Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Stars:
Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette
Mimieux, and Ernest Borgnine
Featuring
The Voices Of: Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens
Writers: Jeb
Rosebrook and Gerry Day
Based On A Story
By: Jeb Rosebrook, Bob Barbash, and Richard Landau
Director: Gary
Nelson
Feature length: 98
minutes
Extras: “Through
The Black Hole” Featurette and Extended Theatrical Trailer
Languages: English
and French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Spanish Language Dolby
Surround Sound
Subtitles: English
Captions and Closed Captions and French Language Subtitles
Packaging: Keep
Case
Chapter Stops: 10
Sound: Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year of Theatrical
Release: 1979/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Home Video
Distributor: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: PG
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
“The Black
Hole” was released during the holiday season of 1979 around the same time
Paramount released “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” It was time when the
success of “Star Wars” had inspired a lot of special effects sci-fi films
and television and Disney as a studio was heading toward a crossroads. “The
Black Hole” marked the studio’s last completely in-house production as well
as the beginning of a transition from conventional special effects like in
camera opticals, matte paintings, and models toward the first use of computer
generated imagery in a sci-fi film that was released just three years later by
Disney entitled “Tron.” “The Black Hole” has an ambitious look to it
with some special effects that still hold up well today. The acting is a bit
weak, but one gets the sense that the Disney studios was really trying to grasp
at something the same way Paramount’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”
attempted an ambitious story that was more cerebral than action oriented. In the
case of Trek, it was released prematurely and the vision Gene Roddenberry and
Robert Wise had in mind did not come into full fruition until the release of
“The Director’s Edition” on DVD in 2001. With “The Black Hole,” the
interesting though absurd premise simply gets dumbed down in favor of space
opera style action.
According to
Special Effects Artist Harrison Ellenshaw, in the bonus featurette “Through
The Black Hole” (16:33), the screenplay’s conclusion still remained
unwritten even when the film went into production. With some allusions to
Dante’s inferno and whatnot already in the screenplay, Ellenshaw’s father
went out to Italy and shot some footage of the famous painting depicting David
reaching for the finger of God with the idea of creating a more ethereal
explanation to what was beyond “The Black Hole.” The camera would rise above
an inferno to reveal Yvette Mimieux’s character literally reaching up to touch
the hand of God. Instead Disney went with something more concrete and perhaps
unintentionally and equally unexplainable since Ellenshaw is not even sure what
it is all supposed to mean. This is a new interview produced for this DVD
release and after viewing it I wish Walt Disney Home Entertainment would have
gone all out for this title and perhaps even restored the ending Ellenshaw
discussed as a viewing option. Maybe somewhere down the line Buena Vista Home
Entertainment will revisit the film for a more elaborate DVD release. I think
the films deserve it and the sci-fi fans do too.
As it is, “The
Black Hole” was originally licensed to Anchor Bay Entertainment and released
with a letterboxed and pan and scan presentation on DVD. This new release
finally presents “The Black Hole” in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1)
aspect ratio and while there are still some flaws from the source materials
used, there is a definite improvement in the overall quality of the images with
richer color and detail. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is
not quite full, but far from flat. A French Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack and a Spanish Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack is also provided
along with English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and
French Language Subtitles are encoded as options. The opening overture before
the film begins has been preserved on this DVD as well and the extended
theatrical trailer (3:28), which is also included.
There are some
flaws in the overall story like how could anyone create a magnetic field strong
enough to repel a black hole when even light cannot escape it and there are
scenes when the actors are literally running through what is supposed by like a
vacuum and the rubber sets at time make it all look almost laughable. The
attempt to liken Maximilian Schell’s character to “Captain Nemo” doesn’t
exactly work either and his robot curiously named “Maximilian” has a bit of
a resemblance to a Cylon Centurion with the single Cyclops like robotic eye. The
Palomino is supposed to be at least 25 more years advanced than the Cygnus
and yet for an exploratory ship on the five hundred and forty-seventh day of
it’s mission, it appears to be rather confining and how could human explorers
not suffer from muscle atrophy if they have been out in space that long without
gravity? The year is supposed to be 2130, but the Cygnus doesn’t even
look like it could successfully orbit a planet let alone survive a mad man’s
attempts at navigating a black hole, which we all know is impossible. Yet if you
can suspend your disbelief, “The Black Hole” is a guilty pleasure of a more
innocent time. “The Black Hole” is available on DVD-Video now from Walt
Disney Home Entertainment.
© Copyright 2004
By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!