UNCUT - The Black Hole (1979)
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Comments (35)
Always have like this movie a lot. Very strange but I love strange sci-fi. I'm not a person who needs scientifically factual science unless you are trying to play it as real. If you are leaning into the fiction then just be fun and entertaining.
Back then they knew of Black Holes, but didn't really understand what was on the other side or what would happen if you entered a Black Hole. So I think that explains the ending, they made it up and tried to imagine something weird, well, it worked the ending is strange. When we saw it in the theatre as kids the death of Anthony Perkins and the Meteor rolling down the inside of the ship made the biggest impression on myself, I still don't have a clue what the end means.
I like How Maximillian Schell got trapped in a Maximillian Shell at the end. I wouldn't put stunt casting past Disney
That ending has always felt so bizarre. Are they supposed to be in hell? I appreciate not getting a stupid, unnecessary explanation, but it's still weird. I enjoy the film overall but it's always felt like a "big budget B movie." The designs are great, but in a classic Doctor Who kind of way rather than a Star Wars kind of way. That main theme in the score is undeniable, though.
The film has issues and even problems, but I don't think anyone could claim they didn't get their money's worth in terms of a mixture of spectacle and overall entertainment. It may be hit and miss, but there are enough hits that make this one of the better overall space movies from that era.....or at least one of the easiest to watch.
I liked this movie! This is my first time seeing it all the way through. I’d love it if Disney did a remake.. There are some recognizable tropes the captain is kinda Kirk and Han! Charlie is Luke ish. I thought Ernest Borgnine was like Scotty up until the point he turned Heel. The robo sentries were totally Storm troopers! Maximilian was kind of a Darth.. Hell being on the “other side.” Was kind of awesome!
The movie was in development before Star Wars it no doubt gained the robots after Star Wars came out. This movie had some very ambitious and difficult optical effects work. Many of the shots of the control room were extended by matte paintings. The first shot of the crew walking out of the elevator into the control room was motion control which panned up to a huge matte painting. The hell sequence was supposed to be the burning wreckage of the ship. This came out at the same time as both Empire Strikes Back and TMP. I was freaked out by the face of the humanoid robots and Alex's death back in the day. John Barry scored many James Bond films and you can hear the DNA of that in this score. The opening black hole wire frame credit scene is indeed computer graphics.
There was an elaborate floating robot in the original design of the movie (pre-Star Wars). It was bigger than VINCENT (but smaller than Maximillian) and had more elaborate extending arms with various tools. It might have been difficult to pull off for the movie-making technology of that time.
Maximilian made a deep impression on me as a child. Where would he rank in the list of bad-ass robots?\
Also realized that Kate here looks a little like Kate Pulaski. (Might be the hair)
It never occurred to me until watching it now, but VINCENT has a similar shape/profile to Cartman on South Park!
In an interview with the directory Gary Nelson: "It was my idea to put a DO NOT ENTER sign on the soundstage. Nobody was allowed without a pass. We had a guard there 24 hours a day. We didn’t want anybody to know what we were doing. Trying to keep it a mystery. And not leak out that maybe we didn’t really have a good movie, you know?"
They didn't have an ending for the movie until late in production. Visually it is very impressive considering it was essentially a rushed process. The novelisation (by Alan Dean Foster) had an entirely different ending. Foster clearly was working from a script where he had to invent his own ending. The novelisation ending would have been very difficult to get across to an audience using visuals instead of text.
"Kate reveals the plan right in front of the robots!" Keep in mind that was always the plan agreed upon with Doctor Reinhardt, Kate wasn't blurting out anything that everyone in the room didn't already know. I think the dialogue could.. maybe have been better written to make this more clear, because I don't think this was really that clear. But Reinhardt wanted the group to blast off in their little ship to "record his achievement" as he took the Cygnus through the Black Hole.
When I was in elementary school, near the entrance there were vending machines where you could buy pencils, notebooks, and cardboard folders for 5 cents and 50 cents if you got caught short. “The Black Hole” was a huge flop and there must have been a huge inventory of unsold products because we saw Black Hole covers in yikes things for a long time.
I was this one for the first time on shrooms. Really tripped me out.
I love seeing people watch this movie. I’ve heard use of the phrase “tonal whiplash” this feels more like a tonal hangman’s rope.
