Our ongoing series looking at movies that took the blockbuster genre to the extreme and perhaps to excess. Note that these reviews may contain spoilers.
By John J. Joex
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Disney’s The Black Hole hit the theaters in 1979, two years after Stars Wars had shown that big profits could follow from special effects-laden Science Fiction blockbusters. Unfortunately, this film seemed driven more toward cashing in on those profits than following in the tradition that the Lucas film started of bringing a fantastic tale to life on the big screen.
The Black Hole actually had some promise and a story at its core that could have delivered an accomplished movie it properly guided. It follows a group of space travelers on a deep space probe, the USS Palomino, that stumble across a large spaceship known as the Cygnus holding a course at the edge of a black hole. This ship had been reported missing twenty years prior, so the crew of the Palomino decide to investigate. Onboard they find the brilliant scientist Doctor Hans Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell) who is apparently the only surviving member of the ship’s crew and who plans to use the Cygnus to explore further into the black hole. Reinhardt, who at first appears cordial, actually has some hidden, dark secrets about his motives and the fate of the crew (as if you did not guess from the moment you saw Schell’s sinister visage) which puts him at odds with the crew of the Palomino. The expected confrontation ensues which sets all involved on a treacherous course into the depths of the black hole.
The Black Hole has very much the feel of a corporate product specifically aimed at appealing to a newfound audience that would line up to see blockbuster-style, big budget sci fi films. It delivers on the visuals and it throws in many of the expected elements of an epic film, but ultimately it feels like an empty, by-the-numbers production. Whereas films like Star Wars were born of inspiration and a desire to recapture the magic of an earlier era of film-making but with state-of-the-are special effects, The Black Hole just looks to cash in on the latest trend by emulating the style and ignoring the substance. It has the feel of a movie cobbled together through endless corporate meetings rather than springing from the muse of a visionary film-maker.
To make things worse, the film takes itself way too seriously despite the sub-standard product that it delivers. One might think that the creative team aimed for a hard science fiction story with black holes as core to its premise, but the titular phenomena is treated more like a space hurricane than anything you would find in a science book. And then the end aspires to recreate the awe of the stargate sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey but instead just delivers a muddled, mystical derailment from any hope of salvaging the film. To its credit, it has an all-star cast who do a bang-up job with what they are given, but actors can only do so much with a listless, ponderous script.
Ultimately, Disney’s first foray into the PG-rated landscape comes with fits and starts and proves tentative, unsatisfying, and soulless. Still trying to appeal to the family-friendly audience (and shamelessly stealing from Star Wars) they throw in cute (though utterly ridiculous and cheap looking) robots for comic relief. Then they lift casually from any of a number of science fiction sources in a corporate-fueled spaghetti-against-the-wall strategy hoping that something will stick with the audience. And while the film did make money on its initial release, it quickly faded from the minds of its audience shortly after they left the theater just as it has from the consciousness of Science Fiction and Fantasy genre.
With a new era in film-making having begun with the massive successes of films like Jaws and Star Wars, it should be expected that movies like The Black Hole would follow seeking to grab a piece of the Box Office pie that had been carved out for special effects blockbusters. This one represents the first of the vapid films that would emerge in the blockbuster genre (though some, myself not included, might argue Star Trek: The Motion Picture, released two weeks prior, holds that honor), carrying a dubious torch that would continue to get passed along in the decades that would follow.
