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Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)
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mach7
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Joined: 23 Apr 2015
Posts: 333

PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just some food for thought:

Budgets

Star Trek TMP- $35 Mil
Star Trek TWoK- $11 Mil
Spacehunter - $14 Mil
Galaxina - $4.5 Mil

BBtS -$2 Mil

I'm surprised at how low thw BBtS budget was
and how high Spacehunter was. It was 3D, but
more than TWoK? Crazy!

More things to think about.

Box office
ST TMP $85 Mil
ST WoK $78 Mil
Space hunter $16.5 Mil
Galaxina $4.8 Mil

BBtS $7 Mil

So BBtS performed better than the other 2 B movies
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Read an article that said the the budget for the Star Trek:Deep Space Nine pilot was $12,000,000.

Babylon 5's pilot was $4,000,000.

Both shows were made at the same time.

ST:DSN spent $4,000,000 on their sets. The entire budget for B5.

I am a fan of both series but always found it interesting to see the difference between their respective budgets.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Mark (aka Mach7), that is VERY interesting!

The thing that gives Battle Beyond the Stars a big boost in it's interest level is the fact that it was a version of The Magnificent Seven — which is a remake of Seven Samurai (1954)) — and they even cast Robert Vaughn as a galactic gunslinger who joins the team for the same reason Vaughn's character did in the classic Western he starred in!

The first time I saw this movie in 1980 (at a drive-in with my family and several sci-fi lovin' buddies), we all recognized James Horner's tribute music to Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven when the seven spacecraft approach the planet Akir (a reference to Japanese director Akira Kurosawa), as the two alien henchmen gaze at their ship's scope and count off the spacecraft that have come to fight them!

"One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six . . . seven!"

Those same friends of mine held a "movie night" party a few years later and watched a double feature: The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars!

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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
______________ Battle Beyond the Stars trailer


__________


___________

Seven Samurai begat The Magnificent Seven begat Battle Beyond the Stars.

Of course, this low budget ($2 million) sci-fi action pic was a cash-in on Star Wars (1977). I even noticed similarities to Star Trek the Motion Picture (1979), especially some of the music, which resembles the ominous tones in the Star Trek film (whenever there were outer space scenes with V'Ger, the giant ship in that film).

This was early work from composer James Horner. Gale Anne Hurd stated the Star Trek connection up front in her audio commentary on the DVD for Battle Beyond the Stars.



I was surprised that I liked this more now than how I remembered it from when I saw this in the theater back in 1980. I recalled it as a bit on the slow side and too derivative of the larger-budgeted sci-fi films.

For some reason, I enjoy it more now — I think all the folks involved did as well as they could for such a small film. A few creative people who became very well known later lent their talents to this, early in their careers. Besides Hurd, James Cameron did some model work here and was art director. John Sayles wrote the script.

By the way, Marta Kristen has a small role as a love interest for Peppard's character. She played the eldest daughter on the Lost in Space TV series.

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ABOVE: Richard Thomas with director Jimmy Murakami

Richard Thomas, as young man-on-a-mission Shad, is actually pretty good, contributing a realistic performance for such an escapist and somewhat cheesy sci-fi picture.

George Peppard is drawling & laid-back as Cowboy. He makes drinks for himself using a special belt he wears and smokes too much (Peppard died of lung cancer in '94).

Robert Vaughn, as the most seasoned merc, only appears a bit past the 40-minute mark and falls in battle well before the climax. I'm guessing he was contracted for a very limited number of film days. He essentially plays the same character as in The Magnificent Seven, just 20 years older.



John Saxon hams it up as the main villain (sort of the Eli Wallach role in The Magnificent Seven). Sybil Danning is a sight to behold as the warrior Valkyrie. Morgan Woodward, who guested in a couple of Star Trek episodes (including The Omega Glory) is hidden beneath reptilian make-up. Strangely, he's much more cheerful than usual as the reptile-man. Earl Boen plays the clone, Nestor; he appeared in the first 3 Terminator films as the annoying psychiatrist.



The one who may have contributed the best performance, however, may have been Lynn Carlin, who provided the voice of Nell, the computerized ship used by Shad. She is never shy about voicing her opinion or trying to mentor the young man. Guess which character's demise made me the most sad?

Some of the ships in this film are well-detailed and much of the set design is also impressive for such a small film. The plot is simple but there are various little ideas popping up here and there to make this at least moderately interesting.

The battles in the final act actually generate some excitement. We all know, since this follows the pattern of The Magnificent Seven, there may not be too many survivors among the good guys.




Battle Beyond the Trivia: actor Peppard was considered for Steve McQueen's role in the 1960 The Magnificent Seven; Star Trek TOS actor alert: Morgan Woodward (the reptile-man) appeared in Dagger of the Mind and as bad Capt. Tracey in The Omega Glory.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 5:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eadie wrote:
Will these do? This is the actual filming model.




I tried to find something online about where that great filming model might be today, but I struck out.

I hope somebody else will have better luck.
Smile
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mach7 wrote:
I'm surprised at how low thw BBtS budget was and how high Spacehunter was. It was 3D, but more than TWoK? Crazy!

Just noticed this. Two million dollars may seem cheap, but for a Roger Corman movie, it was astronomical.

Something to consider about Spacehunter, is that the budget was slashed before filming started. It was suppose to have a much larger budget, as the studio was considering it to be the first of a series.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Feb 09, 2022 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

GREAT MOVIES FROM THE 1980s!

The 1980s turned out to be a sort of 2nd Golden Age of Science Fiction. This movies is an example. Here's why.
________________________________

Star Wars (1977) rocked the sci-fi world by making the genre fun again, and we got both this movie and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back in May of 1980.

And so, hungry for more cosmic adventures and space battles, we were eager to see Battle Beyond the Stars.

In 1980 we also got enjoyable movies like Altered States, Saturn 3, Somewhere in Time, and Superman II

What movies do you remember from 1981, and which ones were your favorites? Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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