The Black Hole (1979 film)

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The Black Hole
File:Black hole ver1.jpg
Directed by	Gary Nelson
Screenplay by	Gerry Day Jeb Rosebrook
Story by	Jeb Rosebrook Bob Barbash Richard Landau
Produced by	Ron Miller
Starring	Maximilian Schell Anthony Perkins Robert Forster Joseph Bottoms Yvette Mimieux Ernest Borgnine Roddy McDowall Slim Pickens
Cinematography	Frank Phillips
Edited by	Gregg McLaughlin
Music by	John Barry
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release dates	December 18, 1979 (1979-12-18) (UK) December 21, 1979 (1979-12-21) (US) March 18, 1980 (1980-03-18) (Australia)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$35,841,901 (US/Canada)^[1]

The Black Hole is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine, while the voices of the main robot characters are provided by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens (both unbilled). The music for the film was composed by John Barry.

Plot

Nearing the end of a long mission exploring deep space, the spacecraft USS Palomino is returning to Earth. The crew consists of Captain Dan Holland, First Officer Lieutenant Charlie Pizer, journalist Harry Booth, ESP-sensitive scientist Dr. Kate McCrae, the expedition's civilian leader Dr. Alex Durant and the robot V.I.N.CENT ("Vital Information Necessary CENTralized").

The Palomino crew discover a black hole in space with a spaceship nearby, somehow defying the hole's massive gravitational pull. The ship is identified as the long-lost USS Cygnus, the ship McCrae's father served aboard when it went missing. Deciding to investigate, the Palomino encounters a mysterious null gravity field surrounding the Cygnus. The Palomino becomes damaged when it drifts away from the Cygnus and into the black hole's intense gravity field, but the ship manages to move back to the Cygnus and finds itself able to dock to what initially appears to be an abandoned vessel.

The Palomino crew cautiously boards the Cygnus and soon encounters the ship's commander, Dr. Hans Reinhardt, a brilliant scientist. Aided by a crew of faceless, black-robed android drones and his sinister-looking robot Maximilian, Reinhardt explains that he has lived all alone on the Cygnus for years. After the ship encountered a meteor field and was disabled, he ordered the human crew to return to Earth, but Kate's father chose to remain aboard and has since died. Reinhardt then reveals that he has spent the past 20 years studying the black hole and intends to fly the Cygnus through it. Only Durant believes it is possible and asks to accompany Reinhardt on the trip.

The rest of the Palomino crew grow suspicious of the faceless drones' human-like behavior: Booth sees a robot limping and Holland witnesses a robot funeral and discovers the Cygnus crew's personal items in the ship's living quarters. Old B.O.B. (BiO-sanitation Battalion), a battered early model robot similar to V.I.N.CENT, explains that the faceless drones are in fact the human crew, who mutinied when Reinhardt refused to return to Earth and had been lobotomized and "reprogrammed" by Reinhardt to serve him. McCrae's father had led the mutiny and was killed. Using telepathy, V.I.N.CENT tells Kate the truth about what happened. When Kate tells Durant, he removes the reflective faceplate from a "drone" to reveal the zombie-like face of a crew member. Appalled, Durant tries to flee the bridge with Kate, but Maximilian kills him. Reinhardt kidnaps Kate, ordering his sentry robots to take her to the ship's hospital bay to be lobotomized.

Just as the process begins, Holland rescues Kate, along with V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. Meanwhile, fearing the situation is escalating dangerously, Booth attempts to escape alone in the Palomino. Reinhardt orders the craft shot down, but the weapons fire sends the ship crashing into the Cygnus, destroying its port-side anti-gravity forcefield generator. A meteor storm then destroys the starboard generator. Without its null-gravity bubble, the Cygnus starts to break apart under the black hole's huge gravitational forces.

Reinhardt and the Palomino survivors separately plan their escape aboard a small probe ship used to study the black hole. Reinhardt orders Maximilian to go and prepare the probe ship, but then a large viewscreen falls on Reinhardt, pinning him down. His lobotomized crew stand motionless as he struggles helplessly. Maximilian confronts the others and fatally damages B.O.B. moments before he himself is damaged by V.I.N.CENT and drifts lifelessly out of the broken ship into the black hole. Holland, Pizer, McCrae and V.I.N.CENT reach the probe ship and launch, only to discover the controls locked onto a flightpath that takes them into the black hole.

