The Black Hole

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

Disney’s foray into big-budget science fiction, close on the heels of Star Wars, had some of the most impressive special effects to grace theater screens in the 1970s. Graced by handsome production design—most notably a glass and latticework interstellar craft that looks like a battleship crossed with a modern skyscraper—The Black Hole is in many ways the most beautiful science fiction film of its era. Unfortunately, the graceful and gorgeous picture is jarred by dialogue that wouldn’t pass muster in a comic book and a silly conclusion that plays like a murky, dime-store knockoff of 2001. Too bad, because the visual realization of the film is a veritable haunted house of futuristic phenomena, from the cloaked zombie-like drones shuffling through corridors to the devilish, crimson robot Maximillian, the strong arm of the mad scientist played by Maximilian Schell (a kind of wild man Captain Nemo with an even more ruthless temperament). Only the way-too-cute robot V.I.N.CENT (voiced by Roddy McDowall), a merchandising gimmick that looks like a Fisher-Price toy, mars the technological landscape. Robert Forster is the quietly authoritative captain of an exploration ship that stumbles across the seemingly derelict ship, and Anthony Perkins, Yvette Mimieux, Ernest Borgnine, and Joseph Bottoms fill out his crew. This is one case of a triumph of art direction and special effects over story—it’s worth sitting through it to see the magnificent scene of the fireball rolling through the ship’s enormous hull alone. The rest is just atmospheric gravy. —Sean Axmaker

Barnes and Noble

Red-hot meteors, sharp-shooting robots, and skin-tight polyester abound in The Black Hole, a campy trip down memory lane for science fiction fans. Made in 1979 with a retro sci-fi look, the film follows Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, and Joseph Bottoms as space travelers in search of “inhabitable life in the universe.” They end the search, however, battling the wild-haired Dr. Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell), a mad scientist intent on taking the space travelers with him into the oblivion of a black hole. Disney pushed the family fare envelope for their first PG-rated release: Incredible set design, a smart-talking sidekick robot, and the lovely foil-wrapped Dr. Kate (Yvette Mimieux) are just a prelude to the final journey into the black hole, which couples overt religious allegory with inadvertent sexual innuendo. In the end, the film is enjoyably quirky piece of sci-fi film history that has assured a spot on many a fan’s shelves. Movie buffs should listen for the voices of Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes) and Slim Pickens (Dr. Strangelove) as the do-good robots who help in the battle against Dr. Reinhardt. Jennifer McCreery