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Special Features
New anamorphic widescreen transfer (1.85:1) from the internegative
New 5.1 DTS master audio
Commentary by Writer, John Sayles and Roger Corman
Commentary by Production Manager, Gale Anne Hurd
The Man Who Would Be Shad - new interview with Actor, Richard Thomas
Space Opera on a Shoestring - a comprehensive look at the technical challenges and postproduction of the film with Aaron Lipstadt, Alec Gillis, Alex Hajdu, Allan Holzman, R.J. Kizer, Robert & Dennis Skotak, Thom Shouse, and Tony Randel
Trailer, TV and radio spots
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Twenty-first-century science fiction fans accustomed to special-effects orgies like The Matrix may snigger at the quaint, Flash Gordon-like spaceships in Battle Beyond the Stars. But executive producer Roger Corman's belated entry into the '70s sci-fi craze surpasses expectations with sharp performances and a witty script by John Sayles (his third for Corman, including 1978's Piranha). The story, lifted wholesale from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954), finds the dictator Sador (John Saxon) threatening the planet of Akira. Its pacifist inhabitants are no match for Sador's devastating weapon, the Stellar Converter, but young Shad (Richard Thomas) decides to fight back. Borrowing the ship of notorious mercenary Zed the Corsair, he recruits a band of mercenaries, each of whom has a personal reason to join the fight. Among them are a lizard-like humanoid (Morgan Woodward), an improbable space cowboy (George Peppard), a zaftig female warrior (Sybil Danning), and brooding killer-for-hire Gelt (Robert Vaughn, reprising his Magnificent Seven role). Battle's final showdown is somewhat anticlimatic, but the surprisingly stellar cast (which includes Sam Jaffe and Darlanne Fluegel) and the indie spunk of Sayles' script, with its light meditations on death and honor, will charm newcomers and repeat audiences alike. New Concorde's digitally remastered DVD features commentary by Sayles and Terminator 2 producer Gale Anne Hurd, Battle's assistant production manager. Oh, and those spaceships? Designed by Titanic director James Cameron. Still laughing? --Paul Gaita
Product Description
Shad (Richard Thomas) must scour the cosmos to recruit mercenaries from different planets and cultures in order to save his peaceful home planet from the threat of the evil tyrant Sador (John Saxon), who’s bent on dominating and enslaving the entire universe. Joining this magnificant seven of mercenaries are the deadly Gelt (Robert Vaughn), carefree Cowboy (George Peppard) and the sexy Valkyrie Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning).
The film brought together some extremely talented people behind the scenes who went on to bigger and better things: Academy Award winning director James Cameron as the art director, Academy Award winning composer James Horner (Titanic, Avatar), screenwriter John Sayles (Lone Star, Piranha) and producer Gale Ann Hurd (Aliens, The Incredible Hulk) as an assistant production manager.
The film brought together some extremely talented people behind the scenes who went on to bigger and better things: Academy Award winning director James Cameron as the art director, Academy Award winning composer James Horner (Titanic, Avatar), screenwriter John Sayles (Lone Star, Piranha) and producer Gale Ann Hurd (Aliens, The Incredible Hulk) as an assistant production manager.
Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Would you believe a spaceship with breasts? There's one in this 1980 Roger Corman space opera! The spaceship has a female computer personality named Nell and a decidedly feminine shape, which includes two enormous breast-like mounds on its underside. Since there is no nudity in this movie, which is unusual in a Corman film, he had to get the breasts in somewhere, so model designer/builder/art director James Cameron put them on the space craft! Very amusing indeed! Cameron went on to design bigger and better things, like the Titanic.
Battle Beyond the Stars was the biggest-budgeted movie Corman had ever made up to that time, about 2 million dollars, and his money is up there on the screen, with good sets, good props, good special effects, and a good cast. In typical Corman fashion everything except the cast was used over and over again in other space sagas he made. Waste not, want not! is his credo, and he boasts that he's never lost a dime on any of his movies. I believe it.
