| Starcrash | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster by John Solie |
|
| Directed by | Luigi Cozzi |
| Produced by | Nat Wachsberger Patrick Wachsberger |
| Written by | Luigi Cozzi |
| Starring | Marjoe Gortner Caroline Munro Robert Tessier Christopher Plummer David Hasselhoff Joe Spinell Hamilton Camp |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Cinematography | Paul Beeson Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli |
| Editing by | Sergio Montanari |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures (USA) |
| Release date(s) | January 1979 (Italy) |
| Running time | 94 min. |
| Country | USA / Italy |
| Language | English / Italian |
Starcrash (original Italian title Scontri stellari oltre la terza dimensione, literally "stellar clashes beyond the third dimension") is an Italian 1979 science fiction film, which was also released under the English title of The Adventures of Stella Star (in the US). The film is a low budget and is often regarded as a rip-off of Star Wars (1977). The screenplay was written by Luigi Cozzi (pen name Lewis Coates)[1] and Nat Wachsberger, and Cozzi also directed the film. The cast included Marjoe Gortner, Caroline Munro, Robert Tessier, Christopher Plummer, and David Hasselhoff.[2] The original music score was by Oscar winning composer John Barry (Midnight Cowboy, Goldfinger, Somewhere in Time, Dances with Wolves).
It was filmed in Technicolor with Dolby sound, and has a runtime of 94 minutes. The US release is 92 minutes, and received an MPAA rating of PG. The film is generally regarded by critics as a campy Z movie with cheap special effects and a weak, derivative plot that some people find unintentionally humorous. It appeared a couple of years after the original Star Wars and tries to re-mix the same elements, but without much success.[3][4] It has been compared to Plan 9 from Outer Space.
In 2004, nationally syndicated television series Cinema Insomnia released a DVD version hosted by Mr. Lobo. The film was later picked up by Shout! Factory who released it on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010 as part of the "Roger Corman Cult Classics" series.
Contents |
In the distant future, a starship with an "important passenger" tries to find the base of the evil Count Zarth Arn, when the ship attacked by a mysterious weapon which red globes of energy enter the ship and drive the crew to madness killing each other off.
Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy, space outlaw and smuggler Stella Star and her sidekick Akton are on a smuggling run when they run into the Imperial Space Police led by the space robot Elle (whose voice is that of a male sheriff in the southern states of the U.S.). After a spaceship chase sequence, Akton and Stella escape from their pursuers by jumping into hyperspace, a faster-than-light travel. They happen to find one of the escape pods from the starship in the opening scene, and find one survivor who is still alive. But shortly afterwards, they are finally apprehended by the police who have also followed their hyperspace travel route.
Tried, convicted and found guilty of piracy, both Akton and Stella are sentenced to life in prison. A few days later, on a prison colony, Stella manages to create a diversion and escape. But she is found by the chief of police Thor, who takes her to an orbiting main ship where she is reunited with Akton. It is here that they are contacted by the Emperor of the Galaxy, who thanks them for the discovery of the survivor of the starship, and they are granted clemency to help find one of three missing escape pods from the ship which contains the Emperor's son. The Emperor is in feud with the rogue Count Zarth Arn, who has hidden a secret weapon on a remote planet, and will use it to overthrow him and take over the galaxy for himself and his legion of vicious warriors. With Chief Thor and the robot Elle accompanying them, the Emperor tells Stella and Akton to find the Count's secret weapon as well as rescue his son who may still be alive. Over the course of the film, Stella and Akton travel to many planets to find the three missing escape pods, and hoping to find the Emperor's son.
On their first planet they visit, a jungle world, Stella is abducted by a tribe of vicious female warriors, who shoot Elle and leave him for dead. But being a robot, Elle does not die and instead makes his way to the throne room of Corelia, Queen of the Amazons, and takes her hostage to secure Stella's release. She and Elle are chased by the Amazons to the beach where Queen Corelia sends a giant robot to kill them, only to be rescued by Akton and Thor.
On another perpetually cold and dark planet, Stella and Elle investigate the second escape pod crash site for survivors, but after finding none, it is revealed that Thor is a spy for Count Zarth Ahn who subdues Akton and traps Stella and Elle outside wher he knows that when the sun sets on the ice planet, the temperature will drop hundreds of degrees below zero which will freeze any living thing. But Akton manages to revive and kill Thor, but it is too late as the sun has already set, and the surface of the planet freezes solid. Being a robot, Elle is able to help Stella stay alive by keeping her in a suspended state sequence. Upon daylight, Akton is able to venture outside to bring both Elle and the frozen Stella back onto the ship where she is dethawed and is revealed to have survived.
