The Black Hole

Released by:

Buena Vista Home Video, through Anchor Bay Entertainment

Features:

1979; 98Min; Rated PG; Dolby Digital: 5.1 English; Widescreen  (2.35) and Pan/Scan.

Extras:

Theatrical trailer, Still Gallery and Theatrical Overture presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, all on the Widescreen edition of the film.

Review:

What's the big deal about the Black Hole coming out on DVD? It 's a  title that Walt Disney Pictures would like to deny they ever made.  I believe this was one of the first non G-rated films released by Disney, but I could be wrong. It was also a title that was intended for a full fledge special edition on Laserdisc, around the time Tron was released. Unfortunately, the SE never materialized. Many rumors bounced around on the web, that there would be an audio commentary with Robert Forrester, but alas, it didn't happen. Anchor Bay has put together a nifty package anyway.

The basic plot, and I use this term very loosely, is this. The crew of the Palomino are about to return home to Earth after exploring the galaxy. They stumble upon a ship, that has been missing for twenty years, helmed by a Dr. Hans Reindhart (Maximilian Schell). The mystery is that this ship is parked on the edge of a black hole. After doing a fly by, the Palomino is nearly sucked into the black hole. The crippled ship must dock with Dr. Reindhart's ship, which until this time was dormant. The crew of the Palomino: Capt. Dan Holland (Robert Forrester), First Officer Charles Pizer (Joseph Bottoms), Harry Booth (Ernest Borgnine), Dr. Alex Durant (Anthony Perkins) and Dr. Kate McCrae (Yvette Mimieux), after being disarmed,  is greeted by a group of robots and introduced to Dr. Reinhart. Reinhart keeps them prisoner on his ship, while he plans to enter the black hole.

Sure the movies goofy, but that's part of it's appeal, just like Tron. Now to main thing your wondering, how was the disc? Just to see the film  finally presented in it's original 2.35 aspect ratio was a highlight for me. I can be easily appeased at times. There was very little noticeable grain that I could see. The film print seemed in pretty good shape with very few film scratches, which surprised me.

I did take a peek at two scenes (Opening Credits and The Shooting Contest) on the pan and scan side.That's all I could tolerate on principle, and they seemed to show the wear and tear on the film a little more. As for it's re-composition, it wasn't terrible, but characters did get cut out in the pan and scan version. Overall the color on both editions seemed fairly solid, given the age of the film. The only time the color levels seem to fluxuate was during the effects shots, it was minor, and expected, considering the technology of the day.

The new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix  was a nobel attempt of a re-mix. The music was punched up through all five speakers. There were limited split surround audio effects in the rear, but, most of the discrete audio information was oriented towards the front. The most impressive sceen to me was The Shooting Contest (Chap. 8 - LB, Chap. 7 - P/S). When Vincent (the robot from the Palomino) takes on Starr, the laser blast are spread out in the front channels, with a surprising amount of LFE, although from what I could tell, there were very few instances that the LFE channel was used. Considering the age of the film, Disney did what they could.

Overall, I very happy with this disc. Then again, I've only been waiting about four years for a widescreen presentation of this movie. If your a fan of the film, there's no question about it, buy the disc. If you enjoy cheesy sci-fi, at least rent this title, you'll be surprised. By the way, you must suspend disbelief to a new level when watching the ending of this film (and people think Armageddon is bad). This also builds my confidence in purchasing Anchor Bay titles. Outside of Raw Deal, I have tried to avoid Anchor Bay's titles like the plague, due to the scathing reviews they received on some titles, notably Halloween. It looks as if Anchor Bay has figured out how to handle transfers now, or at least their authoring facility has.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the movie ranks a 6 in my book.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give this presentation a 7, with no Bonus Biscuits.

Bonus Biscuits will be explained at future date when I find one, but don't fret, I sense this will happen soon.

Dan Linzmeier, FIT Productions
Fitprod@aol.com
Home
Reviews
Copyright 1999-2000, FIT Productions