In a surreal sequence inside the black hole which resembles Heaven and Hell,^[2] an aged Reinhardt becomes merged with Maximilian in a burning, hellish landscape populated by dark robed spectres resembling the Cygnus drones. Next, a floating, angelic figure with long flowing hair passes through a cathedral-like arched crystal tunnel. The probe ship carrying Holland, Pizer, McCrae and V.I.N.CENT then emerges from a white hole and is last seen flying through space towards a planet near a bright star.

Cast

Maximilian Schell as Dr. Hans Reinhardt
Anthony Perkins as Dr. Alex Durant
Robert Forster as Captain Dan Holland
Joseph Bottoms as Lieutenant Charlie Pizer
Yvette Mimieux as Dr. Kate McCrae
Ernest Borgnine as Harry Booth
Tom McLoughlin as Captain S.T.A.R. ("Special Troops/Arms Regiment").
Roddy McDowall as Voice of V.I.N.CENT (uncredited)
Slim Pickens as Voice of Old B.O.B. (uncredited)

Production

Although Star Wars had revolutionized the use of computerized motion control miniature effects, The Black Hole was shot using a blend of traditional camera techniques and newly developed computer-controlled camera technology. Disney had wanted to rent equipment from Industrial Light and Magic, but it was unavailable during the film's production schedule and was also prohibitively expensive. In the end, Disney turned to its own engineering department, which spawned the A.C.E.S. (Automated Camera Effects System), the Mattescan system (which enabled the camera to move over a matte painting), and a computer-controlled modeling stand. The movie's opening credit sequence featured what was then the longest computer-graphics shot ever filmed.^[3]

Some mild swearing (a first for a Disney film) and scenes of human death earned The Black Hole a PG ('Parental Guidance suggested') rating. It was the first for a Disney production, although Buena Vista Distribution's sports drama Take Down, an outside production released earlier that year, had also earned the rating. The version of the film broadcast on The Disney Channel was edited for language, with all uses of the words "damn" and "hell" removed. The film also features some subtext, and metaphysical and religious themes that reflected the company's interest in developing more adult-oriented and mainstream films. This trend would eventually lead the studio to create its Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures banners (and later, its purchase of Miramax Films), under which films considered too mature for the Walt Disney Pictures label could be released.^[4]

The overture is included on Disney's 2004 DVD release.^[5]

Reception

At $20 million (plus another $6 million for the advertising budget),^[6] it was at the time the most expensive picture ever produced by Disney.^[7] The movie earned nearly $36 million at the North American box office, making it the 21st highest-grossing film of 1979.

It received mixed reviews from critics. Famed critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2 stars out of 4 upon its release, saying it "takes us all the way to the rim of space only to bog us down in a talky melodrama whipped up out of mad scientists and haunted houses."^[8] The film has a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews, though The New York Times, Time and Variety all praised the film. The visual effects were generally acclaimed by the press.^[9] The film received two Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography. Science fiction historian John Clute dismissed The Black Hole as "a silly concoction" where "the story disappears down the hole".^[10] The Aurum Film Encyclopedia also gave the film a negative review, saying The Black Hole featured "the most heavy-handed dialogue imaginable" and added that the film's climax "has no dramatic power at all".^[11]

Author John Kenneth Muir wrote an extensive review of the film that delved into some of the nuances and metaphysical ideas which marked The Black Hole as more adult-oriented fare than Disney had previously been involved with.^[12]

In 2014, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson deemed the film to be the least scientifically accurate movie of all time. Critiquing the film, he noted, "They not only got none of the physics right about falling into a black hole, had they gotten it right it would have been a vastly more interesting movie."^[13]

Adaptations and merchandising

In Alan Dean Foster's novelization of the film, as the probe ship crosses the event horizon, all matter ceases to exist. Kate's ESP links the minds of the Palomino's crew and allows them to survive (in a fashion) while the atoms of their bodies diffuse and are scattered throughout the Universe.

