Review:
Director Gary Nelson's THE BLACK HOLE is a non-memorable Sci-Fi adventure
movie.
Robert Forster ("Alligator"), Anthony Perkins ("Psycho"),
Joseph Bottoms ("Cloud Dancer"), Ernest Borgnine ("Escape
From New York"), and Yvette Mimieux ("The Time Machine")
are astronauts aboard the spaceship Palomino, in search of intelligent
life in the universe. They also have a cute robot (naturally) named
Vincent, who's voiced by Roddy McDowall ("Planet of the Apes").
When Bottoms spots a black hole (which is blue!) he remarks, "Every
time I see one of those things, I expect to spot some guy in red with
horns and a pitchfork." Although Bottom's dialogue doesn't make
much sense at the time, Screenwriters Jeb Rosebrook and Gerry Day
are actually engaging in some ham-handed foreshadowing of a hellish
encounter inside the black hole, late in the film. It's not worth
waiting for, believe me.
Before long, the crew of the Palomino encounters a huge spaceship,
apparently derelict, floating in space with its running lights off.
They are surprised to find another ship this deep in space, where
no man is supposed to have gone before (Gee, that has a familiar ring
to it). The ship turns out to be the Cygnus, recalled from its mission
to hunt for alien life twenty years ago, and believed to be lost in
space. Director of Photography Frank Phillips delivers some great
shots as the Palomino flies by the Cygnus, the darkened Cygnus illuminated
by the Palomino's lights. The Special Effects here, courtesy of Miniature
Effects Master Peter Ellenshaw and matte artist Harrison Ellenshaw
are impressive. This is my favorite scene in the film.
Soon, the lights come on aboard the Cygnus and the Palomino is pulled
by a tractor beam into the Cygnus' landing dock. Once we meet the
captain of the Cygnus, Hans Reinhart (Maximillian Schell of "The
Odessa File"), with his black hair and black beard, it becomes
clear that THE BLACK HOLE is going to be "Twenty Thousand Leagues
in Outer Space".
There's nothing inherently wrong in drawing upon other sources for
Sci-Fi. After all, "Star Wars" made a virtue of borrowing
concepts, characters, and situations from various sources, including
other movies, comic books, and mythology, then giving fresh spin to
them. THE BLACK HOLE, on the other hand, takes it's primary "inspiration"
from the Disney movie "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea",
and little effort has been taken to disguise or modify the source
material. For example, Captain Reinhart takes the place of Captain
Nemo, the spaceship Cygnus takes the place of the submarine Nautilus,
etc. This utter lack of originality on the part of the Disney organization
which green lighted this script (Story by Jeb Rosebrook and Bob Barbash
& Richard Landau) may have seemed like a good idea at the time:
take elements from a past Sci-Fi hit and weave them into your new
film, to help ensure a hit. Ultimately, however, it robbed the film
of the freshness and imagination it needed to succeed.
A word about black holes. Besides the fact that they are not blue,
they also are not large, slowly swirling spirals of gas or smoke as
matte artist Harrison Ellenshaw would have us believe. Black holes
are in fact (or in theory) collapsed stars that appear to the naked
eye as black areas in space because a star has imploded, taking in
all matter, and even light, in the vicinity with it. Since not all
Sci-Fi fans are juvenile, and some are adult science enthusiasts,
and even scientists, it is unfortunate that Director Gary Nelson chose
to totally ignore science in his effort to present black holes to
the general audience. After all, isn't the genre called SCIENCE fiction
for a reason?
All the actors in this film have done better work elsewhere. The best
acting, in fact, is done by the late Slim Pickins, as the voice of
a battered old robot who pals around with Roddy McDowall's robotic
Vincent. Pickins always was a charmer.
The film builds to a climax in which the Cygnus, Reinhart, the Palomino
crew (minus Anthony Perkins) and Vincent are all sucked into the black
hole. Everything is red-tinted inside the black hole, for no apparent
reason. Eventually we encounter hell (way too literal) and heaven
(rather vague), and then the experimental probe, with our heroes aboard,
comes out of the black (blue, red?) hole, heading for a new planet.
Or maybe it's flying into the sun. Or perhaps it's heading towards
a different star. It's all rather confused.
The Music, by John Barry, is overly emphatic. It would have been more
appropriate as the sound track of "Twenty Thousand Leagues",
but maybe that's the point.
THE BLACK HOLE will be watchable for only the most easily entertained
Sci-Fi fans. Children may enjoy the robots, laser fights, and, of
course, the blue hole. Like a true black hole, THE BLACK HOLE is a
big nothing!
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