Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Jimmy T. Murakami

Writers:

Anne Dyer (story)
John Sayles (screenplay)

Release Date:

13 November 1980 (West Germany)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

A battle beyond time, beyond space.

Plot:

Seven futuristic mercenaries are assembled to defend a helpless farm colony from an evil overlord.

Plot Keywords:

Outer Space | Mercenary | Mad Scientist | Spacecraft | Psychotronic

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Richard Thomas	...	Shad
Robert Vaughn	...	Gelt
John Saxon	...	Sador
George Peppard	...	Cowboy
Darlanne Fluegel	...	Nanelia
Sybil Danning	...	Saint-Exmin
Sam Jaffe	...	Dr. Hephaestus
Jeff Corey	...	Zed
Morgan Woodward	...	Cayman of the Lambda Zone
Marta Kristen	...	Lux
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Earl Boen	...	Nestor 1
Larry Broyles	...	Tembo
Ansley Carlin	...	Wok
Daniel Carlin	...	Pez
Lynn Carlin	...	Nell (voice)
Dick Carlos	...	Yago
Doug Carlsson	...	Pez
Dallas Clarke	...	Askew
Lara Cody	...	Kelvin2
Brian Coventry
Rick Davidson
Steve Davis	...	Quepeg
Julia Duffy	...	Mol
Kerry Frank
John Gowan	...	Nestor 2
Ron Henschel
Tom Henschel	...	Talking Android
Terrence E. McNally	...	Gar
Lawrence Steven Meyers	...	Kelvin
Eric Morris	...	Feh
Robert Peace	...	Kalo
Rob Reece
Gary D. Robbins
Ron Ross	...	Dab
Whitney Rydbeck	...	Saunders
Steve Says	...	Quopeg
Kimberly Sommer	...	Kintwarna
Galen Thompson	...	Wok
Dan Vincent

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:12 (2005, DVD rating) | Australia:PG | Norway:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 (1989) (uncut version) | Finland:K-12 (1980) (cut version)

Company:

New World Pictures

Trivia:

The main character, Shad, hails from the planet Akir. The natives of Akir are known as the Akira. This is no doubt a tribute to legendary director Akira Kurosawa (whose film Shichinin no samurai (1954) served as the inspiration for this film).

Quotes:

[after a dogfight against the Malmori]
Saint-Exmin: Shad, did you see me on the monitor? There was a fighter right on my tail... I pulled up... and smashed him into an asteroid!
Shad: [grimly] I'm glad this is so much fun for you. These aren't YOUR people we're fighting for.
Saint-Exmin: It's not that I don't empathize; That's the Valkyrie Creed: "Live fast, fight well and have a beautiful ending."
Shad: [looking her in the eyes] NO VIOLENT DEATH IS BEAUTIFUL!
Saint-Exmin: [smiling] You've never seen a Valkyrie go down...

Movie Connections:

Featured in Bachelor Party (1984)

Lotta bang for little bucks

Now this is interesting. The movie is another producer's spin on Star Wars; Star Wars obviously being made by George Lucas. The name 'George Lucas' being synonymous with 'epic-scale effects budget.' Battle Beyond the Stars was produced by Roger Corman. The name 'Roger Corman' being synonymous with 'shoe-string budget.'

Let me break from my usual critique style to go over some of the plot - Sador (John Saxon) feels the need to conquer, and he's so powerful that he decides to conquer an essentially helpless (not to mention useless) civilization. But instead of conquering, he courteously shows up to conveniently schedule his conquest a week from now in case they want to mount some sort of defense. (Where's Arnold when you need him? 'I'll be back!')

In response, Shad takes a road trip (space trip?) in Nell the only ship on the planet to round up some misfits (mercenaries--same thing) who happen to be in the neighborhood. Everyone is interestingly (clichély) unique and has their own reasons for wanting to fight, not to mention the actors have a wide range of performances ranging from sliced ham to frighteningly Shakespearian seriousness. And, ah to hell with it, you get the idea. Point is, I have every reason to really hate the plot, hate the characters (Good God, I've hated characters for much much less), hate this movie . . . but I dunno, I don't really mind it.

Through all its narrative faults, Battle Beyond the Stars happens to hit the right goofball mixture of elements from a surprisingly good score by young 'Jamie Horner' to notably weird spaceships and decent effects (for an early 80s low-budget flick) to wacky and tame characters that somehow summons a funky B-movie charm. For the life of me, I can't hate this movie despite the plot that begs me to bash it to oblivion with the Stellar Converter.

The spaceship, Nell, proved to be the highpoint of the film . . . not because of the ship's design, rather because of its personality (no really.)

I've always wanted to see a spaceship with an attitude (the Star Trek equivalent of Kit from Knight Rider?) A perfect counterpoint to the naivety of Shad, flawlessly delivered by Richard Thomas. If I weren't constantly laughing at the characters cluelessness, I'd want to slap that kid around, and I'd sure as hell wouldn't want to charge him with saving my planet. I'd like to die with my dignity, thank you.

Battle Beyond the Stars has a number of positive attributes (especially considering the budget and experience of most people involved on the film at the time), it has a number of reasons to be proud, and it most definitely has a number of charms that surpass its truckload of flaws. I consider Battle Beyond the Stars the spending benchmark for all sci-fi flicks. I mean, if Corman can entertain me with Hollywood pocket change, Lucas, the Wachowskis, and the other heavy spenders better blow my socks off with their ungodly sized budgets . . .