The plot of this movie was stolen shamelessly from Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, so if you liked that Japanese epic and its American remake, The Magnificent Seven, you should like Battle Beyond the Stars, too. It just goes to show that if you have to steal a story, you might as well steal a great one!
The cast includes Richard Thomas, just out of his John-Boy of The Waltons role, as a poor man's Luke Skywalker recruiting mercenaries George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Marta Kristen, and Sybil Danning, among others, to fight the evil conqueror Sador, played by John Saxon, always a good villain.
Never one to miss a trend, or start one, Corman cashed in on the phenomenal success of Star Wars with Battle Beyond the Stars. It's a fun film and I recommend this DVD widescreen edition. There's interesting commentaries by Gale Anne Hurd, John Sayles and Roger Corman, movie trailers, biographies, trivia game, scene index -- but the usual Corman filmography booklet is absent here.
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
By SRFireside
Format:Blu-ray
Roger Corman is known for being the low budget king of B-Movies. Although I am not much a fan of Corman's flash in the pan micro-budget movies this one has a certain charm that can only be brought together through some talented people behind him. Mind you this is still a low budget B-movie and it shows. Still the young at heart will appreciate enough of this film to put a smile on their face.
First off, as mentioned before, the plot is nothing new. While a lot of people would say he is ripping off Star Wars that is really not the case (although he probably is banking on the popularity of the space opera). As a matter of fact Corman, in his infinite desire to copy successful themes based Battle Beyond the Stars on the The Magnificent Seven. Which of course was copied by John Sturges in his western classic from Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece The Seven Samurai. So technically Corman didn't copy anything that wasn't already copied. Still a good plot is a good plot no matter where it came from and putting it in a science fiction setting only makes the movie that much more interesting.
What makes this story work so well is that Corman "gets" what Magnificent Seven (and Seven Samurai for that matter) were doing... at least to a point. These movies were less about the brave warriors protecting a community from evil raiders and more about the various personalities of said warriors. Battle Beyond the stars takes that to different level with the different warriors coming from different planets and cultures. While most of the character development is a little more than two dimensional the amount of various characters really make up for it. From there you have a usual space opera fare. Spaceships roaring and blowing each other up to majestic music. Villains wearing black and acting ruthless. Heroes giving pretty speeches. Nothing as noteworthy as the character interactions.
There is actually a surprising amount of well-known talent in the cast. It makes me wonder how Corman got them all on such a tight budget. We're talking people like Richard Thomas (of Waltons fame), Morgan Woodward (How the West Was Won), and Robert Vaughn (in practically the same role he played on Magnificent Seven). I would say the acting is actually quite good for the short amount of time they had to shoot the film. Special effects are on the low side, but not all that cheesy. Set designs weren't bad at all. I actually enjoyed the backdrops. The spaceship designs are really cool too, thanks to future mega-Director James Cameron. Even though there is no exciting motion control flying like Star Wars, at least the spaceships themselves were very creative. The music is an instant classic and is done by James Horner, another star in his field (he has composed music for A Beautiful Mind, The Perfect Storm, Titanic and more).
Okay enough waxing over the cool stuff. This is still a B-movie and it does have some bad drawbacks. The bad thing about the plot (and forgive me if I spoil it for anybody) is that essentially all the heroes that were rounded up to save the planet end up getting picked off one by one until only the main star is left. I hate it when movies do that... so stereotypical. You can tell a lot of the space battle scenes are the same clips from footage earlier in the film. Yeah I know... budget constraints, but it's still cheesy. The extras they have on set end up not really looking like they know what they are doing. Also some of the scenes that try and portray action and excitement end up falling a little flat. So yeah... it's still a B-movie.
