New World Pictures released Battle Beyond the Stars on 8 September 1980.

It’s a fun movie. It is basically Star Wars but without taking itself even that seriously.

The film had less than one-fifth the budget that Star Wars did. Yet it looks quite good. James Cameron was an important part of the team.

The film is based on Seven Samurai. And when I watched it recently, I tried to relate the warriors in Battle Beyond the Stars with the samurai. But John Sayles didn’t slavishly stick to the original in his screenplay. In fact, it isn’t exactly clear that there are seven warriors.

But let me lay it out for you:

• Kambei Shimada (Takashi Shimura) is the wise leader of the samurai. Shad (Richard Thomas) takes his role in the film. But the Nestor clones (Earl Boen) are Kambei, temperamentally.
• Kikuchiyo (Toshirō Mifune) is clear in Battle. And it is Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning). Her large breasts are clearly a reference to Kikuchivo’s large (compensating) sword.
• Gorobei Katayama (Yoshio Inaba) is Kambei’s second and as such is represented by Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel). She also acts as the love interest.
• Shichirōji (Daisuke Katō) is an old friend of Kambei and there really is no good match for him. Cayman (Morgan Woodward) fits the bill as well as any.
• Katsushirō Okamoto (Isao Kimura) is more or less Kambei’s apprentice. There is no good match for him but the closest is Kelvin 1 (Lawrence Steven Meyers) & 2 (Lara Cody) since they are subordinate to Cayman.
• Kyūzō (Seiji Miyaguchi) is almost as clear as Kikuchivo. The character is Gelt (Robert Vaughn). They just added a criminal back-story to the character.
• Heihachi Hayashida (Minoru Chiaki) is the most personable (High emotional IQ!) character. Space Cowboy clearly fits this.

I’ve now correlated the characters in two movies that almost no one has seen! But you can knock one off your list now! Here is a good print of Battle Beyond the Stars from Archive:

Other 8 September Anniversaries

Filmmakers

• Sid Caesar (1922-2014): Iconic comedian who had small parts in a range of films like The Cheap Detective.
• Arthur C Pierce (1923-1987): Screenwriter and sometimes director of films like Women of the Prehistoric Planet.
• Peter Sellers (1925-1980): Actor known primarily for The Pink Panther films but he did a lot of other interesting things too.
• David R Ellis (1952-2013): Director of The Final Destination, Snakes on a Plane, and more.
• David Arquette (1971-): Actor known for the Scream films. He also had a notable role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Martin Freeman (1971-): Actor known for lots of interesting stuff but especially the Edgar Wright films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End.

Films

• The Phantom Fiend (1932): Sound remake of Ivor Novello’s successful silent film The Lodger.
• Psycho (1960): Classic film about a man who just couldn’t let his mother die. It’s a good film but there’s better Hitchcock.
• A Bay of Blood (1971): Greedy people get killed over real estate.
• Kickboxer (1989): A man learns kickboxing to avenge his brother.
• Shadow Builder (1998): Demons take over a boy to open the gates of hell.
• The Watcher (2000): A serial killer sends photos of future victims to a cop.
• The Covenant (2006): Four boys deal with their witch powers and fight.
• Uncharted (2009): A documentary film crew crashes on a remote island.
• It (2017): Clown horror.

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Battle Beyond the Stars poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.