Runtime: 104 minutes
Directed by: Jimmy T. Murakami
Starring: Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, John Saxon (RIP), George Peppard, Sybil Danning
From: New World Pictures
It seemed fitting to tip my cap to the late John Saxon by seeing a low budget B-movie he had a big role in. After all, that was the bread and butter of his career; it was always a pleasant sight seeing him in something, no matter the movie's overall quality. Thankfully, most of the movies I've seen him in have been at the very least enjoyable trash. The poliziotteschi and giallo had entertainment value, although they were not something like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Enter the Dragon. Nevertheless, I was saddened to hear of him passing away last weekend.
This movie was also chosen because it “borrowed” the story both from Seven Samurai and its American remake The Magnificent Seven for a space adventure that was in vogue at the time. For a Roger Corman movie it had a big budget... although a lot of that went to hire the likes of Robert Vaughn and George Peppard. The cast has other familiar faces-Sybil Danning, Darlanne Fluegel, Earl Boen, Julia Duffy and even as an “alien extra” the divisive Kathy Griffin. Behind the camera were some names that would soon become pretty big: this was where James Cameron would start his career and as various people quit the production he did more and more. Thus, that was why he did the miniatures, was an additional director of photography, and was an art director. He took the last one without even knowing what it entailed. His hours were so long that he often slept at the studio. But this was where he met quite a few people... Gale Ann Hurd, Boen, and James Horner (this was the first big score he did) were the most notable ones. Cameron already knew Bill Paxton, who he got hired to work on the sets as he did not have a job at the time. To think that all those people would work together on some 80's and 90's classics because they all met together on a random Roger Corman movie.
As for Battle Beyond the Stars, it's a cheesy good time. Saxon played the bad guy, a real A-hole who wants to conquer the peaceful planet of Akir, where its residents are known as Akira... a nice nod there. One guy is charged with finding mercenaries and what a motely crue he found. There is Danning as a “Valkyri” warrior, a clone race in all white (including white makeup) and a third eye painted on their foreheads where the main clone is Boen, an alien wanting revenge, a cowboy known as Space Cowboy, Vaughn as a great gun for hire... I'll give credit to the movie for having all those different species and all possessing different beliefs and having different spaceships. Also, you guys haven't lived until you've seen Boen in that getup eat a hot dog wiener without a bun.
The script is from John Sayles so naturally it is light in tone and there are humorous moments sprinkled throughout. For all the effects being done in-house (and they are plentiful) they mostly look real good. I'll give Cameron and everyone else credit for bringing these alien worlds to life. It is a fun space opera where you have action scenes-both on the ground and in space-a bit of romance, drama, revenge, pathos... it was a good time. The fact that sometimes there were Kurosawa-style screen wipes was appreciated by me. In addition, I dug James Horner's score-although as others have noted, it at times sounded quite a bit like what he would do later for Krull and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable this turned out to be. It also ripped off Star Wars and Alien (the hero's ship has a sassy AI named NELL instead of a serious one named MUTHR) yet it all combined together to form B-movie goodness. During the Halloween season I'll view at least one movie featuring Saxon but for now this did the job.
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