Revisiting Disney's Atmospheric and Unsettling The Black Hole
What’s up there, HB loyal! I got an entry today from the “I never saw that coming” category. During the two weeks I’m off every holiday season in December, I always try and make a little to-do list, which usually includes both things I kinda have to do and things I would rather do. In other words, fun shit and shit around the house. On my fun shit list this past season was to kind of dive deep into the Disney+ library and see what I could find. Aside from the much overlooked Tron animated show, Tron Uprising, which enjoyed a brief single season stint on the Disney XD channel back in 2012, I was also “recommended” the 1979 live action film, The Black Hole.
I’ll be honest; I couldn’t remember much about this film aside from the name and a toy line that released around the same time as the movie. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that good ‘ol practice that was one of the single best parts about growing up in the ‘80s: An accompanying toy line for every single TV and movie franchise that somewhat, even loosely, targeted the very profitable children’s market. I know for sure I owned at least the killer (more on that later) red robot, Maximilian, and I think his evil creator, Dr. Hans Reinhardt. And I may have seen this film in the theater, but definitely revisited, at least parts of it, back when it was first released on LaserDisc sometime in the 1990’s.
For the uninitiated, LaserDisc was yet another type of physical media introduced for the sole purpose that it could hold more data at the time than other formats. This allowed for better resolution, picture quality, audio, etc. etc. LaserDisc players were also the first to be able to skip chapters in a program and they could store information on both sides of their LP sized shiny discs as well. It was this technology that allowed for development of the cutting edge LaserDisc based arcade games of the 1980’s such as Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. Obviously, this disc-based media would also become the impetus for such future media as the DVD and Blu-ray. But I digress. On to the film!
Wanting to revisit this classic as an adult and also giving my wife the experience of viewing it for the first time, we settled in and turned it on one quiet evening. I’ll tell you something; it was this recent session and my wife’s reaction to it that prompted me to write what you’re now reading. The Black Hole isn’t a horror film, or at least not in the way that we here at the site or our readers probably define it. But, man, this film is frigging creepy and in some ways… disturbing. This film just exudes eeriness practically from the get go. As soon as the opening theme started playing, not only did it instantly strike a sense of familiarity, but I also recognized just how somber and moody that score is. Kudos to the late John Barry, who is probably most known for composing a slew of James Bond films, for really nailing not just the theme, but a hauntingly appropriate score that creeps in throughout the entirety of the picture.
But it’s not just the music; everything about this feature just creates a sense of discomfort and unease. On a routine scouting mission, our heroes come across what seems like a derelict ship floating precariously close to a nearby black hole. Once they run the ships credentials through their computers, they come to find that this seemingly abandoned vessel, Cygnus, is the same ship that’s been missing some twenty years after it was called back to Earth and asked to discontinue its research. With the father of one of our heroes having been listed chief among the crew, they decide to go in for a closer look. Yet, as soon as they’re close enough, the Cygnus flashes back to life, lights ablaze. Not strange at all, right?
This is a good time to call attention to the all-star cast that signed on for The Black Hole. Our heroes are led by brave captain, Robert Forster (Heroes, The Wolf of Snow Hollow), science officer, Anthony Perkins (Psycho, Murder on the Orient Express), journalist Ernest Borgnine (Escape from New York, Airwolf), scientist and ESP user Yvette Mimieux (Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell, The Time Machine) and finally, trusty second officer Joseph Bottoms. Now some of those names may still loom large today, but remember that this is just a few years removed from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope and aside from Sir Alec Guinness, everyone else that starred in that film were virtual unknowns. The Black Hole, for that era, was practically a star-studded cast and I haven’t even mentioned our chief antagonist, the aforementioned Dr. Hans Reinhardt played by the twice nominated and Oscar winning Maximilian Schell, and in case you were wondering he had those two nominations and win all before appearing here. Finally, Roddy McDowall (Fright Night, Planet of the Apes) and Slim Pickens (Blazing Saddles, The Howling) lend their voice talents to robot companions V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. respectively, although uncredited at the time.
