Battle Beyond The Stars
Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
Image From IMDB
Probably my second favourite post Star Wars movie of that era. Battle Beyond the Stars is a B-Movie masterpiece in my eyes. It has everything I want from a Space Opera. Plenty of alien and creature designs. Weird and wonderful ships. An evil galactic empire trying to destroy a planet with their super weapon. Computers with attitudes. Mercenary's. Young heroes finding their way. Outrageous costumes (looking at you Sybil Danning) and plenty of pew pew space battles.
On top of all that, the plot is basically Seven Samurai in space. If Lucas can use Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, than why can’t Roger Corman use Kurosawa’s even more famous Seven Samurai. In this take a planet is under siege and a young hero sets about hiring a group of mercenaries with spaceships to protect it against the evil empire.
The movie can be easily dismissed as a post Star Wars cash in, but there’s to much talent involved for that. The ship designs and matte paintings are great (and where later used in other Corman productions) One of the main reasons for that is that none other than James Cameron was the visual effects supervisor for the movie. And then there’s the incredible score by Academy Award winning composer James Horner.
The film has a fun plot, and doesn’t stand still. Our young hero Shad jumps from recruit to recruit each in a different weird environment ranging from a space station full of androids to aliens with a hive mentality to a fucking cowboy (excellently played by the films MVP George Peppard) and by the time he’s got them all together, the space battle begins.
Sure a lot of the shots feel repeated, and the space battle is maybe the dullest part of the movie, but I just love the ambition and scope of the film. It punches way above its weight. It could have been a lot worse and still made a tidy profit after the Star Wars boom, but I feel like Battle Beyond the Stars wanted to be recognised as its own thing.
I liked the Cowboy and Robert Vaughn’s ruthless mercenary Gelt. John Saxon’s villainous Sador. I like the fact that the heroes ship looks like either a ballsack or a pair of tits depending on your imagination. I like that the planet has its own look, and so does every other place they visit. They may have recycled the pew pew shots throughout, but not the locations. This movie gets around and tries to be as creativity as it can be within its limitations.
If you like post Star Wars movies, this is one of the best. If you like 80’s sci-fi you’re love this. If you enjoy B-Movies and practical effects, this film was made for you. Probably not something for hard sci-fi fans, but it’s a space opera so what you going to do? It’s a little sleazy in places, and super weird in others, but that just adds to the charm lol. I love Battle Beyond the Stars, it’s a movie I grew up with and have seen hundreds of times, so I'll always recommend it.