At last, Stella's starship arrives at the third and last planet where the third and final escape pod landed, which is right on the Count's secret planet. After surviving the Count's mental weapon (the red globes, which they refer to as "monsters"), Stella and her crew land the ship to search for the final crash site. But Stella and Akton get attacked by a savage group of barbarian tribesmen who hack Elle to pieces and abduct Stella. But she escapes and flees to a nearby cave where she is met by a man wearing a golden mask that shoots rays to destroy the tribesmen. He is revealed to be the sole survivor of the crash, the Emperor's son, Simon. Akton arrives having fought his way through the barbarians and gets into a lightsaber duel with Simon, unaware of his origins. But Simon proves his origin to the Emperor and the trio then set off to find the Count's secret weapon which is right on the planet.
Arriving at an underground laboratory, Stella, Akton and Simon are caught by the Count's soldiers where the Count, finally meeting the group face-to-face, reveals his intentions of using them for bait to bring the Emperor to the planet and have his weapon self-destruct, destroying everybody while he makes his escape to conquer the Emperor's homeworld to have the title Emperor for himself. The Count and his soldiers depart, leaving behind the Count's two personal bodyguard Golum robots to guard Stella, Akton and Simon to make sure they don't follow him. Akton engages the two robots in a lightsaber fight, but gets mortally wounded in destroying the two robots. The Emperor arrives with his personal army where, aware that the whole planet is mined with nuclear bombs, he uses a special weapon to block the bomb timers long enough (three minutes) to help Stella and Simon make it back to the ship before they detonate and destroy the whole planet. Upon arriving back at the Emperor's flagship, Stella is revived to see that Elle is alive, after being found by the Emperor's soldiers who put him back together.
Observing alongside the Emperor on the bridge of his flagship, Stella watches a huge space battle begin as the Emperor launches an attack against the Count's massive space station just as the Count is launching an attack against the Emperor's homeworld. But the attack is a failure. After an initial start, the Emperor's soldiers storn the Count's space station, gaining a foothold in a long laser-gun battle. But the Count arrives with massive reinforcements which all of the outnumbered Emperor's soldiers are overwhelmed and killed
With no other options left, the Emperor decides that the only way to stop the Count is a "star crash": to fly a whole space station into the Count's space station to destroy it. Stella and Elle volunteer to commandeer an abandoned space city to fly into the Count's space station to destroy it. Stella and Elle manage to escape from the space city's bridge by flying out into space, just as it crashes into the Count's space station, destroying it and the Count as well, finally winning the war.
Stella and Elle are picked up the Emperor's son Simon, who is finally overjoyed that Stella survived once again, and they agree to get married and begin a new era of peace for the galaxy.
The score for Starcrash was composed and conducted by veteran composer John Barry. The soundtrack was given a limited release of 1,500 copies through BSX Records in December 2008 and features fourteen tracks of score.[5]
At the time it was panned by critics, but later gain a cult following.
In DVD Delirium, the reviewer panned the film calling the plot, "something akin to something written by excitable primary school kids than adults." The film, "uses every trick in the special effects book ... and bungles the lot of them hopelessly. It also rips chunks off Star Wars," as well as showing "'evidence' of inspiration" from Barbarella, Invaders from Mars, and Jason and the Argonauts. The reviewer concludes that, this film "is one of those movies that shovels on the ineptitude with such verve that it does achieve a 'must see' sinful pleasure status."[6]
Kurt Dahlke of DVD Talk said, "Starcrash is a masterpiece of unintentionally bad filmmaking. Pounded out in about 18 months seemingly as an answer to Star Wars, Luigi Cozzi's knock-off buzzes around with giddy brio, mixing ridiculous characters with questionably broad acting, an incredibly simple yet still nonsensical plot, and budget special effects that transcend into the realm of real art. It's a completely ridiculous movie, that's great to watch with a few friends and a beer or two. And it still manages to make my jaw drop."[7]
R.L. Shaffer of IGN gave the film an extremely positive review, rating it a 10/10, and calling it "The single greatest sci-fi camp fest ever put on celluloid" and saying its in league with cult classics like Troll 2, Riki-Oh and The Room.[8]
J.C. Maçek III of WorldsGreatestCritic.com wrote, "If Starcrash had a much bigger budget, a better script and fresh ideas that weren't mined from other, vastly superior franchises... it would still suck. That's right, folks, it has to aspire to suck."[9]