Hitting the shelves of your local department/electronics store this summer is the Roger Corman-produced BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). The DVD/Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory is timed to mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s premiere back in the day when there was only one STAR WARS (1977) sequel. I was  nearly 16 in the summer of 1977 and a bit too old for the Skywalker mythos. A generation later, I have little occasion to revisit STAR WARS or its follow-ups but I derive greater enjoyment from the low budget movies that tried, with equal measures of valor and greed, to rip it off. Be it the Kinji Fukasaku’s MESSAGE FROM SPACE (1978), Howard R. Cohen’s SPACE RAIDERS (1983) or Nick Castle’s THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984), these lean and hungry space operas often made up with sheer personality what they lacked in budgetary girth. Such is the case with BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, which Corman shot in a disused lumber yard in Venice, California, during the rainy winter of 1979-1980. Corman’s most expensive project at that time, BATTLE was entrusted to animator Jimmy T. Murakami, employing a script by future art house director John Sayles, then known primarily for his witty screenplay for Joe Dante’s PIRANHA (1978). An unapologetic mash-up of EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE and both Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) and John Sturges’ THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960), BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS finds Shad (Richard Thomas, post-WALTONS and pre- his redefinition as a respected stage actor), the bright-eyed emissary of a planet slated for domination by the merciless interstellar despot Sador (John Saxon), heading out into space to recruit mercenaries to help the people of Akir stave off enslavement.

STAR WARS ripoffs are like pinatas… crack one open and it rains great actors. Most of the names headlining these movies are Hollywood has-beens, hardly used up by the industry in terms of talent and capability but spat out nonetheless like old gum in their later years. Among the disparate types that Richard Thomas hits up for help in zero gravity are Robert Vaughn (THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE MAN FROM UNCLE, BULLIT), George Peppard (BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S, THE BLUE MAX and soon the star of the hit series THE A-TEAM), Sam Jaffe (pictured right, of LOST HORIZON, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and BEN CASEY fame) and Morgan Woodward (the guy who shoots Paul Newman at the end of COOL HAND LUKE) while Richard Davalos (James Dean’s brother in EAST OF EDEN) backs bad guy John Saxon’s play and Marta Kristen (of LOST IN SPACE fame) and veteran character actor/acting teacher Jeff Corey (BRUTE FORCE, TRUE GRIT, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES) contribute supporting roles as imperiled Akirians. All that and Sybil Danning (BLUEBEARD, CHAINED HEAT, THE HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF) as a Valkyrie with a gravity-defying décolletage! You might think the somewhat Psychotronic nature of the cast would edge BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS into a SKIDOO-like freak show but it’s better than that – beyond better!

BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS takes the egalitarian, Hey Kids Let’s Put on a Rebellion ethos of STAR WARS, forging heroes from the crucible of cooperation, tolerance and shared respect of the collected principals while ditching the subtextural Fascism of Lucasfilm. While the STAR WARS canon is peopled with an amusing panoply of freaks (the better to sell action figures), the attractive humanoid characters dominate. BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS posits a credible United Nations of intergalactic ambassadors, each willing to harness his/her/its unique ability/nonconformity for the greater good of the cosmos. By the final fadeout, the body count is high but the moral of the story is surprisingly poignant. Beyond that, BATTLE is intentionally funny, with Space Cowboy George Peppard dispensing scotch and soda from his utility belt and butch mercenary Sybil Danning proclaiming to willowy space virgin Darlanne Fluegel: “You’ve never seen a Valkyrie go down.” Richard Thomas recruits a comrade-in-arms with the sweetly clueless “Come with me — you know about computers!” and Robert Vaughn even gets a comment (“There’s no one left but me… and the lower formssss…”) that echoes his classically sibilant “That and one plate of beansss” line from THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.

Shout! Factory has done BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS quite proud with this 30th Anniversary Special Edition. Remastered from the internegative, the Region 1 disc film is letterboxed at an anamorphic 1.85:1. Colors are psychedelically vibrant and black levels are not only deep — they’re Stephen Hawking deep! The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround soundtrack remix is nicely robust as well (an old school 2.0 mono track is an option as well), all the better to appreciate in its thunderousness the not insignificant contribution of up-and-coming composer James Horner… who went on to a rich and varied career orchestrating cues for such films as Oliver Stone’s THE HAND (1981) and Walter Hill’s 48 HRS. (1982) to Ron Howard’s APOLLO 13 (1995) and a number of films directed by BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS‘ art director James Cameron, including ALIENS (1986) TITANIC (1997) and AVATAR (2010).

Supplemental features run to a wonderful making-of featurette. Directed by Michael Felsher, Space Opera on a Shoestring recalls a number of the film’s special effects crew, including assistant production manager (a job title dreamed up by Corman himself) Aaron Lipstadt, art department drone Alec Gillis, editors Allan Holzman and R. J. Kizer, special photographic effects DP Dennis Skotak and model maker Robert Skotak – among others. While the absence of big names in this bonus feature might be a deal-breaker for some, the stories told about the challenges in making BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS are an education in and of themselves in the art of dream-making. Star Richard Thomas is on hand for a contemporary interview and there are two audio commentaries — one reuniting Corman with John Sayles and the other featuring the insights of Gale Anne Hurd, who went on to become a writer/producer of note with a hand in the successful TERMINATOR film series. The complement of extras includes a theatrical trailer, a TV spot, and image galleries of stills, production photos and posters. Shout! Factory‘s DVD and Blu-ray street on July 12th. My advice: watch it BIG!