Battle Beyond the Stars

Mondo Mondays celebrates the late, great King of the B’s, ROGER CORMAN, with a month-long movie menu featuring some of the legendary director/producer’s tastiest trash epics!  Thank you, Mr. Corman, for making the world so much more Mondo. 

“The only way to learn how to make a low-budget film is to make a low-budget film.” – Roger Corman

“A battle beyond time … beyond space!” Roger Corman takes on Star Wars by way of The Seven Samurai in this immensely fun, laser-happy outer space extravaganza set in a galaxy not all that far, far away from that other ‘70s sci-fi blockbuster, featuring an intergalactic farm boy (played by Richard Thomas, aka “John Boy Walton”) and his quest to recruit a gang of space mercenaries who’ll help him save the galaxy from the nefarious plans of an evil tyrant with a big-time Darth Vader complex!   Executive producer Corman’s entertaining entry into the ‘70s sci-fi sweepstakes, penned by Piranha-scribe John Sayles for Corman’s New World Pictures, riffs on Kurosawa’s 1954 The Seven Samurai (and its 1960 Hollywood remake, The Magnificent Seven) with its story of a gang of colorfully rebellious outlaws who band together to help young farmer Shad (Thomas) save the universe from the evil dictator Sador (John Saxon) – a motley crew that includes a lizard-like humanoid (Morgan Woodward), a wise-cracking space cowboy (George Peppard), a brooding killer-for-hire (Robert Vaughn) and a statuesque female warrior sporting a silver winged headpiece (Sybil Danning). Much adventuring, wisecracking and pew-pew-pew laser battling ensues.  Corman’s most expensive film up to that point, Battle Beyond the Stars is a big screen blast, featuring an epic score by future Oscar-winner James Horner and impressive SFX designed by future King of the World, James Cameron! (Dir. by Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980, USA, 104 mins., Rated PG)