The Black Hole

 

The Black Hole

1979

Director- Gary Nelson

Cast- Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Earnest Borgnine, Robert Forester, Yvette Mimieux, Roddy McDowell, Slim Pickins, Tom McLoughlin, Joseph Bottoms

            

   The Disney of today may be concerned with turning out blockbusters that are designed from the ground up to appeal to the masses, but there was a point in time when they turned out some unique, even scary, works that stand apart from most of their catalogue (Something Wicked This Way Comes for example).

           

    A team of space explorers (led by Robert Forester) finds a long lost ship, the Cygnus, apparently adrift, on the event horizon of a black hole. Besides Robert Forester, the space explorers include a scientist (Anthony Perkins), a journalist (Earnest Borgnine) a pilot (Joseph Bottoms) and a psychic (Yvette Mimieux ) that can speak telepathically with their droid, Vincent (voiced by Roddy McDowell).

   

     They are almost pulled in to the black hole themselves and their ship is damaged. They land on the Cygnus to find it populated by robots and a single human, Dr. Hans Reinhardt. He was a brilliant scientist aboard the Cygnus when it disappeared. It was recalled to Earth but never returned and was presumed lost.

            

     Reinhardt has spent the years studying the black hole and is planning a one way trip through the anomaly. He feeds them a story that the rest of the crew has been lost, necessitating his creation of the droids. Some of the droids are military robots that march around the ship like goose steppers. There is an old beat up robot, Bob (voiced by Slim Pickens) who seems to have been abused very badly by the militant robots. The chief droid is Maximillian, an evil red droid with whirling fans for hands. If Satan were a robot, he would be Maximillian (the end of the film basically asserts as much).

            

      There is another class of droid as well, black robed, blank faced drones that carry out the operation of the ship. To everyone’s horror, they find out that the drones are actually the old crew. They didn’t die as Reinhardt said. They were lobotomized to make them into pliable servants. The explorers come into conflict with Reinhardt and the ship is damaged, sending it tumbling into the black hole. The ending of the film is both beautiful and weird and defies easy explanation.

            

     The film is science fiction but it definitely contains elements of horror. The black hole itself is a type of Hell. It is described as such in the beginning of the film and the end of the film shows it as such, with the evil robot Maximillian as its devil. The faceless drones are also creepy and add an element of body horror.

           

    As the film came out in 1979, it would be easy to assume it was one of the many films trying to capitalize on the success of Star Wars, but in fact, the film had been in the pre-production stages since the early 70s. It was originally conceived as a space themed disaster film, capitalizing on the disaster craze of that era. Its disaster flick roots are evident at many points in the film, especially in the last 30 minutes.

            

     The film is not “hard” science fiction. If you are wanting that, best to turn to Alien or maybe Event Horizon. It has enough science fact to make it plausible but otherwise is more concerned with storytelling than realism.

            

     Though the film is not a rip off of Star Wars, the Star Wars influence can be seen in the film’s robots. Vincent looks like R2-D2 but talks like C3P0. In a battle between who is fancier, C3P0 or Vincent, it would be a tough call. Reinhardt’s military robots also seem to take their cue from George Lucas’ Stormtroopers.

     

     As for the rest of the film, visually, its aesthetics contain elements of both old school and modern science fiction. It is more realistic looking than the “atom punk” of the 50s but doesn’t quite have the gritty, dirty look of Alien or Blade Runner. The special effects are very good, below George Lucas’ level to be sure, but still better than most science fiction of its day.

            

      The cast is very impressive. Robert Forester starred in Alligator, Delta Force and was nominated for an Oscar for Jackie Brown. Anthony Perkins is, of course, best known for his role as Norman Bates in Psycho. Oscar winner Earnest Borgnine starred in so many good movies it’s hard to list them all, but just to throw out a few; The Vikings, Ice Station Zebra, The Wild Bunch and The Devil’s Rain. Roddy McDowell is best known from his numerous Planet of the Apes movies, but horror fans know him best as Peter Vincent from Fright Night. Slim Pickens was an American icon who starred in Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles and The Howling. The real feather in the cap though is Oscar winner Maximillian Schnell as the mad scientist Reinhardt. He gives the role the over the top quality that an operatic villain needs. He starred in numerous WW2 themed movies, often as a German officer, but horror fans may know him from John Carpenter’s Vampires. The score was by John Barry, winner of more musical Oscars than anyone besides John Williams.

Fun fact: The robot military captain, Star, was played by Tom McLoughlin. He was one of two actors (along with Kevin Peter Hall)  to wear the mutated bear suit in the movie, Prophecy. He also went on to direct Friday the 13^th VI: Jason Lives.