Would you believe a spaceship with breasts? There's one in this 1980 Roger Corman space opera! The spaceship has a female computer personality named Nell and a decidedly feminine shape, which includes two enormous breast-like mounds on its underside. Since there is no nudity in this movie, which is unusual in a Corman film, he had to get the breasts in somewhere, so model designer/builder/art director James Cameron put them on the space craft! Very amusing indeed! Cameron went on to design bigger and better things, like the Titanic.Battle Beyond the Stars was the biggest-budgeted movie Corman had ever made up to that time, about 2 million dollars, and his money is up there on the screen, with good sets, good props, good special effects, and a good cast. In typical Corman fashion everything except the cast was used over and over again in other space sagas he made. Waste not, want not! is his credo, and he boasts that he's never lost a dime on any of his movies. I believe it.
The plot of this movie was stolen shamelessly from Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, so if you liked that Japanese epic and its American remake, The Magnificent Seven, you should like Battle Beyond the Stars, too. It just goes to show that if you have to steal a story, you might as well steal a great one!
The cast includes Richard Thomas, just out of his John-Boy of The Waltons role, as a poor man's Luke Skywalker recruiting mercenaries George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Marta Kristen, and Sybil Danning, among others, to fight the evil conqueror Sador, played by John Saxon, always a good villain.
Never one to miss a trend, or start one, Corman cashed in on the phenomenal success of Star Wars with Battle Beyond the Stars. It's a fun film and I recommend this DVD widescreen edition. There's interesting commentaries by Gale Anne Hurd, John Sayles and Roger Corman, movie trailers, biographies, trivia game, scene index -but the usual Corman filmography booklet is absent here.
First off, as mentioned before, the plot is nothing new. While a lot of people would say he is ripping off Star Wars that is really not the case (although he probably is banking on the popularity of the space opera). As a matter of fact Corman, in his infinite desire to copy successful themes based Battle Beyond the Stars on the The Magnificent Seven. Which of course was copied by John Sturges in his western classic from Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece The Seven Samurai. So technically Corman didn't copy anything that wasn't already copied. Still a good plot is a good plot no matter where it came from and putting it in a science fiction setting only makes the movie that much more interesting.
What makes this story work so well is that Corman "gets" what Magnificent Seven (and Seven Samurai for that matter) were doing... at least to a point. These movies were less about the brave warriors protecting a community from evil raiders and more about the various personalities of said warriors. Battle Beyond the stars takes that to different level with the different warriors coming from different planets and cultures. While most of the character development is a little more than two dimensional the amount of various characters really make up for it. From there you have a usual space opera fare. Spaceships roaring and blowing each other up to majestic music. Villains wearing black and acting ruthless. Heroes giving pretty speeches. Nothing as noteworthy as the character interactions.
There is actually a surprising amount of well-known talent in the cast. It makes me wonder how Corman got them all on such a tight budget. We're talking people like Richard Thomas (of Waltons fame), Morgan Woodward (How the West Was Won), and Robert Vaughn (in practically the same role he played on Magnificent Seven). I would say the acting is actually quite good for the short amount of time they had to shoot the film. Special effects are on the low side, but not all that cheesy. Set designs weren't bad at all. I actually enjoyed the backdrops. The spaceship designs are really cool too, thanks to future mega-Director James Cameron. Even though there is no exciting motion control flying like Star Wars, at least the spaceships themselves were very creative. The music is an instant classic and is done by James Horner, another star in his field (he has composed music for A Beautiful Mind, The Perfect Storm, Titanic and more).
Okay enough waxing over the cool stuff. This is still a B-movie and it does have some bad drawbacks. The bad thing about the plot (and forgive me if I spoil it for anybody) is that essentially all the heroes that were rounded up to save the planet end up getting picked off one by one until only the main star is left. I hate it when movies do that... so stereotypical. You can tell a lot of the space battle scenes are the same clips from footage earlier in the film. Yeah I know... budget constraints, but it's still cheesy. The extras they have on set end up not really looking like they know what they are doing. Also some of the scenes that try and portray action and excitement end up falling a little flat. So yeah... it's still a B-movie.
We are finally getting this B-Movie gem on Blu-Ray, and since Shout Factory is releasing as part of their B-Movie release bonanza there is reason to be excited. So far Shout Factory has put out some pretty impressive looking Blu-Rays of movies you wouldn't think would ever look so good in high definition without major studio intervention. My expectations are pretty high that BBtS will look and sound better than ever. First off they announced a brand new 5.1 DTS Master audio track. Also the two commentaries from the old DVD release will be present. From there you are going to get some extra features I never seen before. Here's the breakdown:
Aforementioned Audio Commentary One with Production Manager Gale Anne Hurd and another with Directory Roger Corman and Writer John Sayles
Space Opera on a Shoestring A documentary on technical and post production of the movie with interviews from Aaron Lipstadt, Alec Gillis, Alex Hajdu, Allan Holzman, R.J. Kizer, Robert & Dennis Skotak, Thom Shouse and Tony Randel. Sorry... no James Cameron.
The Man Who Would Be Shad Brand new interview with actor Richard Thomas.
Promotional Trailers, TV commercials, Radio Spots.
