Disney's "THE BLACK HOLE" - A retrospective..

** UPDATE ** - For all fans, I would draw your attention to the following..  As of 11th August 2011, Disney and Intrada have produced a remastered Special Edition CD soundtrack of the THE BLACK HOLE.  Having rediscovered the 32-track digital masters back in 2006, they set about painstakingly remastering all the music as presented and have released this wonderful score by the late John Barry.  Boasting no less than 24 tracks (a big improvement on the 32 year old, gold dust, 10 track vinyl release), a running time of just over 55 mins, and a 20 page liner booklet cataloguing the tumultuous path of the CD's creation, as well as notes and photos from the production itself, I heartily recommend grabbing a copy if you like your soundtrack CD's!


http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.7229/.f


Okay, in the grand scheme of things this is not the most important blog to hit the web but it is something which I feel personally motivated to write about, in part because of my frustration as a fan. There were two films from the Walt Disney studio which caught my imagination in my youth - 1979’s sci-fi offering “The Black Hole” and 1982’s unorthodox virtual offering “Tron”. I have my reasons for mentioning "Tron", which will become clear later on, as this is actually a blog regarding the former film – and the unexpected future in store for it.

“The Black Hole” was one of the most expensive films made in its day ($20,000,000) and sports flaws so startlingly obvious you wonder how they survived the creative process unscathed, given that they were riding on the back of such a high profile investment. Today’s cinematic experiences have reared children to expect flawless special effects, and although this film sat somewhere at the top of the heap for its production values (having being Oscar-nominated for its effects), there are some matters alongside the “cool” which I think in all fairness were unacceptable even at the time. Whether it’s the bad or inconsistent science, the occasional all-too obvious wires suspending the characters in zero-gravity, the laudable but obvious work of the matte artists to try and colour-match the film footage (in fairness I’ll come back to these two issues) or the insanely patchy dialogue which ranges from sublimely entertaining to bizarre or even downright bad, there are more than enough opportunities inviting criticism.

In spite of all this, I say give it another look.

Over the years It has garnered something of a cult status, sustained in part by its reputation as the first PG rated film from the Disney catalogue (for some mild language, and perhaps more reasonably for the scenes of death, one of which probably made more than one parent look sideways in concern as little Johnny handled his first Disney 'evisceration' scene). It’s all too easy to join in the critical “mud-slinging”, but when you look beneath the damaged surface you can perhaps see what the studio executives were raving about before the critics blasted it.  The film was in production as far back as 1974, so any comparisons to Star Wars may be quite obvious in retrospect, but realistically quite wrong.  At its heart is a darkly gothic film, sporting some of the most original hardware design this side of "2001: A Space Odyssey". Whether it’s the beautiful, Hubble-style starfield being consumed by the black hole in the corner of your eye, the defiant and beautifully skeletal mile-long vessel USS Cygnus, the haunting forms of her humanoid crew, the intimidating form of the ethically-conflicted Maximillian, even the production design of the double-barrelled laser guns (which I still love to this day) - all these were forever etched into my child’s mind on that grey Saturday afternoon in early 1980. The film even manages to reach beyond the occasional naïve scene which it’s fairly lambasted for, surprising the unwary with moments which certainly don’t fit the traditional Disney ethic; the sombre mood of the humanoid funeral, the soulless, dead-eyed crew member staring back at a shocked Anthony Perkins, his own character’s subsequent (albeit bloodless) evisceration and electrocution, the revelation of the murder of Palomino crew member Kate McCrae’s father by the Cygnus’ own commander Hans Reinhardt or the allegory of his soul’s eternal damnation within the shell of his own creation.. you choose. Personally, I think the most poignant (and likely overlooked) scene is a moment where a dying Reinhardt pleads for his life to his lobotomised crew. Two of them appear to turn slightly to one another, and with the little humanity left in them elect to ignore his cries for help, giving the impression that they are exacting some small measure of personal justice as well as bringing an end to their own suffering by the black hole - quite chilling stuff for a nine year old, I can tell you.

