The Magnificent (Space) Seven

There can really be no argument that Akira Kirowsawa’s Seven Samurai is a key and essential film for Hollywood storytelling. It has been remade a few times on its own, from Magnificent SevenRiding into battle to defend western towns from the scourge of bandits, the Magnificent Seven have had made adventures (and many teams) across its long and storied franchise. (which itself has been remade as well) to the Italian film The Seven Magnificent Gladiators, to the anime Samurai 7. And that doesn’t even count the various films that have drawn inspiration from the movie. George Lucas credits this film, and the many works of Akira Kurosawa, for inspiring Star WarsThe modern blockbuster: it's a concept so commonplace now we don't even think about the fact that before the end of the 1970s, this kind of movie -- huge spectacles, big action, massive budgets -- wasn't really made. That all changed, though, with Star Wars, a series of films that were big on spectacle (and even bigger on profits). A hero's journey set against a sci-fi backdrop, nothing like this series had ever really been done before, and then Hollywood was never the same., and there can be no doubt that Zack Snyder stole ruthlessly and shamelessly from the film as well for his (far inferior) Rebel Moon.

It’s easy to see why, of course. The basic story of a group of heroes coming together to protect a town (or village, city, colony, planet, etc.) from the machinations of bandits (or criminals, imperials, war mongers, etc.) is easy for the audience to get into. Clear lines of good and bad, right and wrong, heroes and villains. It’s so easy to enjoy and appreciate, and it has a fundamental building block kind of structure that you can steal the bits to make any kind of story you want. Heroes of different backgrounds coming together to fight bad guys is at the core of most epic adventures.

After the success of Star Wars (which, remember, had Kurosawa inspirations), just about every other producer and filmmaker out there at the time wanted to get their hands on that sweet, sweet Star Wars money. Everyone wanted to make their own Star Wars, and a lot of sci-fi (good and bad, but mostly bad) came out to hop on that bandwagon. And when it came to bandwagon hopping, no one was a better master of it than the king of B-movie productions, Roger Corman. He could easily hop from trend to trend, making low-budget, practically mockbuster versions of popular films, and he was successful at it because his films were cheap and people wanted to see movies like the films they liked. So when everyone wanted to make a Star Wars, you better believe Corman wanted his, too.

Working with his crew of people, and gathering the best talent a tiny budget could provided (although, in fairness, this was one of the most expensive films Corman had made up to that point, with a positively gigantic-for-Corman budget of $2 Mil), Corman’s team set about making a sci-fi adventure that would appeal to people looking for that next Star Wars hit. And there was no better way to get the feel and vibe and storytelling tropes of that film than to go back to the source and make a film “inspired” by Kurosawa: Battle Beyond the Stars.

If you’ve seen any of the various versions of Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven, et al, then you know the basics of this story: the planet Akir is threatened by the evil Sador (John Saxon) who rules the Malmori Empire. Sador wants to claim ownership of Akir and treat it as a new, subservient colony in his empire, stripping it of its resources and harvests and using its people like slaves. The people of Akir are peaceful, following the tenets of their religion that tells them not to fight and, instead, find a better path. But seeing no better path here to preserve life, one of the Akira (we see what you did there, writers), Shad (Richard Thomas), takes up an old ship left on their planet and flies off into space to find a group of warriors willing to fight for a just cause.

What he finds is a rag-tag collection of heroes and fighters. There’s the technical expert, and love interest, Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel); the weapons dealer Cowboy (George Peppard); the clones of a hive mind Kelvin (played by a collection of actors); The young warrioress Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning); the black merchant organics dealer Cayman (Morgan Woodward); and Gelt (Robert Vaughn), a wanted assassin and criminal who just wants a hot meal and a place to lay low for a time. Together they might have enough firepower to take out the Imperial flagship, but it’ll be a hard battle, and even if they succeed, not all of them are going to survive the fight.

Battle Beyond the Stars is shameless about what it stole, and it doesn’t even try to hide it. The creative team noted how the film was meant to be a sci-fi version of The Magnificent Seven with, of course, just enough of the details changed so that no one can claim copyright infringement. It’s a copy of a copy, drawing its line all the way back to Seven Samurai, and whatever version of it you know, at this point it should seem like a well worn, well trod storyline that doesn’t have much in the way of surprises or twists.

That is true, of course, but that doesn’t make this film bad. The reason this story is borrowed over and over again is that its structure makes it easy to tell a rip-roaring story of good and evil. There’s no better way to get people invested than to have bad guys come, claim what the poor people own, and then gather a bunch of good guys to defend them. Everyone can appreciate that kind of story, and Battle Beyond the Stars knows well enough not the fuck with the formula. Create a bunch of interesting characters, set them on the standard trajectory, and then let the sparks fly.

For the most part, this works. Battle Beyond the Stars is low-budget for a sci-fi film, but it is fun in places. It has a colorful cast of characters, many of whom don’t seem like they were simply ripped from Star Wars or Star TrekOriginally conceived as "Wagon Train in Space", Star Trek was released during the height of the Hollywood Western film and TV boom. While the concept CBS originally asked for had a western vibe, it was the smart, intellectual stories set in a future utopia of science and exploration that proved vital to the series' long impact on popular culture.. It breezes through the various acts at a decent enough pace that it doesn’t become tiresome (for the most part) and everything feels like a decent (if silly) good time. It does have flaws, yes, but at a basic level the film works because it really is hard to fuck up the story of Seven Samurai no matter where you put it (and when you do fuck it up you have to do it in spectacularly stupid fashion, like Zack Snyder managed).

With that said, the biggest issue with Battle Beyond the Stars is that once the final act begins, and we’re finally getting to see the war between Akir and Malorians, the action just doesn’t work. When ships are engaged in one-on-one battles, the film does okay. It’s workman-like action, but it’s decent looking and doesn’t drag on too long. But it’s pretty clear that director Jimmy T. Murakami didn’t really have a grasp of how to show big, multi-ship battles on the big screen. Every single encounter is one-on-one, with no bearing on where these ships are in conjunction with each other, the rest of the fleets, or around the planet. It’s weightless and airless ship fighting, over and over again.

I think this would have been fine if the final battle were shorter, such that the action didn’t have to drag so much. While I do think you have to pace a battle properly, letting it go on just long enough that it doesn’t feel like an afterthought – “if the empire could be defeated this quickly, why were they such a threat?” – Battle Beyond the Stars lets it go on for too long. Ships fly back and forth, many of them blow up over and over again, and then repeat this for twenty minutes. The action is broken up sometimes by a (very small and seemingly not that impressive) ground battle on Akir, but most of the fighting takes place in the space above and it’s boring. This all needed to be edited down and trimmed back to keep the pacing going well.

I suppose it doesn’t speak well for a film if the climactic action is a slog to get through. And yet, I did find myself actually enjoying this film for a while. The special effects are okay (if cheap), and the score by James Horner gives the film far more gravitas than it probably deserves (as James Horner would go on to score many of the great movies of the sci-fi genre (including a couple if Star Trek films, Apollo 13, and Deep Impact). This feels like a proper sci-fi movie even if it was made on the scale and budget of a Roger Corman production. It just about nearly works.

I wouldn’t call Battle Beyond the Stars a bad movie. By the metric of a Roger Corman film it’s practically a professional, real product that works. It’s flawed, and a little flabby, and it definitely cuts corners to get to a proper movie length. But if you can accept the B-movie quality of it, this is one of the best works Corman ever made. It’s watchable, it’s fun at times, and it does the very best it can. I’m willing to forgive a lot when a film tries and there’s no doubt, this one at least tried.