
So last night I decided it was too long since I watched THE BLACK HOLE.
I unironically, unapologetically, unabashedly, LOVE this movie, and have since I was a kid seeing it in the theater.
I know the general consensus is that it is flawed, that it doesn't work, that its ending is disastrous... Well, THIS space laser robot loving popcorn-muncher wouldn't change a thing! It's so unusual, so visually striking. So much a product of its time merged with filmmaking from before its time.
Things that stuck out to me this time concerned Kate McCrae, who I usually ignored as a kid.
She's a great actress. I LOVE the scene where VINcent sends here the whole truth via ESP and she gets this brain dump and then you see the weight of it on her when she looks at the room full of Humanoids!!! It is CHILLING... a moment I always knew was there, but really appreciated the gravity of it through her performance.
She also does a great squeal/wretch sound when Durant removes the faceplate... I really believed she was about to vomit.
Things that make me go hmmm.... Why does Reinhardt's medical laser blow a faceplate off the Sentry Robot, but only seems to start to lobotomize Kate?

Joseph Bottoms as Charlie Pizer.... seemed like he was having the most fun. A fine performance, and I'd love to see him in more. Thinking about checking out Blind Date with him and Kirstie Alley and Marina Sirtis for some Black Hole meets Star Trek!
Robert Forster (Native of my hometown of Rochester, NY) is too cool for School. "We've been in scrapes before, and we're gonna get outta this one too." What were their previous adventures?!?
Charlie: "What are you made of? What if it were one of us out there?!"
Dan: "VINCent IS one of us!"
God, I love that.
Look, Ernest Borgnine is... well, Ernest Borgnine. But I'll be darned if you don't just love and hate him in this film. Such a coward, yet he cuts right through Reinhart's BS. Such a fun performance.
Anthony Perkins is truly bizarre. So corruptible. Perfectly cast as the vulnerable scientist who needs to hitch his wagon to a fascist. Wonder why they had him wearing a wedding band?
The John Barry score is mixed very prominently. It's just perfect, perfect, perfect.
The animation when the lasers zap the Sentries... is adorably old school Disney.
I will never dump on this movie. It's not for everyone. But it's perfect for me. I wouldn't change a thing.


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