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June 16, 2021

Episode 524: The Black Hole (1979)

Guest Co-Hosts: El Goro, David Kittredge

Sci Fi Month continues on The Projection Booth with a look at Gary Nelson’s 1979 film, The Black Hole. It’s the story of a group of astronauts who, after an unscheduled course correction, run across the missing ship The Cygnus, which is in stasis just outside of a black hole. It’s something of a re-telling of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with Maximilian Schell playing Captain Nemo by way of Dr. Hans Reinhardt.

El Goro (Talk Without Rhythm) and David Kittredge (The Outcast) join Mike to discuss this uneven film.

Listen/Download Now:

Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy The Black Hole on DVD
Read “We Never Had an Ending:” How Disney’s ‘Black Hole’ Tried to Match ‘Star Wars’ by David Weiner

Music:
"Main Theme" - John Barry

Watch:


6 comments:

  1. Great film! So glad Star Trek:The Motion Picture was sold out that night! I remember my brother telling me we were going to see it, and I was such a superfan I ended up with both record storybooks....great film!

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    1. Totally Agreed& Thank's For Up-Loading That YT Clip explaining what a dark film this was for kids-Great Insights:)

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  2. "their mission, the same as ours, the search for habitable life in the galaxy" Life you can live on?

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  3. I have a friend who says he can defend the ending. Get ready to get your entire career ended with facts and knowledge.

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  4. This is one of my all time faves. You guys cover most of the bases in the podcast. The fact that it is a dense existential piece, by accident or not, made it an indelible experience for me. Flash Gordon was mentioned and it also is one of my all time faves... that or Excalibur... but Black Hole is right up there with them. I think a remake could do all the elements already at play in The Black Hole could be done quite well.

    I love the ending as well. It is clunky. It was that juxtaposition of the aforementioned line "Like something out of Dante's Inferno".

    Cygnus and Palomino and the David and Goliath references.

    There are things here that are purposeful and yet also not well executed and somethings that are likely Disney/Marketing aspects that aren't complete failures but were not executed evenly.

    The film is so existential and baroque in its essence and executed with a sober quality of tangible depressing fear and anxiety that perhaps it is, besides being Dark for Disney, has resonance because the stakes are still allowed to be real for most of the film.

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