Review: Battle Beyond the Stars

When the planet of Akir is targeted by a planet-devouring tyrant named Sador (John Saxon), one of its peace-loving citizens named Shad (Richard Thomas) ventures out in search of space warriors to help defend his planet. George Peppard plays a humanoid named Space Cowboy, Sybil Danning is the feisty and proud Valkyrie, Robert Vaughn is a glum hired killer named Gelt, Morgan Woodward plays the reptilian Cayman, and Earl Boen plays a species of Borg-like alien that inhabits several entities called Nestor. Sam Jaffe turns up as the eccentric Dr. Hephaestus, a cyborg who wants Shad to mate with his daughter (Darlanne Fluegel).

 

The best of the 80s “Star Wars” knock-offs by far, and not just because art director (and future filmmaker) James Cameron created a ship with breasts. It’s a thing that he did here though, and it’s awesome. This 1980 space adventure from director Jimmy T. Murakami (an animator who also directed a segment of the cult classic “Heavy Metal”) and producer Roger Corman is an irresistibly fun B-movie with a durable story penned by John Sayles (yes, that John Sayles) that takes the basic plot of “The Seven Samurai” and sets it in space. We even get Robert Vaughn from “The Magnificent Seven” almost entirely replicating his role from that classic 1960 western transplant of the aforementioned Kurosawa film. Meanwhile, James Horner liked his majestic music score here so much that he used bits of it again for “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”. I believe famed penny-pincher Corman recycled the FX work in subsequent productions of his too. I love the laser FX/sound FX here and the spaceship dogfights are all lots of fun.

 

I also love all the eccentric sci-fi touches here like Sam Jaffe’s odd cameo, the sassy ship’s voice provided by Lynn Carlin, Earl Boen playing a Borg-like collective alien race, and the bosom-y Sybil Danning as a fierce space Valkyrie (basically playing the Toshiro Mifune/Horst Buchholz role). Despite the influence from Kurosawa and Lucas in the storytelling, it’s interesting and unique/quirky stuff. It’s also clearly tongue-in-cheek. If you don’t find the ship with boobs amusing, there’s also the scene where Jaffe is prattling on to one of his robots that keeps trying to exit the room to get away from him. And for a bloke who sounded like he was pretty miserable in real-life, George Peppard is great fun as the western-loving Space Cowboy. Look out for the brief but very funny moment where he gets ready for a duel in space like it’s “High Noon” at sundown.

 

Aside from some pretty crap matte paintings, the only flaw here is John Saxon as the main villain Sador. I normally like John Saxon as an actor but he looks bored here and his bland performance doesn’t measure up to what is a really cruel and intimidating character. I mean, this is a guy who blows up planets just because he can. His buffoonish goons being terrified of him are doing what they can to prop him up, but Saxon just doesn’t bring it.

 

Look, I’m not saying that this is the pinnacle of cinema. It’s not art. Screw art, here’s a movie with a ship with tits. I love it. One of the best B-movies of the 1980s. You owe it to yourself to see it at least once.

 

Rating: A-

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