Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/19/battle-beyond-the-stars-f.html
…
1 Like
I was always torn. Did John-Boy’s spaceship look more like giant boobs or a giant nardsack?
1 Like
Sooo much better than its humble origins might suggest. And a John Sayles script!
2 Likes
The real stars of Battle Beyond the Stars, though, are two young upstarts named James Cameron and James Horner, who both use every trick available to them to make this seem like a far grander and more expensive film than it really is.
Huh. Go figure.
2 Likes
Pretty sure it’s the former, since the ship was explicitly gendered female.
2 Likes
The scores in Corman movies are so great. He really has a gift at picking out up and coming artists like James Horner.
So many great people got a much needed leg up thanks to Corman.
edit:
oh yeah, almost forgot that Master of Orion made a homage to this movie with the Stelar Converter:
2 Likes
Point taken 
2 Likes
Kinda looks a little more like the latter, though, now that you mention it…
1 Like
Also heavily recycled in a few other features of its time, such as Space Raiders:
1 Like
Inspired by Japanese porn?
1 Like
John Boy and the giant space scrotum!
1 Like
IIRC Corman himself said they were supposed to be boobs.
Because I guess he felt Sybil Danning didn’t bring enough of her own?
3 Likes
Nowhere near as good as Pigs in Space.
6 Likes
I actually saw this in the theater when I was 11 or 12. I’m not sure exactly when it was released. I think my dad took me to go see it because I didn’t get to go see Empire Strikes Back earlier that summer because I was in the hospital.
2 Likes
I have the one of the original Cayman (the green lizard man) masks used in the movie. I bought it at an auction in Hollywood a while after the movie came out. When I walked over to pay for it, the sculptor Rick Stratton was nice enough to come over and tell me that since the mask was latex over foam, it was going to deteriorate rapidly and there wasn’t much I could do to prevent it… He is very dull compared to when I first got him, and yes, he has flaked away in the neck area a bit, but I still smile every time I see him!
4 Likes
Sometimes I put this soundtrack on back to back with the Wrath of Khan soundtrack, since they’re so similar.
Which reminds me,
3 Likes
Horner borrowed much for Aliens from SFS and Khan because he had about 6 weeks to score the film (or some other ungodly short amount of time) but yes even Horner borrowed from BBTS. I like that it ties all his early space and fantasy stuff together.
3 Likes
Definitively one of the best Star Wars clones from the time. I like the Space Ship designs and also the excellent James Horner soundtrack.
2 Likes
Saw it exactly once, as a kid, and loved it. Especially when they bury Robert Vaughn’s character with a meal, because that, along with a place to hide, was the only price he’d asked for his services. That teared me right up.
2 Likes