Upon finally boarding the Cygnus, our heroes are welcomed by an uncomfortably empty ship. The hallways are ghost towns and there are large empty spaces devoid of any activity whatsoever. To the viewer, it’s all quite disconcerting. Machines and transportation magically come to life as our heroes approach them until they are brought up to the bridge of the vessel and finally introduced to our villain. Dr. Reinhardt is a unique character, albeit an often used, stereotypical one. Immediately he’s presented to us in half shadow, black hole churning over his shoulder through a window, seated in the throne of his lone kingdom. The rest of the crew has long since fled you see, and he’s only had the company of the robots of his own creation that both march and trudge, depending on their function, through the abandoned corridors of the ship. Dual laser wielding security bots roam obediently through the desolate hallways and dark robed clad ones pace quietly around taking care of the day-to-day maintenance. But that one big red murderous Maximilian is Reinhardt’s crown jewel of the entire battalion. How one robot with no facial expressions or even jointed limbs can emote such coldness and elicit such terror in return still amazes me. Not to mention his two spinning arm blades of death, which he does use to kill a human later on in the third act. But his tormenting isn’t restricted to the human visitors; he even bullies the friendly helpful robots V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B. over the course of our adventure. Man, that toy was cool.
Suspicion of Reinhardt and his purpose so close to the edge of a black hole begins to foster uncertainty among our heroes, especially after finding out that Kate McRae’s (Mimieux) dad died aboard the Cygnus while the rest of the crew abandoned ship after it suffered damage from a meteor shower, leaving only Reinhardt aboard to continue his studies. Doubt solidifies into a plan of action after Captain Holland (Forster) stumbles across a funeral held by the service robots for one of their own and a crew’s quarters still filled with the belongings of the supposed abandoned staff. Harry (Borgnine) recounts to Holland his findings while roaming the ship of seeing a fully stocked arboretum of food, although Reinhardt claimed there was only enough left for one, and witnessing one of the service robots walking with a limp. Dr. Durant (Perkins) is the only one wooed by the musings of Reinhardt, seeing in him the genius he himself wishes he were.
Finally, Reinhardt’s mad plan is revealed: to fly straight into the Black Hole to see what is not only inside, but also what lies beyond. Once the service bots are revealed to be the zombified remains of the previous crew, Kate is held hostage in a final crazed attempt to get Captain Holland and his team to stay behind and document Reinhardt’s journey into the hole. What ensues for the next dozen minutes or so is more what you would expect from a typical sci-fi actioner: Laser gun shoot outs with robots, risky escapes while the Cygnus suffers damage from a passing asteroid storm being sucked into the black hole (complete with one of them breaching the hull and rolling down toward our heroes a la Raiders of the Lost Ark), and the deaths of a few characters, including our evil villain, Reinhardt.
Culminating in our heroes’ only chance of escape being Reinhardt’s crazy plan of going into the black hole. What follows is a sequence of some of the most bizarre and uncharacteristic visuals thus far. If you’ve seen Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, then this is a good comparison for what we see once the crew enters the black hole: Lots of trippy lights, some neat visual effects to stretch the actors’ faces, and a camera trick that makes the interior of the probe their riding in look as if it’s spinning out of control while our heroes remain stationary… or vice versa. If I had to guess, I would imagine the camera was mounted on the same platform as the actors, but the background of the probe interior was on some sort of axis that could spin around freely. Or the other way around, but I don’t know if the actors would have agreed to all that spinning around take after take. Anyway, it’s a pretty cool effect; especially on their way out of the hole when you see the interior slowly “lock” back into place.