There is a easter egg referencing this movie incorporated in the design of the NCC 1701-D. The two blue square impulse drive engines on the back of the ship was based off of V.I.N.CENT's eyes. Great reaction guys.
John Barry (James Bond movies) provided the score which was pretty brilliant. He had a really unique sound. The title sequence was one of the first generated by computer. The effects in the movie still stand up pretty well
The one thing I've noticed about the effects is that (over the decades) it has become blindingly obvious that the space backgrounds are paintings positioned behind the starship models. Disney had to invent a computerised camera system that could correctly track the ships and background paintings at the same time. The effects are often spectacular, impressive, or simply gorgeous. Unfortunately there are also some very ropey shots at intervals. Maybe (like ST-TMP) there was a time crunch the effects team ran into.
Nice, one of Disney's darkest movies, fun for kids and adults, lol
I remember this being pretty average and it still is. So much better Sci-Fi from that era
Gotta give it up to films of the 70’s…even Disney movies had balls!! There are obvious pew-pew kiddie elements to “The Black Hole”…and then it goes impressively dark! That heaven and hell ending with Reinhardt and Maximillian gave me nightmares when I was a kid! A spectacular score courtesy of John Barry…the man who brought the James Bond films to life, as well as 1976’s “King Kong” (one of my favorite scores), “Somewhere In Time” and “Dances With Wolves”! Can’t get John Williams? Get the other John and you can’t go wrong! And you’re right…I recall at the time a litany of copycats after “Star Wars” changed the world…“Battlestar Galactica”, “Battle Beyond the Stars”, “The Black Hole”, and even “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” just to name a few! Glad you guys enjoyed this one! I myself watched it only two weeks ago and it really took me back to my childhood!
There was a time when John Williams, John Barry, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner were all going strong, the four Js of Hollywood film scores. That was a great, great time for movie music.
I remember seeing this in theaters as a kid. It's been literal decades since I've watched it, and while I remember being just blown away (and kind of confused by it) as a kid, I didn't really remember much about the story. Eh, pretty threadbare but damn it goes hard for Disney! And that hell/heaven ending? I have no idea what it means, but it was pretty fucking metal. Great reaction guys!
My take on the ending is that it was set up by earlier dialogue. Characters talk about Dante's Inferno and the mind of God, etc. I think beyond the event horizon of the black hole, our universe empties into 'higher reality' (i.e. what created our universe). The surviving Palamino crew are safely escorted through this greater reality and returned to our universe by the 'greater intelligence'. Reinhardt is trapped in a hell of his own consciousness' creation. His zombie crew don't possess enough remaining humanity and can't free themselves from their own limbo. It's 'on the nose' Old Testament symbolism, but it is visually impressive.
Lol, "is that the guy from the Wizard of Oz". OZ was played by Frank Morgan. He died in 1949. That was Ernest Borgnine. He was a well known actor in the 60s, 70s, & 80s. I could understand you not knowing him, but you just saw him in The Poseidon Adventure.
I never saw this movie on the original release, but saw it on VHS when it was released. I thought it was one of the cheesiest things I had ever seen, with clunky dialogue, characters you don't care about (like you both mentioned), and the cringy Heaven and Hell at the end. While the set and the special effects were mostly very good, my favorite aspect of it today is the score. And I have to admit the movie has grown on me over the years... it's kind of like Whoppers. You know they're not really good or good for you, but there is something irresistible about them.
There's a big goof in this movie that still gets to me. They crawl out on to the Cygnus to get into the probe ship, and they aren't wearing spacesuits? BOO!!! I dont think that they are even credited but. I know that VINCENT was voiced by Roddy McDowell, and fairly sure that Slim Pickens voiced BOB.
You're right. They are uncredited, but those are their voices according to IMDB.
I loved this movie as a kid. The older I got, my views changed. I think it starts great, then turns corny, and ends with a WTF moment. At least they tried to answer what was on the other side. But, the one thing that always stayed with me was the music. It's been an ear worm that has never left. And I'm not sorry about that one.
Shit I can’t even remember the music. I’m eager to hear it again now. I’m sure the memories will flood back and I’ll recognize it.
Yay! Getting to the bridge crew movies! This is a fun one. Memories from childhood.
I loved this as a kid.
Love this film. The ending goes hard! Traumatised me as a kid 😀