In my humble opinion I believe this movie should be considered required viewing for those hardcore sci-fi fans. It's too much a strong part of the genre's heritage to pass up. That being said this is not Oscar winner by any stretch of the imagination. While it's cheap and cheesy in many, many ways it's also refined in ways you don't see in many other B-movies. The Blu-Ray (and upcoming 30th Anniversary DVD release) will have never before seen features and undoubtedly a cleaned up look. If you can forgive the fact the film has all the trappings of an ultra low budget movie and see the fact that they did a LOT with that budget then set yourself up for a treat.Great memories accompany this movie for me, thankfully the producers of this DVD have honored this production with a jam-packed feature full of special features. I was not even a teenager when this movie was released back in 1980 yet a group of friends and I made the pilgrimage to a local cinema to see it. With an interesting set of diverse characters the movie plays as a science fiction version of the Seven Samurai. A "Magnificent Seven in Space" as it were, it even features Robert Vaughn of that 60s gem. The real pleasure of the DVD however is the wealth of special features. We not only have one optional audio commentary, but two very informative pieces. There are preview trailers for other Corman productions such as "Piranha". We even get a trivia game. I certainly recommend this movie.Actually, I don't disagree with most of the comments. The extras are great (especially the commentary, although Gale Anne Hurd has a tendency, at least in the beginning, to drop little nuggets of information without any context), and it's great to have this film in widescreen HOWEVER, whomever was raving about the transfer need to wipe the dust off of their TV! It's not that it's bad, it's too good. So good that you can see every scratch and fleck of dust on whatever lousy 21-year-old print they used to master this puppy. If they were going to put in the time to make this disc, at least they could have struck a new print for the transfer.In 1980, legendary low budget producer Roger Corman produced the most expensive film ($2M) of his career, a special-effects-heavy space opera in the vein of STAR WARS. That sci-fi epic, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, has just been re-released in a 30th Anniversary Special Edition (actually, shouldn't that be 31st Anniversary?) by Shout! Factory on both DVD and Blu-ray disc.
The planet of Akir is a desert world "with one green spot." Its inhabitants are peaceful farmers, who live by the nonviolent code of The Varda. Unfortunately, this makes them a tempting target for intergalactic despot Sador (John Saxon, ENTER THE DRAGON, QUEEN OF BLOOD), who strives for immortality by replacing his worn-out limbs and organs with transplanted replacements culled from beings like the humanoid Akira. He gives them an ultimatum submit to his rule or be destroyed then gives them time to ponder his "offer" while he scoots off to destroy a planet that has chosen to defy him. Desperate, the people of Akir send farmboy Shad (Richard Thomas, THE WALTONS, STEPHEN KING'S "IT") off in their only functioning starship, the sentient and decidedly female Nell, to buy weapons and recruit mercenaries to help them stand against Sador and his mutant armies. Shad scours the star system and ultimately returns with seven (give or take) alien defenders, but even with these valiant souls, the odds are not in their favor...
An unabashed mash-up of George Lucas' STAR WARS and Akira Kurosawa's THE SEVEN SAMURAI/Robert Sturges' THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, this satisfying and exciting space opera is graced with a witty, intelligent screenplay by John Sayles (PIRANHA, LONE STAR), a game cast comprised of veteran character actors and TV stars (Jeff Corey, Sam Jaffe, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, Morgan Woodward, Marta Kristen, Sybil Danning, et al), and remarkably accomplished miniature spaceship effects by a talented crew of enthusiastic young technicians, including James Cameron and the Skotak brothers. Wrapped up in a sweeping, Jerry Goldsmith-inspired musical score by James Horner, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is probably the best of the STAR WARS imitators and in some ways, it's maybe a little better.
Director Jimmy T. Murakami keeps things moving at a brisk pace, and with his talented cast maintains a breezy, tongue-in-cheek tone that doesn't preclude moments of genuine heart and occasional pathos. Sayles' script is intentionally funny, with lots of amusing wordplay and sly innuendo. Everyone in the cast hits exactly the right notes to sell their comic book characters and the comfortingly familiar story. Standouts include George Peppard's (THE A-TEAM, DAMNATION ALLEY) space trucker, Cowboy; statuesque Sybil Danning's (CHAINED HEAT) stunning and sexy Valkyrie warrior, St. Exmin; and Robert Vaughn (HUSTLE, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.) as Gelt, a professional killer somewhat modeled after the character that Vaughn played in the original MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.
The special effects are a triumph of Old School/pre-CGI craftsmanship, with a variety of unique spaceship designs (especially Cameron's Nell), detailed tabletop miniature landscapes and plenty of fiery explosions. Corman, appalled at the prices quoted to him by established FX houses, ended up setting up his own special effects unit for the production, and then re-used/recyled the space shots from this movie over and over for the next couple of decades (along with Horner's score)!
The Shout! Factory Blu-ray "Roger Corman's Cult Classics" presentation of BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is, in every way, a quantum leap over the original DVD release from Corman's own New Concorde label. That edition was non-anamorphic and sourced from a battered print that looked like it had been stored in a ditch behind his office for 25 years. This newly-remastered (from the internegative) 1080p, 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer still possesses a few random specks and scratches, but is otherwise remarkably clean and clear. Contrast and color balance are notably improved, and details are sharp and well-defined in most shots. Some of the special effects sequences are of noticeably lesser quality, but that's inherent in the FX technology of the time. Overall, it's a very impressive presentation of a 31-year old genre film. Audio options include a new 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. Bonus material includes the two fine commentary tracks from the original DVD release one by Corman and screenwriter John Sayles, and the other by Production Manager Gale Ann Hurd. There's a new behind-the-scenes/retrospective documentary, a video interview with star Richard Thomas, a handful of still galleries, and the original trailer, TV spot and radio ads.
For fans of 70s early 80s sci-fi (and traditional special effects), BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is essential viewing. Smart, funny and bright, with a great cast, this cosmic adventure is endlessly entertaining. If you're already a fan of this flick, the new Shout! Factory special edition (especially the HD Blu-ray) is likely to be the definitive presentation for the forseeable future. I would have liked a few more bonus features, but it's a terrific package overall, and highly recommended.
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