One comic book adaptation of the film (Whitman comics, published in 1980) bypasses the whole issue of what happens inside the black hole by having the crew enter the black hole on one page and emerge apparently unharmed on the next page into a parallel universe where they encounter alternate versions of Reinhardt, Old B.O.B., Maximilian and even Frank McCrae, Kate McCrae's father. Four issues were published. The first two issues adapted the film and the second two issues continued the story introducing a race of people called Virlights, whom they end up aiding against a rising tyrant. The rare fourth issue concludes with the promise of a fifth issue but the series was canceled before it was released. In Mexico, Editorial Novaro S.A. published the first four Whitman issues, including the fifth issue, but also released a sixth issue before the series ended.^[14] Other comic adaptations released in Europe have the crew emerging into another galaxy, thus confirming Reinhardt's theories. While wondering if they will ever return to Earth, they decide to explore this new universe.

In the official Disney Read-Along recording and illustrated story book, the crew in the probe ship emerge safely on the other side of the black hole, while the Cygnus is "crushed like an eggshell." The story ends with Captain Holland saying, "We've been trained to find new worlds. Let's go find one for ourselves!"^{[citation needed]}

The children's book line, Little Golden Books, released a book entitled The Black Hole: A Spaceship Adventure for Robots. The story involves V.I.N.CENT and Old B.O.B. exploring the Cygnus, visiting its gardens, encountering the "humanoid robots", and escaping detection by Maximillian.^[15]

The Mego Corporation produced a line of 12" and 4" action figures from the movie, released in the fall of 1979.

Jack Kirby drew an adaptation of the film (scripted by Carl Fallberg) for the comic strip Walt Disney's Treasury of Classic Tales.

Eight-inch magnetic figures were made of V.I.N.CENT, S.T.A.R. and Maximillian; 12-inch figures were made of Holland, Durant, Reinhardt, Booth, McCrae and Pizer.

In 1983, Disney put out a computer learning-game spinoff, Space Probe: Math. This was a cassette containing two educational games designed for use with the Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer. The concept of the first game was that the Palomino had landed on an infected planet, Delta 5 Omega. All the crew were falling under "mind diffusion", basically a viral form of fatigue. The player (aged 7–14) had to solve multiplication or division problems to save the crew. In the second game, the player had to save a primitive world's crops, using (rectangular) area and perimeter problems.^[16]

The Black Hole theatrical release history

The Black Hole opened at a Royal World Premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on December 18, 1979.^[17]^[18] It premiered in the United States on December 21, 1979.

US release dates

December 21, 1979 (original release)
March 6, 1982
August 16, 1985
December 25, 1990 (11th Anniversary edition re-release)

Video release history

1980 (VHS & laserdisc)
May 10, 1981 (VHS (UK only))
August 3, 1984 (VHS & laserdisc)
April 20, 1985 (VHS & laserdisc)
August 22, 1985 (laserdisc (Japanese version))
1986 (VHS and laserdisc)
1987 (videodisc (Chinese version))
1989 (VHS and laserdisc)
1990 (VHS and laserdisc (re-release))
June 18, 1997 (laserdisc)
May 27, 1999 (VHS & DVD)
May 7, 2000 (DVD (Japanese version))
May 17, 2000 (videodisc (Chinese/Japanese version))
June 8, 2002 (DVD - Anchor Bay)
August 3, 2004 (DVD - Disney)
March 1, 2010 (DVD Special Edition (Italy))

Soundtrack

Highlights of the score, as conducted and composed by John Barry, were released on an LP by Disneyland Records in 1979. A remastered edition of the LP version was made available on iTunes.

Silva Screen Records released compilation albums remastering some of John Barry's works, which includes some of the music ("The Overture") from The Black Hole.

On August 23, 2011, Intrada Records released the complete score on CD.^[19]

Remake

In November 2009, it was reported that Disney had plans to remake the movie. Director Joseph Kosinski (who directed Disney's 2010 film Tron: Legacy) and producer Sean Bailey are attached to the production,^[7] and Jon Spaihts, who wrote the original script for the Alien prequel Prometheus, was confirmed as writer for the project on April 5, 2013.^[20]