Notable cast/crew: Maximilian Schell as Dr Hans Reinhardt. Anthony Perkins as Dr Alex Durant. Robert Forster as Captain Dan Holland. Joseph Bottoms as Lieutenant Charles Pizer. Yvette Mimieux as Dr Kate McCrae. Ernest Borgnine as Harry Booth. Roddy McDowall as V.I.N.CENT. Slim Pickens as B.O.B.
Running time: 98 minutesDirector: Gary Nelson
Verdict: This film has largely been forgotten, but it was a big budget film for its time (the most expensive movie Disney had made to that point). The special effects are still impressive for the time, although slightly less so than Star Wars or Alien. They were all done in-house at Disney and not farmed out to an effects studio (the last movie made this way). It was the first Disney film to garner a PG rating due to a few scenes containing mild swearing and Perkins' violent death.
This was one of the last movies to be made with an overture, and it hints at Disney intending this movie to be taken more seriously than normal Disney fare. The movie is only 98 minutes long, though, so the 2:30 overture comes off a bit pretentious. However, the score is fantastic and one the best things about the film. It sets the mood that this is something ominous and that doom will come to the Palomino crew. It was the first digitally recorded soundtrack.
The biggest problem is this film can never figure out what it wants to be. The first third has a very 2001 or Space:1999 feel (some of the ship designs clearly were influenced by them). This encompasses the discovery and investigation of the Cygnus. Once Reinhardt is introduced, the middle third of the film is drawn from much older literary works like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Moby-Dick, or The Sea-Wolf. It's here we find the madman is intent upon entering the black hole, and he has murdered most of his crew by turning them into cyborg-automatons. The final third incorporates elements derived from Star Wars, The Poseidon Adventure, and A Descent into the Maelstrom. The final sequence clearly draws from 2001 and tries to add on a suggestion of Heaven and Hell. Up until that final sequence, the film largely works as a dark, action drama, but the brief scenes of Reinhardt entombed inside Maximilian overlooking what appears to be Hell followed by what appears to be an angelic figure in a cathedral of white light are so open-ended and subjective that they invite confusion more than provide resolution to the story.
This is where the film clearly intends to be more than it ultimately is which results in a feeling that it failed to reach that goal. Although paced well for most of the movie, it's too much for a film that has spent 95 minutes slowly building from sci fi horror to an adventurous escape from a madman to a disaster flick to suddenly leap into the metaphysical and suggest something more beyond what has been discussed. There are multiple references throughout the film linking the black hole to hellish imagery: Dante's Inferno, the devil, the reds and blacks used in the color scheme of the robots and imprisoned crew. There has been little discussion, though, to set up that final metaphysical leap, and we are left to only speculate what it means. The Palomino survivors apparently make it through the black hole and emerge from a white hole approaching a planet while Reinhardt is trapped in Hell inside the black hole. It is an interesting ending but not a satisfying one. The movie might have worked better with an ending closer to the works it borrowed from with a few survivors and no metaphysical imagery, or it may have been better to explore what lay on the other side in more detail. The brevity of the ending detracts from it and leaves the viewer looking for something more from the film.
Anthony Perkins is too stiff, displaying none of the easy charm from his role in Psycho, although there is a nice homage to that film when he turns the "robot" around in the chair and pulls off the mask to reveal the human corpse trapped inside. Schell is excellent as Reinhardt in the same vein as James Mason as Nemo in 20,000 Leagues or Walter Pidgeon as Dr Morbius in Forbidden Planet. The rest of the cast is solid but unremarkable.
Ultimately, the film tries to be too many things and winds up falling short of all them. That said, it's still an entertaining film and worth seeing. There are wonderful effects and stylish imagery that show the care and effort put into it. It definitely doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
This was one of the last movies to be made with an overture, and it hints at Disney intending this movie to be taken more seriously than normal Disney fare. The movie is only 98 minutes long, though, so the 2:30 overture comes off a bit pretentious. However, the score is fantastic and one the best things about the film. It sets the mood that this is something ominous and that doom will come to the Palomino crew. It was the first digitally recorded soundtrack.
The biggest problem is this film can never figure out what it wants to be. The first third has a very 2001 or Space:1999 feel (some of the ship designs clearly were influenced by them). This encompasses the discovery and investigation of the Cygnus. Once Reinhardt is introduced, the middle third of the film is drawn from much older literary works like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Moby-Dick, or The Sea-Wolf. It's here we find the madman is intent upon entering the black hole, and he has murdered most of his crew by turning them into cyborg-automatons. The final third incorporates elements derived from Star Wars, The Poseidon Adventure, and A Descent into the Maelstrom. The final sequence clearly draws from 2001 and tries to add on a suggestion of Heaven and Hell. Up until that final sequence, the film largely works as a dark, action drama, but the brief scenes of Reinhardt entombed inside Maximilian overlooking what appears to be Hell followed by what appears to be an angelic figure in a cathedral of white light are so open-ended and subjective that they invite confusion more than provide resolution to the story.
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This is where the film clearly intends to be more than it ultimately is which results in a feeling that it failed to reach that goal. Although paced well for most of the movie, it's too much for a film that has spent 95 minutes slowly building from sci fi horror to an adventurous escape from a madman to a disaster flick to suddenly leap into the metaphysical and suggest something more beyond what has been discussed. There are multiple references throughout the film linking the black hole to hellish imagery: Dante's Inferno, the devil, the reds and blacks used in the color scheme of the robots and imprisoned crew. There has been little discussion, though, to set up that final metaphysical leap, and we are left to only speculate what it means. The Palomino survivors apparently make it through the black hole and emerge from a white hole approaching a planet while Reinhardt is trapped in Hell inside the black hole. It is an interesting ending but not a satisfying one. The movie might have worked better with an ending closer to the works it borrowed from with a few survivors and no metaphysical imagery, or it may have been better to explore what lay on the other side in more detail. The brevity of the ending detracts from it and leaves the viewer looking for something more from the film.
Anthony Perkins is too stiff, displaying none of the easy charm from his role in Psycho, although there is a nice homage to that film when he turns the "robot" around in the chair and pulls off the mask to reveal the human corpse trapped inside. Schell is excellent as Reinhardt in the same vein as James Mason as Nemo in 20,000 Leagues or Walter Pidgeon as Dr Morbius in Forbidden Planet. The rest of the cast is solid but unremarkable.
Ultimately, the film tries to be too many things and winds up falling short of all them. That said, it's still an entertaining film and worth seeing. There are wonderful effects and stylish imagery that show the care and effort put into it. It definitely doesn't deserve to be forgotten.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