But stranger than this kooky sequence in the probe is what kind of simultaneously gets intercut towards the end of it and what seems to be the resolution of Reinhardt’s story. Yes, I mentioned earlier he gets whacked while still onboard the Cygnus, nothing too gruesome or gratifying: a large beam falls from the ceiling and traps him, crushing his chest, I guess. But here in the aftermath, we next see a shot of Reinhardt floating in space, except now he has this really long beard and full mane of flowing locks, I assume implying the elasticity of time that occurs within the black hole, as the camera slowly zooms in on his face. In the very next cut, we now see Maximilian floating in space as well, but his optical display has been replaced with Reinhardt’s human eyes darting around frantically, as if the doctor were now trapped inside the robot and they have become one. As the camera continues to zoom back out, the space background is slowly dissolved into a mountain peak that they’re standing on. It zooms out some more and splashes of flames shoot from the bottom of the screen. Out some more and there are stone bridges engulfed by the flames. Even more still and there are lines of robed figures marching down those paths. Is this hell? Because that’s what it sure as heck looks like.
The next visual is what I can only explain as an angel flying through a beautifully lit and intricately carved corridor that slowly dissolves into the interior of the black hole as our heroes are spit out the other end and float towards what seems like a star or planet in the background right before the credits roll. Sure, the interpretations can be as differing as the people who watch it. Did both parties die as a result of the black hole, with Reinhardt going to hell and our heroes going to heaven? Did an angel come to save our heroes at the last minute and gently shepherd them to safety? Are heaven and hell really just complex scientific dimensions that really only exist within the depths of a black hole? Who knows? What I can tell you is that in some countries, this ending sequence was edited down, but only the portion with the angel floating through the corridor and not the creepy hell bit. Reasoning seems to be that the angel did imply our heroes died and audiences would much rather see them survive happily ever after with no ambiguity.
The Black Hole was not a critical or box office success by any stretch of the imagination, it barely broke even, but neither were Tron, Flash Gordon, or even Blade Runner when they were first released either. Fun fact: Of the veritable who’s who of legendary actors that were also considered for the role of Dr. Reinhardt, Max von Sydow who would go on to star as the villain, Ming the Merciless, in the aforementioned Flash Gordon. But anyway, these films hold importance in the annals of cinema for other reasons and so they eventually become what we affectionately call cult classics. But The Black Hole was really significant to Disney for a slew of other reasons, despite its lackluster public performance: It was the company’s first PG rated film. It was the first in a series of films that were meant to target an adult audience; this alone would lead to the decision in creating Touchstone Pictures under the Disney banner. On the technical front, at the time it had the most visual effects of any other live action Disney film, thus making it also the most expensive Disney film at the time, and furthermore, when producers couldn’t rent George Lucas’ cutting edge camera technology he used on Star Wars just years prior, Disney went ahead and created it’s own that turned out to be far superior. So as my momma always says, “Everything in life happens for a reason.”
But outside of the Disney realm, I think it’s also relevant to note how important The Black Hole is to horror in general. After all, it’s really no act of chance that I found myself wanting to write something here for this site after viewing it. Because I feel like without this film, we couldn’t have such Sci-Fi horror the likes of Event Horizon, a film I dubbed “Hellraiser in space” in one of my very first articles for this site, or even Chopping Mall. Hey, where else can you find homicidal robots as ruthless as Maximilian? Even the visual aesthetic and lingering sense of unease can be seen and felt in films like Alien: Resurrection and Carpenter’s The Thing.
The late 1970’s and well into the early ‘80s were a fun and interesting time for both sci-fi and horror, both due in large part to one film from each genre. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope single handedly sent Hollywood in a mad dash to launch as many clones (pun intended) as it could and creators to up their game in terms of creativity. Shit, Ridley Scott attributes Lucas’ film to lighting the proverbial fire under his butt to up the ante in Alien. And thus we got Krull, Ice Pirates, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, as well as My Bloody Valentine, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street after the success of Halloween in 1978. Maybe that’s why these two niche genres were destined to spawn a new one in the form of Sci-Fi Horror with the release of the aforementioned Alien in 1979. All I know, is that whatever the reason, this era of film will always hold a dear spot in our hearts as a time where anything was possible from stories to characters to places.
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