 I've Been Waiting...
Battle Beyond the Stars (DVD)
Corman, Cameron, Sayles et al.
A number of
comments about the feminine shape of Shad's ship in this film have been
made -- one might do well to consider the two views of the famous
statue known as the "Winged Victory of Samothrace" shown below...
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...for this film to come back out
in any video medium.
And its reissue in DVD was one of the major reasons (aside from price)
that we finally got a DVD player for ourselves this Christmas.
This was the most expensive film Corman had made up until then, but
i understand it paid off quite well for him -- partially because he
built his own special effects unit (instead of contracting out to
others) and then made his money back doing special effects for other
low budget film makers.
Sayles's script, Horner's score, Cameron's art direction -- all have
been  mentioned, and all are/were top-notch, lifting this film
well above the level one might expect it to reach.
{As i was formatting this column, i
happened to look up something else on IMDB.com, and i checked the bdget
and box-office figures for this film. Budget was listed at $2 million,
which would not include the cost of the effects facility, and the first
weekend US gross was $1.7 million. Since the general rule of thumb is
that a film that grosses more than two to three times its production
costs is profitable, i'd say that Corman probably did fairly well on
this one...}
I almost gave this five stars, but i have to agree with an
earlier reviewer who mentioned the less-than-pristine print used for
this disk; it's acceptable, but i could wish for better. Sound is good,
though, and Horner's score is still as stirring as ever.
(By the way -- is Dick Miller in here somewhere?) |
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