DVD Review HTF Review: The Black Hole (1 Viewer)

[Ernest Rister]

the correct version had a red dot sticker on the back of the case. i dont remember if it was on the insert or actually on the plasctic dvd case.

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On the AB releases, I originally had a 1.33:1/2.35:1 flipper that came in a red keep case, which I believe was the defective disc.

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Acck! That's the disc I have! The red keep case, flipper disc with scope version on one side and pan-and-scan on the other! No red dot on the outside! The insert is the chapter listings!

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Play the widescreen side in 5.1 and see if you have a right front channel.

Neil

 

[Ernest Rister]

I just did. Works fine.

 

[David Brown Eyes]

I also have fond memories of this movie.

The score is one of Barry's best, somewhat repedative but up there with Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves. It is a real shame that Disney refuses to release an authorised version on CD.

The movie is excellent camp material. The line.
"Her mission was the same as ours. To find habitable life in the universe." attests to the high hopes but its shortfalls.

The movie is visualy stunning, and very atmospheric, helped by a soundtrack that should never be attached to such a campy attempt.

I am not sure if I am sold on the upgrade. I have the corrected ab version. It is possible that when I get a front projector I will upgrade but for now the nonanamorphic version is fine with me.

Ohh what the hell is up with that cover art??????????

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

Indeed. I could never figure out why a planet is being shown on the front cover of this.

Neil

 

[Dick]

Take out those f&*#ing floating robots, improve the dialog, have better acting and an ending that actually makes sense and you'd probably have a dynamite film here. The visual design is awesome, the concept a viable one, most of the special effects (apart from aforementioned robots) are excellent, the music is striking, the sound remarkable, and some of the horror elements truly horrifying. I was so bitterfly pissed off after seeing this, because it had such great potential. But Disney wanted so badly to make this a family entertainment that it compromised the film almost beyond hope. We just don't need Pat Butram and Roddy MacDowalls' voices giving us "comic relief" from a pair of childish, Star Wars-rip-off tin can robots. They alone drag this film down several notches. The cast is mostly wooden to the point of boring. Still, THE BLACK HOLE is a movie I go back to from time to time. The gorgeous (but all too short) shuttle ride in the tube between ships, the eerie funeral and discovery of the secret of the worker droids, the terrifying death of Anthony Perkins at the "hands" of Maximilian, the starscapes and black hole itself... all these offset the crappier aspects of the film just enough to make it watchable. Here is a film I wish Disney would remake, as an adult-oriented story that preserves the awe we feel about the inifinity of space and its exploration.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

Hmm, "The Black Hole" does strike me as a good name for an "adult-oriented" movie. It could star Charmaine Star.

 

[Citizen87645]

Checking a certain site, somebody already had that idea

 

[Al (alweho)]

It's just 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea set in space. Once you get that, the rest of it (as awful as it can be sometimes) finally begins to make sense.

 

[Dick]

Hmm. I don't remember scratching my head at the end of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA trying to decipher five minutes of surreal and apparently senseless images. Yes, the basic plot of the two is very similar, but the voyage "into" the black hole is a hugely disappointing and anticlimactic, IMHO.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Take out those f&*#ing floating robots, improve the dialog, have better acting and an ending that actually makes sense and you'd probably have a dynamite film here."

I like the flying robots. What kid in 1980 didn't want their very own Vincent after seeing the film?

"The visual design is awesome, the concept a viable one, most of the special effects (apart from aforementioned robots) are excellent, the music is striking, the sound remarkable, and some of the horror elements truly horrifying. I was so bitterfly pissed off after seeing this, because it had such great potential."

I was 9 when the movie came out, so, I was more confused by the non-sensical ending than anything else

"But Disney wanted so badly to make this a family entertainment that it compromised the film almost beyond hope."

Disney had serious issues with trying to reach beyond family entertainment in the late 70's and early 80's. The market was shifting away from them, with the teen audience becoming more and more important. While Escape to Witch Mountain in 1975 had been a fresh and intresting success for them, attempts to lure teens with sci-fi and horror misfired in the early 80's -- The Black Hole, The Watcher in the Woods, Tron, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Films like Tex and Never Cry Wolf were critically acclaimed, but they were not hits. The Black Cauldron was in development and pre-pro during this period, and the eventual results in 1985 were as muddled as The Black Hole.

"We just don't need Pat Butram and Roddy MacDowalls' voices giving us "comic relief" from a pair of childish, Star Wars-rip-off tin can robots."

I think the robots in SW are more child-oriented than the robots in Black Hole, but that's a matter of taste. Kids love the robots in both films. Slim Pickens was the voice of Old Bob, not Pat Buttram.

"They alone drag this film down several notches."

