If you like second rate star wars knockoffs more than star wars itself, battle beyond the stars is the film for you. New worlds spacebased update of the seven samurai is ambitious, but its budgetary limitations and character issues prevent it from being the grander space spectacle it might have been. Battle beyond the stars movie trivia the 80s movies rewind. A young farmer assembles a band of diverse mercenaries in outer space to defend his peaceful planet from the evil tyrant sador and his armada of aggressors. Battle beyond the stars is an enjoyable cult movie with a story based on seven samurai and its remake the magnificent seven but in space. Part of 8 pages of info for the 1980 movie from the award winning 80s movies rewind. Fun moments abound though, george peppards wiener roast for example and sybil dannings cleavage which makes the film more watchable than the three star wars prequels alone.
Battle beyond the stars 1980 letterboxd your life in film. Feb 22, 2009 heres horners wonderfully bouncy scifi adventure theme from the cult 1980 roger cormanproduced flick. In 1980, as george lucas was sending his threeyearsin the making sciencefantasy masterpiece the empire strikes back around the earth, roger cormans knockofffactory new world pictures was rushing the threemonthsin the making battle beyond the stars into the regional drivein circuit. The film, intended as a magnificent seven in outer space, is a pastiche of the magnificent seven, the western remake of akira kurosawas film seven samurai. When the production manager was let go, cameron took chargewith the blessing of the crewand delivered the film s numerous sets, multiple space ships and huge number of. Commissioned by known collector, and radio personality karl southcott, stephen did amazing work on this rare piece from james cameron and roger cormans battle beyond the stars. I went into battle beyond the stars hoping to discover some unseen craptastic scifi epic in the vein of starcrash or the last starfighter the latter actually being a pretty wellmade film. Battle beyond the stars 30th anniversary special edition film scifi. The highdef capabilities of the bluray format are given a good work out here as the video portion of battle beyond the stars sports excellent picture quality.
Battle beyond the stars 2009 shad of akir richard thomas recruits a space cowboy george peppard and other warriors to defend his planet from a barbarians army. Staring julia duffy, marta kristen, sam jaffee and jeff corey. Its best known remake is of course the western the magnificent seven, but pretty much every go put together a group of mercenaries to save the hometown story is probably based on seven samurai. The movie was written by john sayles, who went on to write and direct films like eight men out and city of hope. Mar 27, 2012 roger corman is known for starting the careers of many filmmakers, and battle beyond the stars is a great example of that. Jul 18, 2011 battle beyond the stars soundtrack from 1980, composed by james horner, alan howarth.
A young man enlists the help of seven mercenaries and their deadly spaceships to defend his home planet. Never one to leave a hollywood trend alone, producer roger corman decided to assemble his own star wars space opera cash machine with battle beyond the stars, a lowbudget of course take on lucasian matinee mayhem. It was horners first real score, and remains a favorite of mine. The video source was the film s original internegative, resulting in outstanding resolution for such a low budget. The spaceship fight scenes created for battle beyond the stars were used in more than a couple of other later films ive personally seen some of the spaceship fight scenes used in battle beyond the stars in the film prison ship star slammer. Battle beyond the stars plot plot the farmers of the peaceful planet akir named in honor of director akira kurosawa are threatened by the space tyrant sador and his army of mutants, the malmori. The video source was the film s original internegative, resulting in outstanding resolution for such a low budget feature. Released by bsx records in 2011 bsxcd8888 containing music from battle beyond the stars 1980.
Get it today with same day delivery, order pickup or drive up. Battle beyond the stars trailer 1980 video detective. Intended as a magnificent seven in outer space, and based on the magnificent seven in which vaughn also appeared. Battle beyond the stars is a 1980 american space opera film produced by roger corman, directed by jimmy t. Battle beyond the stars was cormans most expensive production to that time and he was building a studio and a special effects unit while the picture was being prepared. But, battle beyond the stars is an excellent bad movie. Apr 12, 2017 battle beyond the stars inhabits a strange gray area between having a surprising amount of thought put into it and having too much thought put into it. Enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing battle beyond the stars near you. Battle beyond the stars soundtrack from 1980, composed by james horner, alan howarth. These arent the films youre looking for battle beyond. Shad of akir richard thomas recruits a space cowboy george peppard and other warriors to defend his planet from a barbarians army.
Along with a collection of amazing heroes they do battle which is small, and pales in comparison to anything george lucas created, but given its budget and creativity is actually impressive. Battle beyond the stars english transcript readable. Battle beyond the stars 2009 cast and crew moviefone. Even though the film was thought of as a flop, this design of vessel is what everyone remembers best of that film. After star wars, the theaters were flooded with bad ripoffs made with ridiculous budgets that tried to get some left over money from the audiences on the star wars genre craze. Battle beyond the stars widescreen on movies unlimited. This particular film works real well and i absolutely fell for it when i heard a phrase of music lifted directly from alexander nevsky. A battle beyond time, beyond space a young farmer, assembles a band of diverse mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet from an evil tyrant.
The producers of battlefield earth could have learned something about making entertaining sf movies from repeated viewings of battle beyond the stars. Sprinkled into the fairly wrote space opera shenanigans and pewpew space battles are a number of surprisingly highconcept ideas. Find movie and film cast and crew information for battle beyond the stars 1980 jimmy t. George peppard as cowboy and robert vaughn as gelt. Sador of the malmori and his crew of mutants roam the galaxy in a huge spaceship armed with a stellar convertor, the most powerful weapon in the universe. A young farmer sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by the evil tyrant sador and his armada of aggressors. The screenplay for battle beyond the stars was written by writerdirector john sayles, whose credits include piranha, alligator, the howling, the brother from another planet, and lone star, among others. Jan 05, 2016 battle beyond the stars todays feature is the bmovie space epic, battle beyond the stars. Enjoyable enough on its own, but still a pretty obvious case of slap it together and shove it into cinemas film making, battle beyond the stars is essentially the seven samurai in outer space. Boasting quite good production values for a roger corman film, this was fun at the time but time has not been kind and the cheesy factor looms large these days. Advertisement autoplay when autoplay is enabled, a. Scripted by john sayles, battle beyond the stars rips off all sorts of nice genre items including a feistytalking computer and a russ meyerish valkyrie with. Jun 02, 2010 if you like second rate star wars knockoffs more than star wars itself, battle beyond the stars is the film for you. Battle beyond the stars english transcript epic space saga in the vein of the seven samurai with script by john sayles and special effects by james cameron.
Good art direction and enjoyable old school optical miniature special effects elevate this programmer space opera a notch or two higher than others of its ilk, making it an amusing, albeit campy diversion on a rainy day. Good art direction and enjoyable old school optical miniature special effects elevate this. Inclusive the akira is a tribute to akira kurosawa. Feb 02, 2017 a young farmer sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by the evil tyrant sador and his armada of ag. Battle beyond the stars behind the scenes, making the movie. Murakami, and starring richard thomas, robert vaughn, george peppard, john saxon, sybil danning and darlanne fluegel. The seven samurai has been remade and recontextualized and homaged many, many times. Battle beyond the stars lands on bluray with a very nice if only slightly troubled avcencoded picture. A young farmer sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by the evil tyrant sador and his armada of ag.
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