Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

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.

Directors:

Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman (uncredited)

Writers:

John Sayles (screenplay), John Sayles (story)

Stars:

George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Thomas	...	Shad
Robert Vaughn	...	Gelt
John Saxon	...	Sador
George Peppard	...	Cowboy
Darlanne Fluegel	...	Nanelia
Sybil Danning	...	St. Exmin
Sam Jaffe	...	Dr. Hephaestus
Morgan Woodward	...	Cayman
Earl Boen	...	Nestor 1
John Gowans	...	Nestor 2 (as John Gowens)
Steve Davis	...	Quopeg
Lawrence Steven Meyers	...	Kelvin (as Larry Meyers)
Lara Cody	...	Kelvin
Lynn Carlin	...	Nell (voice)
Jeff Corey	...	Zed

Storyline

Shad, 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. Among the mercenaries are Space Cowboy, a spacegoing truck driver from Earth; Gelt, a wealthy but experienced assassin looking for a place to hide; and Saint-Exmin, a Valkyrie warrior looking to prove herself in battle.

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Plot Keywords:

mercenary | planet | space cowboy | cowboy | outer space | 

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Taglines:

Ruthless invaders. A defenseless planet. And a daring band of space adventurers fighting to save it.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 November 1980 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

Sador - Herrscher im Weltraum

Filming Locations:

Venice, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

New World Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film is a futuristic remake of Seven Samurai (1954) and its Hollywood remake The Magnificent Seven (1960).

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Goofs

In the "I could do wonders for that boy..." scene with Darlanne Fluegel, Sybil Danning has a white business-card tucked into her holster-garter.

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Quotes

Kalo: Tembo! Come on up here!
Tembo: [laughing] I'm busy.
Kalo: FORGET ABOUT HER! Something's coming.
Tembo: What?
Kalo: Something's coming. Seven ships.
Tembo: SEVEN! What do you think we should do?
Kalo: Run away?
Tembo: GOOD IDEA!

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Connections

Referenced in Im Auge des Taifun (1981)

User Reviews

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 . . .