THE BLACK HOLE (1979)

This is a film which has passed me by over the years. One of the post-Star Wars sci-fi boom films of the late 70s and early 80s it was one of Disney’s rare excursions into darker territory (Both literally and figuratively; the film’s about a Black Hole). THE BLACK HOLE has become something of a curio over the years. Unlike its Disney stable mate Tron it has inspired no spin-offs or calls for sequels.  The only real presence it has in pop culture is V.I.N.CENT, the floating robot which clearly came about as an attempt to emulate R2 D2s success. I had caught moments of it over the years on television but had always missed the first 20 minutes so never watched it through. My SKY TV package had been trailing the new Disney Film Channel for some months but all the trailers had focused exclusively on its animation output so it was a great delight when flicking through the on demand section one night on my iPad I found that it rather more than that. Such gems as One of My Dinosaurs is Missing are out of the remit of this blog so I finally settled on filling my sci-fi film knowledge’s black hole (Ahh see what I did there. I impress nobody)

The research vessel the USS Palomino discovers a long lost ship, the USS Cygnus, on the event horizon of a black hole. Empty except for the scientist Dr. Hans Reinhardt and a crew of mysterious robots the course is set beyond the final frontier and into the black hole.

"R2-D2. Is he famous?"

This is a really decent film and has been unfairly forgotten in the annuls of sci-fi cinema. It is a good story which an interesting cast and great production design but I think I can see why it has fallen from the radar. It has a confused tone as it lacks the rigour of hard sci-fi and the daring-do of space opera. In falling in-between it is not successful as either. I think there was a serious Silent Running esque story at the core of this film but the success of Star Wars led to the introduction of melodramatic elements which might have been left for another film. If you can imagine 2001 with cute robot sidekicks and laser battles you are not a million light years away from this film. Actually that would be a great film – Hal in the body of a golden butler with a psychotic glint and the Monolith at the end transforms into a massive robot with a gun.  But I digress.

The film takes a turn into very 2001 territory at the end with a strange bit of metaphorical madness involving heaven and hell imagery. I dismissed it as quite tame then realised it was fairly bold for more modern Disney. It has that air of darkness which the original Disney films had but became lost once Walt Disney’s vision was replaced by corporate pastiche.

A wonderfully eclectic cast including Ernest Borgnine, Roberts Foster and Norman Bates himself Anthony Perkins creates a great texture to this film playing characters far from the traditional Hollywood archetypes. I cannot think of another large budget film with an aging cast full of scientists and journalists.  Roddy McDowell voices V.I.N.CENT and rather raises the role above that cute robot sidekick. His sarcastic, droll performance gently undercuts the whole thing. He is almost a prototype for Joss Whedon’s knowing characters.

The real stand-out of this film is the production design. It is fantastic on a scale we rarely see these days. Huge physical sets which look like somebody has translated sci-fi book covers into vivid architecture. There’s a reality to it modern green-screening cannot approach. The USS Cygnus is a wondrous thing and I was wondering why it seemed familiar. I think it may have been an influence on the Destiny in Stargate Universe. There are certain similarities of scale and design which seem more than subconscious. Vast industrial spaces illuminated by sulfurous yellow arc lights like a Stoke-On-Trent in space.

This could have been a great film but it does not quite manage to get there. I think it may have been Disney corporate policy which held it back. It is with some trepidation I hear a remake is abroad from the director of Tron: Legacy. There is nothing really sacred in this film, no internet fan voices clamoring for nostalgia which can hamper the best of reboots. I rather hope they embrace the impossible in the remake and make it into the film it should have been.