We are finally getting this B-Movie gem on Blu-Ray, and since Shout Factory is releasing as part of their B-Movie release bonanza there is reason to be excited. So far Shout Factory has put out some pretty impressive looking Blu-Rays of movies you wouldn't think would ever look so good in high definition without major studio intervention. My expectations are pretty high that BBtS will look and sound better than ever. First off they announced a brand new 5.1 DTS Master audio track. Also the two commentaries from the old DVD release will be present. From there you are going to get some extra features I never seen before. Here's the breakdown:
Aforementioned Audio Commentary - One with Production Manager Gale Anne Hurd and another with Directory Roger Corman and Writer John Sayles
Space Opera on a Shoestring - A documentary on technical and post production of the movie with interviews from Aaron Lipstadt, Alec Gillis, Alex Hajdu, Allan Holzman, R.J. Kizer, Robert & Dennis Skotak, Thom Shouse and Tony Randel. Sorry... no James Cameron.
The Man Who Would Be Shad - Brand new interview with actor Richard Thomas.
Promotional - Trailers, TV commercials, Radio Spots.
In my humble opinion I believe this movie should be considered required viewing for those hardcore sci-fi fans. It's too much a strong part of the genre's heritage to pass up. That being said this is not Oscar winner by any stretch of the imagination. While it's cheap and cheesy in many, many ways it's also refined in ways you don't see in many other B-movies. The Blu-Ray (and upcoming 30th Anniversary DVD release) will have never before seen features and undoubtedly a cleaned up look. If you can forgive the fact the film has all the trappings of an ultra low budget movie and see the fact that they did a LOT with that budget then set yourself up for a treat.
First off, as mentioned before, the plot is nothing new. While a lot of people would say he is ripping off Star Wars that is really not the case (although he probably is banking on the popularity of the space opera). As a matter of fact Corman, in his infinite desire to copy successful themes based Battle Beyond the Stars on the The Magnificent Seven. Which of course was copied by John Sturges in his western classic from Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece The Seven Samurai. So technically Corman didn't copy anything that wasn't already copied. Still a good plot is a good plot no matter where it came from and putting it in a science fiction setting only makes the movie that much more interesting.
What makes this story work so well is that Corman "gets" what Magnificent Seven (and Seven Samurai for that matter) were doing... at least to a point. These movies were less about the brave warriors protecting a community from evil raiders and more about the various personalities of said warriors. Battle Beyond the stars takes that to different level with the different warriors coming from different planets and cultures. While most of the character development is a little more than two dimensional the amount of various characters really make up for it. From there you have a usual space opera fare. Spaceships roaring and blowing each other up to majestic music. Villains wearing black and acting ruthless. Heroes giving pretty speeches. Nothing as noteworthy as the character interactions.
There is actually a surprising amount of well-known talent in the cast. It makes me wonder how Corman got them all on such a tight budget. We're talking people like Richard Thomas (of Waltons fame), Morgan Woodward (How the West Was Won), and Robert Vaughn (in practically the same role he played on Magnificent Seven). I would say the acting is actually quite good for the short amount of time they had to shoot the film. Special effects are on the low side, but not all that cheesy. Set designs weren't bad at all. I actually enjoyed the backdrops. The spaceship designs are really cool too, thanks to future mega-Director James Cameron. Even though there is no exciting motion control flying like Star Wars, at least the spaceships themselves were very creative. The music is an instant classic and is done by James Horner, another star in his field (he has composed music for A Beautiful Mind, The Perfect Storm, Titanic and more).
Okay enough waxing over the cool stuff. This is still a B-movie and it does have some bad drawbacks. The bad thing about the plot (and forgive me if I spoil it for anybody) is that essentially all the heroes that were rounded up to save the planet end up getting picked off one by one until only the main star is left. I hate it when movies do that... so stereotypical. You can tell a lot of the space battle scenes are the same clips from footage earlier in the film. Yeah I know... budget constraints, but it's still cheesy. The extras they have on set end up not really looking like they know what they are doing. Also some of the scenes that try and portray action and excitement end up falling a little flat. So yeah... it's still a B-movie.
