Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

★ 5.3 1h 43m IMDb

A young farmer assembles a band of diverse mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet from an evil tyrant.

Battle Beyond the Stars

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Cast

Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas as Shad Age 74 · New York City, New York, USA Richard Earl Thomas (born June 13, 1951) is an American actor, best known as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama The Waltons. During his career, Thomas won an Emmy Award, and received nomi...
Robert Vaughn
Robert Vaughn as Gelt Died 2016 · New York City, New York, USA Robert Francis Vaughn, Ph.D. (November 22, 1932 – November 11, 2016) was an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. He was, perhaps, best known as suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960...
John Saxon
John Saxon as Sador Died 2020 · Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA John Saxon (born Carmine Orrico; August 5, 1935 – July 25, 2020) was an American actor and martial artist who worked on more than 200 projects during a span of 60 years. Saxon is known for his work in...
George Peppard
George Peppard as Cowboy Died 1994 · Detroit, Michigan, USA George Peppard (October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994) was an American actor. He is best remembered for his role as struggling writer Paul Varjak in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, and for playing comma...
Darlanne Fluegel
Darlanne Fluegel as Nanelia Died 2017 · Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA ​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Darlanne Fluegel (November 25, 1953 - December 15, 2017) was an American actress, fashion model, film producer and professor. Fluegel appeared in the TV serie...
Sybil Danning
Sybil Danning as St. Exmin Age 73 · Wels, Upper Austria, Austria Sybil Danning is an Austrian actress known for her many roles in B movies, science fiction films, and action films..

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 6/10 Jun 07, 2023
This looks every inch the low budget affair it actually was - but it almost comes off as a fairly engaging sci-fi rip off of the "Magnificent Seven" - complete, even, with Robert Vaughn! "John-Boy" himself, Richard Thomas ("Shad") lives on one of those simple, peaceful, planets threatened by a megalomanic with a big laser cannon (John Saxon) who demands their harvest. "Shad" decides to try and rustle together some mercenaries to defend their home from this evil conqueror and so recruits a disparate band including George Peppard ("Cowboy") and a collection of inter-galactic misfits to help with their cause. Probably most notable for James Horner's score, this is an enjoyable enough sci-fi action adventure with plenty going on and not too much tedious philosophising; the special effects do their job fine, too.
Wuchak 7/10 Aug 26, 2024
**_Star Trek and Star Wars are met together (on a lower Corman budget)_**

When the planet Akir is threatened by a galactic tyrant (John Saxon), a young man with no experience in warfare (Richard Thomas) ventures into space to enlist the aid of several mercenaries (George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Morgan Woodward, etc.).

"Battle Beyond the Stars" (1980) meshes the space-oriented science-fiction of Star Trek (the Original Series and the 1979 movie) with the space fantasy of Star Wars for a colorful interplanetary adventure on a Roger Corman budget. The protagonist’s planet is called Akir and the denizens Akira because the basic plot was taken from Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” (which, of course, was also the basis for “The Magnificent Seven”).

On the female front, Darlanne Fluegel is noteworthy as Nanelia, the potential mate of our young hero (Thomas). Meanwhile stunning Sybil Danning works well as Saint-Exmin of the Valkyrie warriors, albeit hammy. Julia Duffy can be observed as one of the Akira.

This was one of the first fairly big theatrical films to be scored by James Horner (although he previously did “Humanoids from the Deep” the same year), which paved the way for his notable career (think “Wolfen,” “Star Trek II,” “Star Trek III,” “Cocoon,” “Aliens,” “Field of Dreams,” “Glory” and so on).

Corman’s $2 million budget was mostly spent on the salaries of Peppard and Vaughn, but he had to up his game with the special effects to compete with the new standards set by “Star Wars” (which cost $11 million), “Alien” ($11 million) and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” ($35 million). Sure, the F/X aren’t as good as those movies, technically speaking, but they’re quite effective (and fun) all things considered, not to mention superior to “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” (the theatrical movie that was also the pilot for the TV series), which had $3.5 million to work with.

It was very profitable at the box office and deservedly so since it’s all-around entertaining. You could say that it was the low-budget precursor to the Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy flicks of modern times.

It runs 1 hour, 43 minutes and was shot at Corman's own studio in Venice, California, his "renowned lumberyard facility.”

GRADE: B

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