MovieChat Forums > The Black Hole (1979) Discussion > 2 movies in one!

2 movies in one!

posted 9 years ago by danielvaradi
7 replies | jump to latest

I saw this in the theater as a child when it was released and fell in love with it. I collected records, comics, figures...you name it.
I recently got back into this film and realize it works very well as a adult film with mature themes, none of which detract from the more superficial experience of a child watching he same film.
Yes, it's low budget, but they put that limited budget to exceptionally good use:
Lesser-known (at the time) actors giving what I consider great performances
Great directing by Gary Nelson of the live actors, but also the robots as well
Masterpiece film score by the late and great John Barry.
Special effects that maybe were lower. Duvet, but they got the job done and were very convincing.

There are so many themes and plot aspects that can be discussed and I'm glad I found these message boards where I can do so...

[–] DrWhen 9 years ago

It had a larger budget than both Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back.

[–] Cook_Hard 9 years ago

Low budget? What are you talking about? This was the most expensive movie Disney had done at the time.

[–] Johnjronald-571-398268 9 years ago

I would say the movie is part "Moby Dick in Space", with Dr. Reinhardt as mad Captain Ahab, and the Black Hole as his "White Whale", but it is also a futuristic retelling of Dr. Frankenstein's Monster, with Maximillian being the monster that Dr. Reinhardt (i.e. Frankenstein) ultimately loses control over.

The science in the movie is buried under mountains of nonsense, lots of heavy handed religious speculation, etc.

The more recent movie Interstellar covers its themes much more coherently, I think, and is much better than The Black Hole. It is a better exploration of related ideas.

[–] Alondro 8 years ago

Actually, I thought "Interstellar" made the exact same mistakes as "The Black Hole": it cluttered up its plot with a morass of pseudointellectual nonsense the writers clearly didn't even have a grasp of themselves, and failed to even properly comprehend the edges of phsyics it attempted to utilize.

Inevitably, both initially began as plausible exploration stories and descended gradually into fictional absurdity.

They both attempted to become a new "2001", but simply knew too little about where to draw the line of the unknowable.

[–] !!!deleted!!! (9347176) 8 years ago

They both attempted to become a new "2001"

Maybe you can say that about "Interstellar" but about "The Black Hole?" I don't know how many film buffs you'd get to buy that one. Clearly, TBH was an attempt by Disney to branch out its live-action Buena Vista production wing into the untapped realm of sci-fi, which was experiencing a renaissance thanks to "Star Wars."

There are certain parallels that could be drawn, I suppose. Malfunctioning robots, spaceships, and especially Reinhardt's belief in the purely hypothetical Einstein-Rosen Bridge when compared with the Monolith's gateway to another dimension/universe. That's just about where the comparison stops, though. This was a pure fantasy film with elements of sci-fi loosely blended in, not some grandiose attempt to make a statement about humanity's place in the universe.

-Rod

[–] BradyBraveJoel 8 years ago

Interstellar really blows, but that's my opinion

[–] McQueen1980 8 years ago

20 million dollars was NOT a low budget in 1979