We are finally getting this B-Movie gem on Blu-Ray, and since Shout Factory is releasing as part of their B-Movie release bonanza there is reason to be excited. So far Shout Factory has put out some pretty impressive looking Blu-Rays of movies you wouldn't think would ever look so good in high definition without major studio intervention. My expectations are pretty high that BBtS will look and sound better than ever. First off they announced a brand new 5.1 DTS Master audio track. Also the two commentaries from the old DVD release will be present. From there you are going to get some extra features I never seen before. Here's the breakdown:
Aforementioned Audio Commentary - One with Production Manager Gale Anne Hurd and another with Directory Roger Corman and Writer John Sayles
Space Opera on a Shoestring - A documentary on technical and post production of the movie with interviews from Aaron Lipstadt, Alec Gillis, Alex Hajdu, Allan Holzman, R.J. Kizer, Robert & Dennis Skotak, Thom Shouse and Tony Randel. Sorry... no James Cameron.
The Man Who Would Be Shad - Brand new interview with actor Richard Thomas.
Promotional - Trailers, TV commercials, Radio Spots.
In my humble opinion I believe this movie should be considered required viewing for those hardcore sci-fi fans. It's too much a strong part of the genre's heritage to pass up. That being said this is not Oscar winner by any stretch of the imagination. While it's cheap and cheesy in many, many ways it's also refined in ways you don't see in many other B-movies. The Blu-Ray (and upcoming 30th Anniversary DVD release) will have never before seen features and undoubtedly a cleaned up look. If you can forgive the fact the film has all the trappings of an ultra low budget movie and see the fact that they did a LOT with that budget then set yourself up for a treat.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Great memories accompany this movie for me, thankfully the producers of this DVD have honored this production with a jam-packed feature full of special features. I was not even a teenager when this movie was released back in 1980 yet a group of friends and I made the pilgrimage to a local cinema to see it. With an interesting set of diverse characters the movie plays as a science fiction version of the Seven Samurai. A "Magnificent Seven in Space" as it were, it even features Robert Vaughn of that 60s gem. The real pleasure of the DVD however is the wealth of special features. We not only have one optional audio commentary, but two very informative pieces. There are preview trailers for other Corman productions such as "Piranha". We even get a trivia game. I certainly recommend this movie.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Classic bad sci-fi
While it attempts to be a sci-fi take on The Seven Samurais, the plot meanders terribly, the dialogue is painful, and the highly repetitive special effects sequences are a bit... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Trevor Badly
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor effort
The script, acting, and special effects are all poor. I lost interest and did not finish watching this film. Poor
Published 4 days ago by Gerald Nostrand
3.0 out of 5 stars
MOVIE
NOW THIS MOVIE WAS MADE ON A VERY LOW BUDGET. IT SHOULD BE ON MYSTERY SCIENCE 3000. I THOUGHT IT WAS REALLY FUNNY.
Published 7 days ago by Bobbie J Spaulding
1.0 out of 5 stars
old school
for some reason my review got added - I did not watch this movie - I had no interest as it was too old school- my review was added by mistake and should be removed - sorry
Published 10 days ago by SnowLady
1.0 out of 5 stars
Race to watch something else
I consider myself a scifi junkie, but this movie is so bad I had to turn it off less than half way through. I kept thinking this has to get better, it just keeps getting worse. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Scouting dad
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fun sci fi
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Published 12 days ago by Kevin
1.0 out of 5 stars
What am I watching!?
This movie is just awful. Shame on amazon for including it in the content library. I'm not sure which was worse - the fact that the space ship has breasts or the acting. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Excelsious
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed
Older movie, did not bother to finish watching it. Acting was not the best, could not make myself watch it to the end.
Published 19 days ago by cody
3.0 out of 5 stars
It Is What It Is
If you are looking for a campy SyFi B Movie then this is for you. If you are looking for the production quality and writing of a Star Wars or Platoon then this is not the movie... Read more
Published 21 days ago by B. Parris
4.0 out of 5 stars
corny, but fun
It's dated, to be certain, but it has a sort of charm to it. It's corny as hell, the space battles and effects are laughable but the dedication each actor has to their role is... Read more
Published 22 days ago by michael
