And for me this was what i called an open movie. Unlike "Star Wars" that had everyone running around corners the whole movie, unless they were in a desert. The Cygnus had long open hallways and huge rooms and sets. The Part were they come out of the elevator on the bridge, and the camera pulls back as the crew of the Palomino walks out. Truly an impressive set.Ok Looking at it threw a 39 year old's eyes. The visual impact was still there, it still had me going about how they could do something like this in 1979 but not in 2010.This whole movie had around i think 3 minutes of computer generated graphics, as a warm up for Tron that came out next year i have read. everything was model and live action. The cast was there, Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, Ernest Borgnine, and the robots voiced by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens, and for what ever reason there names appeared no were on the credits. One thing is for sure, you can not mistake Slim Pickens voice! The big hang up sadly was the plot. It was a as cheesy as cheesy can be. This i was suprised in. Guess i did not remember it like that the first time around or when it was shown on HBO years later. Another thing i am still impressed with in this movie is the fact that it was what is now called the old studio way of doing a movie. Nothing, not one single set, or anything about this movie was done out side of the walt disney studio. There are rumors flying around that they wanted Lucas's new Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) to do the special effect's. But ILM was booged down with the second star wars movie the empire strikes back. And the other rumor states that Lucas wanted to much money. I think these are just that, Rumor's.The film is directed by Gary Nelson. Who had done a lot of the Disney live action movies we all know and love. He also played the part of the unhooded robot. Producer Peter Ellenshaw had his way when it came to Walt Disney movies. He had been with them for a long time and had a proven track record. In a book on him that is long out of print, it was released in mid 1980, there was a long chapter about the black hole. He said more than once that the studio had what he needed to make the movie in house. He said the only thing they never planned right was the budget, it went far beyond anyone's wildest dream's to recreate everything that they once had to make the movie, and the people they had to pull out of retirment that knew what was needed to be done, Peter Ellenshaw was one who got pulled out of retirement for the film. The Budget for this one movie was 26 Million dollars. 6 million of that was for advertising the movie. So 20 million on a movie was a big jump in 1978 when it was being made. Star wars had a 3 million dollar budget. ANd i think the Black Hole earned over 50 million in it's release. Probaly a lot more since being on TV, VHS and DVD. Wish Disney would do a blu ray version and fix some flaws of the original, Lucas did it was his re release of the star wars movies on DVD. And that went over with fans pretty good.I Still give it 5 stars for the "WOW" factor. And i give the "Overture" opening music composed by John Berry 5 stars as well.

Like other reviewers, I saw this when young, and was lucky enough to be given an LP of the soundtrack, which I adored and pretty much wore out. After many years, the soundtrack is back in print (Intrada), and when I started playing the fresh new CD in my car, my son was captivated by Barry's haunting score and started asking about the movie itself. Based on other reviews which suggest that a 9-year old boy is the ideal audience for this movie, I decided to buy a copy and let him watch it. I can easily overlook the movie's imperfections because I love the score, but I was curious what my son's reaction would be. He enjoyed it. For him it dragged a little during the dinner scene, but the robot shooting contest rekindled his interest despite being from the days of Pong. He loved all the robots, but especially VINCENT and BOB. He couldn't understand half the quotes VINCENT spouted, but definitely resonated with BOB. He did not mind the dark ending, though he was sad about BOB, while Maximillian (who terrified me when I was young) proved to be a relatively tame villain by modern standards. The movie definitely has two levels of plot and action, one for kids, and one for adults, and their less-than-smooth marriage is one of the movie's flaws. If you are a kid, or a kid at heart, or you love electronic scores, you will probably like this movie. My husband, who did not see the movie when young (though he remembers wanting to), was less enamored and wandered in and out of our screening, asking "Is that Captain Nemo?" He was mostly fascinated to see a young Anthony Perkins.Update: The movie has turned out to be a real hit with my son, who has asked to rewatch it repeatedly. Sometimes he sings the soundtrack while playing with his toys - he loves it as much as I do. I sing part of it back and he tells me "I haven't gotten to that part yet." Great fun - glad I bought the movie.