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)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (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)

Like a scraggly mutant kitty!

I have actually gone in here and altered and added to my original comments to make them a little less one-sided.

Did you ever have one of those mutant pets, like a cat with six toes on its front paws, or an extra ear? Well I didn't either, but you can imagine what it must be like. You'd love the thing all the more because of its flaws, because it'll never be perfect, and because it needs someone to love it. And such is my love for "The Black Hole" (1979). It is an interesting story that is rendered and explored in a mechanical manner--although visually, in terms of its set design and special effects, it is really stunning.

It's a Disney product, and like "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," it was put on the slates mainly to cash in on the space opera craze that "Star Wars" had ignited. Movies are commercial art, they exist to make money (hopefully entertaining us at the same time); and the Disney people got their best film-making talent together, assembled a dynamite cast, and cranked this out, in a very lavish and polished way, production-wise. The money is slathered all over the screen, and everything is handled in the tried-and-true Disney Studios fashion of preplanning and choreographing everything down to the tiniest of details (actors don't even PAUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF A LINE unless it was dictated, planned and rehearsed that way)...this was very near the end of Disney's run as a major producer of live-action features, and "The Black Hole" is a fitting finish. It even features cute touches, like the way the nastiest demise is saved for Anthony Perkins. If you're gonna make a slow, mechanical movie, you can at least do it with style, and they did. It is an impressive production.

In a certain way you might say I love/hate the movie. The methodical way it's constructed seems lifeless. But at the same time, it is a strange joy to see its methodical construction. It takes tremendous energy to create something so controlled. It's certainly not a film made by accident or unconsciously.

"The Black Hole," manages to be strangely trance-inducing. Once I put it on, it's hard to turn it off.