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Battle Beyond the Stars
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Battle Beyond the Stars is a Roger Corman-produced science fiction film, directed by Jimmy T. Murakami and released in 1980 in order to exploit the popularity of the Star Wars series. The film is notable in that the screenplay was partly written by John Sayles, the score was by James Horner and the special effects were directed by James Cameron. The film was marketed with the tagline "A battle beyond time, beyond space."
The story is a pastiche of Akira Kurosawa's film Seven Samurai and its western remake, The Magnificent Seven. The farmers of the peaceful planet Akir are threatened by the space tyrant Sador (played by Corman regular John Saxon). Richard Thomas (at the time attempting to fashion a film career based on the popularity of his character in The Waltons) plays Shad, who sets out to recruit a band of mercenaries to fight Sador. This band includes Gelt, played by Robert Vaughn in a part that is essentially a reprise of his role in The Magnificent Seven with many of the same lines of dialogue; George Peppard (who was originally considered to play Vin, Steve McQueen's character, in The Magnificent Seven) as a space cowboy; and probably the most memorable character, Saint-Exmin, a member of the alien Valkyrie race played by Sybil Danning.
The film dialogue contains a high level of wit reflecting Sayles' influence. It is also a compedium of the
cliches that came to dominate sci-fi films following
Star Wars including giant spaceships, "cute" robots, exotic aliens and the finale of a suicidal assault on a space fortress.
Trivia
- At the time of its release, Battle Beyond the Stars was the most expensive film produced by Roger Corman - much of the budget allegedly went toward paying the salaries of George Peppard and Robert Vaughn.
- The Planet Akir and its inhabitants, The Akira, are named in honor of Akira Kurosawa, whose film Seven Samurai was the inspiration for Corman's classic.
- Special effects shots from this film were re-used for several other films throughout the 1980's. An example of this can be seen during the movie theater fight scene at the end of Bachelor Party. The space ship models and effects were re-used in the film Space Raiders.
