Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... on the 2011 CD album if you, like most film score collectors, have long considered this memorable John Barry score to be one of the unreleased holy grails of this genre of music. Avoid it... if you expect the decades of hype surrounding this music, mostly caused by its absence on CD, to mean that Barry leaves his comfort zone for what amounts to an entertaining but highly derivative and arguably underachieving score. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The Black Hole: (John Barry) Spawned from the dying days of the epic disaster flicks of the 1970's, the Walt Disney production The Black Hole was delayed long enough to be alternately associated with the space opera craze created by Star Wars. By the time The Black Hole debuted in 1979, it represented more than half a decade of work by the studio, which aimed not only to explore the "Tomorrowland" style of interests often forgotten about Disney himself, but also branch out into PG-rated territory with special effect-laden fantasy on a grand scale. Using the top effects techniques of the era, the film drew a fair amount of its plotline's inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey and was itself seemingly influential in guiding the horror misfire Event Horizon a few decades later. A probe vessel with human scientists from Earth discovers an older and massive exploration ship ominously adrift at the edge of a black hole. They investigate and find its captain and an army of robots manning the ship in preparation for entering the black hole. Not surprisingly, secrets about the larger ship and its mysterious captain are revealed, and the few survivors of the encounter ultimately make the journey through the hole against their will. The religious aspect of the film's intentionally ambiguous ending has always stirred a fair amount of controversy. While the technical elements of The Black Hole garnered significant praise at the time, including two Academy Award nominations, everything else about it earned only moderately enthusiastic responses, the critics split and box office earnings recouping the massive $26 million investment but not much more. A certain fondness of this arguable misfire has lingered through the years, the idea of a remake a lasting topic of conversation in the 2000's. Another source of extended interest in The Black Hole involves its rather unusual score by John Barry. The composer had reached the top of his career in the 1970's; his blend of James Bond coolness, historical epic grandeur, and pop culture flair on a smaller scale was about to develop into a whimsically romantic, melodramatic sound that defined the rest of his career and earned him one final round of mainstream recognition in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The composer's stubborn adherence to certain compositional techniques during this period began emerging with clarity in the late 1970's, not surprisingly reflecting his generic extension of the romantic style in his outer space, laser fight-associated scores for Moonraker and The Black Hole. Barry mostly defied the influence of John Williams on audience expectations when it came to The Black Hole, playing much closer to his own comfort zone while making a few token nods to the genre's norms at the time. It is still a transitional score for the composer, taking morbidly waltz-like rhythmic inclinations in a dark minor mode from his classic The Lion in Winter and previewing a range of styles heard not much later in Raise the Titanic, itself a score that influenced much to come for Barry. The fact that The Black Hole sounds so stereotypically like the composer's music rather than any of the Wagnerian inspirations caused by Williams in that era is testimony to the composer's ability to bring a different dramatic sense to the picture, but it also opens him up to accusations of laziness and/or an inability to adapt himself for a new science fiction age. There are thus two angles from which to examine The Black Hole, first as the popularly remembered dramatic score that it is, but also as an underachieving and derivative bore. It is indeed extremely familiar to a dozen other Barry scores in its instrumentation and structures. The former is led by his usual palette on the orchestral side, though aided by intriguing synthetic sounds familiar to futuristic tones of 1970's "Tomorrowland," including the "blaster beam" effect most memorable in the first two Star Trek feature film scores. The constructs of The Black Hole won't sound remotely fresh in retrospect, Barry mostly sticking to his usual slow tempos, repeated phrases, and rhythmic churning. One major theme in the score is joined by a plethora of supporting motifs, all but one similar to a host of other Barry creations. The lasting identity of the score is the idea conveyed over the "Main Title" and "End Title." It's a clever theme when considering its arguably more famous underlying rhythm, the circular motion of that rhythm perpetually descending in the bass while the brass theme on top of it struggles to ascend out its depths. The theme itself is quite long in its lines, making it somewhat challenging to reference in shorter sequences, but the rhythm is conversely a very strong tool with which to remind of the perils of the black hole, varied in tempo considerably over the first four major cues. Unfortunately, while the combination of the theme and its underlying rhythm are the dominant identity in those early sections of the score and film, Barry abandons it later in the score despite the fact that the black hole itself never loses its muster. While the early portions of "Into the Hole" allude to the theme, the remainder of the climactic cues seem more concerned with the human battles rather than continued reminders of the hole's power, a substantial disappointment in the score. Outside of the main theme in The Black Hole, Barry also addresses individual concepts and scenes with unique ideas as well. The telepathic element is served a whimsical, thoughtful violin phrase that also speaks to the wonders of