I discovered more recently that “The Black Hole” is about to be subjected to a “re-imagining”, with “Tron Legacy” director Joe Kosinski helming the project. With all due respect to how he seems to feel about the task this is not something I’d ever hoped for. Superheroes can be reinvented – “Spiderman” blossomed in the skilled hands of Sam Raimi and Toby Maguire, and “Batman” deftly sidestepped the 60’s camp to embrace the true, original nature of the Dark Knight, initially with the superb edginess of Michael Keaton, and after a commercial deterioration subsequently recovered once more through Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale.  Even "Superman" survived the transition from the late and much missed Christopher Reeve, with a portrayal from Brandon Routh which was startlingly akin and yet also his own. “The Black Hole” however is a different matter. Don’t get me wrong – In spite of my nostalgia-driven reservations I will give this a chance, especially as it is to be a true re-imagining by concept rather than a carbon copy of the original - Kosinski’s main drive seems to be to address the science issues and create something more akin to “2001” in style rather than an outright adventure (this may all end up echoing the visual feel of the original concept paintings of the Cygnus by the late Robert McCall).  I seem to recall having similar doubts about the recently released "Star Trek XI". Given that they could have continued going boldly into the future beyond the years of Picard and Janeway, it filled me with trepidation when they announced that they wished to reinvent the wheel, but in the end I think they created a veritable masterpiece.

I suppose I would really have hoped that Disney would treat the original version with a bit more respect. Its release history is something of a mess.  Twenty years passed, during which both several laserdisc and sub-quality VHS transfers were released.  With the advent of DVD, the film became the most requested release from the Disney back catalogue. Even before Disney succumbed to consumer demand, Anchor Bay managed a R1 remastered version (with the nostalgically correct starfield "overture" as seen in cinemas), but though it is arguably marginally superior to Disney's own treatment, the release was of the "non-anamorphic" widescreen variety.  When the 2-disc 20th Anniversary “TRON” DVD appeared there were rumours of a similar 2-disc Special Edition of “The Black Hole” waiting in the wings, and given the excellent job they did with "Tron" together with a wealth of material to choose from as demonstrated by a past laserdisc release (deleted scenes, trailers, a “making of..” with cast and crew interviews etc..) all looked rosy. It seems however that "Tron" didn’t sell enough units to justify its completion (!?), and Disney once again lost their bottle - ironic considering we now have a TRON sequel, an animated mini-series and the all but green-lit TR3N.  Sometime later they acquiesced and released a barebones disc (which is the only version officially available here in the UK), presumably to counter the Anchor Bay release, followed by a barely improved R1 version (including the overture with a title page instead of starfield (grrrr..), a 15 minute technical retrospective and a trailer).  Maybe we should be grateful it appeared on DVD at all.  Given that the visuals seem to be the most universally credited aspect of the film, the ubiquitous “pan and scan” VHS transfer did far more damage to the integrity of this movie than anything the critics could throw at it!  Now with the advent of Blu-ray we wait yet again for any signs of a release.. if it ever gets one in this format.

With a reimagining on the cards I can’t think that they will do anything with the original unless they go for the “cash-in” option. I know, it’s just wish fulfilment because I happen to have a soft spot for a film which scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, but personally (and PARTICULARLY with the advent of the high resolution of Blu-ray) I would love to have them cash-in and run “The Black Hole” through a similar re-mastering process to the one which Ridley Scott performed on “Bladerunner”. If only they were to produce a “Special Edition”, complete with its original starfield overture, commentary, maybe even with the deleted scenes restored in an optional “seamless-branching” approach as championed by the acclaimed R1 “Terminator 2” release.. They could go back to the original negatives and “spruce” it up. Transfer it through the 4K digital intermediate process which Ridley glows about, tidy all the blemishes and spots, re-balance the off-colour scenes (where scenes with “blue” colours became scenes with “aqua” colours to avoid clashing with the “blue screen” process), balance out the matte paintings, get rid of the accidental blue-screen reflections on objects, and yes, even digitally remove the wires.  Of course none of this is likely to happen. Disney have never really liked to give this film its due since their initial sense of shame, even after all the development costs and hard work by the effects artists - a pity really when you consider some of the truly obscure movies out there which have enjoyed restoration, sometimes simply because of the enhanced quality which DVD offers.  One can but hope though.  Maybe their attitude is thawing with the recent effort put into the Special Edition CD soundtrack release..

I like working with Photoshop – they could give the project to me! Hey, any Disney Exec’s reading this.. I dare you!

Peace