Not for me, not when I was a kid. I loved them both.

"The cast is mostly wooden to the point of boring. Still, THE BLACK HOLE is a movie I go back to from time to time. The gorgeous (but all too short) shuttle ride in the tube between ships, the eerie funeral and discovery of the secret of the worker droids, the terrifying death of Anthony Perkins at the "hands" of Maximilian, the starscapes and black hole itself... all these offset the crappier aspects of the film just enough to make it watchable."

I have a great deal of affection for it, even while recognizing it as one of the goofier movies ever made. I consider it a camp classic today. If only Joel and Tom and Crowe had a chance to comment on the film...

"Here is a film I wish Disney would remake, as an adult-oriented story that preserves the awe we feel about the inifinity of space and its exploration."

It does dance on the edge of inspiration, doesn't it? I really don't kmow what happened to this film, other than there was a breakdown in the writing stage. Bad scripts have felled larger beasts than The Black Hole.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"I don't remember scratching my head at the end of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA trying to decipher five minutes of surreal and apparently senseless images."

As space and time stretch into infinity, Kate falls unconscious and has a vision of Reindhardt -- his soul divided in twain. The evil part of Reindhardt is interred in Hell, the good part of his soul is absolved in Heaven. Kate comes to, and finds that the ship is adrift in a new part of the universe, in a new solar system.

Why don't audiences like this? We can sense that the trio of survivors in 20,000 Leagues will likely be rescued at film's end, but in The Black Hole, there's just a large star and some upbeat music by John Barry. They are alone in space. Hardly a happy ending.

 

[TheLongshot]

I vaugely remember a comic book that continued the story from the end of the film. I don't remember any details about it, tho.

Jason

 

[Bill Buklis]

I know the ending of The Black Hole may seem a little surreal, but I'd say it was far more understandable than the incromprehensible mess at the end of 2001, yet no one complains about that. Now I'm not saying the visual images of 2001 weren't visually and cinematically stunning and are most likely superior to The Black Hole. But, if the rest of the film didn't hold up there'd be very few people praising the ending of 2001.

There's nothing wrong with the flying robots. Their use is not the problem in this movie. Bad dialog, poor acting, and a weak plot - those are the flaws. You also have to remember the target audience for this movie. Why wasn't it more adult oriented? Because it wasn't supposed to be. It was made by Disney remember. Don't criticize the film using only the eyes of an adult.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

2001's ending makes sense - The Black Hole's ending sort-of does, too. It's just a *bad* ending, whereas 2001's is perfect.

 

[Dick]

Absolutely correct, and I apologize for the error. Plus, I seem to be very much in the minority regarding my views of this film (at least among those posting to this thread). I certainly agree it has many strengths. But even the kid inside me despises those robots...

 

[Michael Harris]

"The Black Hole" was a beautiful film to look at. The set design and the matte paintings were, for the most part, very good. Some scenes will always be with me such as when the ship lights up and the funeral sequence (Disney loves good funerals). If memory serves me correctly this was the first PG film to be released under the Disney banner.

 

[Ernest Rister]

"If memory serves me correctly this was the first PG film to be released under the Disney banner."

Yes and no. The Black Hole was the first Disney film to be released with the PG banner, but the first Disney film (that I know of) to get rated PG -- necessitating some editing to get it back down to a G -- was a re-release of Treasure Island in the 70's. Disney was planning on re-releasing the film, submitted it to the MPAA as a matter of routine, and the film was rated PG. Surprised by the rating, the Disney company got out the scissors and trimmed a few seconds of violence and re-submitted it, and the film was given the coveted G rating (in other words, the 70's re-release of Treasure Island is the first Disney film that I know of that was given a PG, even though it was censored to earn a G).

The DVD for Treasure Island contains the uncut version, and if you'll notice, it is indeed carrying a PG rating. By the by, if you look on the back of the DVD for Three Lives of Thomasina, you'll see that it, too, now carries a PG rating. don't know about the new Darby O'Gill DVD, but I suspect that it, too, may earn a PG.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

If Disney is looking for properties to remake, they could do worse than this one.

 

[Ernest Rister]

All right - lets hear some solutions. Assume you've been hired to do a remake of The Black Hole. How would you fix the ending? The survivors are stuck on a ship programmed to go through the Black Hole, and it plunges into it. What happens next?

Collectors who bought the Anchor Bay "collector's set" know that one of the suggested endings involved a sort of "Men In Black" twist, where the probe ship emerges in a universe, and then we pull back and discover the universe is a atom on Planet Earth (no foolin').

That doesn't work for me, because there is no emotional or intellectual payoff to this, it is just a gimmick.

Structure a new version of the Black Hole in which the journey into the beyond has an emotional and intellectual payoff.