Word: hole
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...BLACK HOLE...
...story has an American rocket ship encountering two curious phenomena in outer space. One is the entrance to the biggest black hole anyone aboard has seen, the other is a large, rather charmingly antique-looking space vehicle parked near it with its lights out. The men of the former craft are absolutely basic: one stalwart captain, one joky copilot, one overdedicated scientist, one slightly shifty civilian and one pretty lady whose function is to be placed in jeopardy. The sole proprietor of the ship they run into is Maximilian Schell, a great long-lost scientist whose ego trips...
...they don't." He meant that even if some elements fall below standard, that may not affect our overall feeling for a picture if something about it grabs hold of our consciousness. Lucas comes to mind because so much of the Disney studio's The Black Hole-an overpowering score, squads of menacing heavies and, especially, two adorable robots-are straight Star Wars steals, and because, despite all this sincere flattery and a script and performances that are merely adequate, the fool thing works...
This long sequence is a blend of smartly staged action and mechanical and photographic effects as spectacular as anyone has achieved. It simply blows one away. The trip into the black hole that follows owes too much to 2001, but there are some amusing visual references to Fantasia, which partly compensate. It is good to see the Disney craftsmen doing what they do best on such a grand and risky scale. If one has time for only one space opera this season, this is the one to choose. - Richard Schickel
...early '40s is pastiche of one sort or another: a heavy line, now dogmatic, now uncertain, grinding across the paper, paying its digestive homages to Picasso, Gonzalez, constructivism generally and, rather surprisingly, to the bonelike figures of Moore and Arp. One of the ear lier drawings is a hole-in-the-head figure clearly derived from Moore, whose own interest in totems would presently be assimilated, to new effect, into Smith's work...