space; this motif is expressed at the very outset of "Main Title" and "Zero Gravity." Its tone informs the better developed sense of empathy in the score's midsection as the truth about the army of robots aboard the larger ship is revealed. The most well known secondary idea, however, is the one with which Barry diverts the personality of the score to handle the action sequences involving laser fights. The bravado of the action fanfare in "Laser" and "Kate's O.K." is a bit tough to handle in retrospect, its snare, cymbal, and xylophone tapping over ultra-heroic brass layers creating a generic space opera march that Disney thought highly enough about that they made it into one of the last "Overtures" to ever grace a film. Smaller motifs in The Black Hole include one of dread highlighted in "Durant is Dead," its typical Barry progressions on top aided by a pounded baseline around key on piano to represent the sinister behavior of the antagonists. Later, in "Hot and Heavy" and "Hotter and Heavier," Barry writes another cyclical bass motif for the suspense of the chase at the climax of the story. This rhythm eventually devolves into a straight minor third alternation in the latter cue that becomes, in its last minute, extremely reminiscent of the title theme from The Lion Winter. In fact, if you've ever wanted to hear that classic 1968 theme with its chorus replaced by blaster beam, here's your opportunity. Hints of Barry's straight 1980's romantic drama tone are conveyed for the good robots in the film, "Bob and V.I.N.C.E.N.T." an odd preview of Out of Africa. A variety of stingers employed by Barry are consistent throughout the score as well, though none is groundbreaking. The "Into the Hole" cue is pivotal in the film because of the lack of dialogue in the mix. Barry arguably underachieved for this scene, offering fluid continuity rather than a truly climactic crescendo of fantasy that you might have expected for the visuals. After the journey into the hole, the alternate depictions of Hell and Heaven are handled rather tepidly. Generic rhythmic churning is aided by wailing synthetic effects for the odd scene involving the (literally) combined fate of the villains, followed by a dissatisfying cymbal-aided rhythm for the actual shot of pits of fire rather than something more robust (the choir from The Lion Winter might have been a brilliant choice here, given that the religious visuals aren't subtle either). The bright lights of Heaven interrupt at the 3:05 mark in "Into the Hole" and conclude the score on a brightly heroic crescendo that is itself a bit simplistic, especially with the prominent harp flourishes. Overall, The Black Hole is a score with much for Barry enthusiasts to love, but one that is also fairly flawed in the development of its own motifs. On the bright side, the title theme and constant sense of rhythmic churning (in many ways inherent in Barry's writing) are perfect for the topic. The electronic accents are very well handled in almost every circumstance. The blaster beam's announcement the start of "That's It" is the sure sign of trouble to come, and its other performances are equally adept in creating the right tone for each specific instance. Barry also succeeds in underlining the human drama of the tale at the same time, another victory for his trademark style in this film. The downsides, however, mostly involve the derivative nature of the score and its failure to really form a cohesive narrative. The fact that so much of The Black Hole sounds like Raise the Titanic in retrospect is disappointing, especially given that the latter remains the superior work in most regards. The rhythms for the hole would be revived as the underwater exploration motif in the latter score, the somewhat cheesy action theme has phrases similar to the 1982 score's theme for the Titanic, and minor third descending jabs at about the 4:40 into "Zero Gravity" are also clear precursors to better expressions to come. The action theme really is out of place in this score, and the lack of the title theme and its rhythm in the latter half is a huge disappointment. So, in the end, The Black Hole is a mixed bag that barely earns four stars but will please most of the composer's diehard fans. Those collectors waited a long time for the score to be released on CD, too, using bootleg transfers of the LP record (and a few great re-recordings of suites) to suffice. Because it was the first score ever recorded digitally, the primitive method of storage of that music on tapes made it extremely difficult to extract it in top form. It took several years for the proper equipment to be assembled to transfer those original digital recordings onto hard drives, and in the interim (during the late 2000's), the master used to make the LP record and cassettes at the time of the film's release was cleaned up for a download-only release. In 2011, as the second entry in Intrada Records' distribution agreement with Walt Disney Records, the completely restored, full arrangement of The Black Hole was made available on a commercial CD limited to 10,000 copies. The album sounds fantastic and adds substantial new material to the presentation, including both "Hot and Heavy" tracks. Also provided is the intriguing synthesizer-only mix for the "End Titles" as a bonus track. The time that went into the assembly of music for the 2011 album is astounding, and praise has to be given to those dedicated efforts. Be aware, though, that the hype surrounding the legacy of this score may be a bit overwrought. **** Track Listings (1999 Bootlegs):
Total Time: 77:07
Track Listings (2007 Buena Vista Album):
Total Time: 33:44
Track Listings (2011 Disney Album):
Total Time: 54:50
* previously unreleased ** includes additional material not used in the film All artwork and sound clips from The Black Hole are Copyright © 1999, 2007, 2011, (Bootlegs), Buena Vista Records, Walt Disney Records/Intrada Records. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/7/11, updated 9/7/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2011-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
1999 Bootleg
