: (John Barry) Spawned from the dying
days of the epic disaster flicks of the 1970's, the Walt Disney
production
was delayed long enough to be
alternately associated with the space opera craze created by
. By the time
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
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
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
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
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.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For John Barry reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.85
(in 27 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.54
(in 28,651 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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