Starcrash

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 Judd Hamilton Robert Tessier Christopher Plummer David Hasselhoff Joe Spinell
Music by	John Barry
Cinematography	Paul Beeson Roberto D'Ettorre Piazzoli
Editing by	Sergio Montanari
Distributed by	New World Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)	December 21 1978
Running time	94 min.
Country	US / Italy
Language	English / Italian
Budget	$4 million

Starcrash (original Italian title Scontri stellari oltre la terza dimensione, literally "stellar clashes beyond the third dimension") is an Italian 1978 science fiction film, which was also released under the English title of The Adventures of Stella Star (in the US). The screenplay was written by Luigi Cozzi (pen name Lewis Coates) and Nat Wachsberger, and Cozzi also directed the film. The cast included Marjoe Gortner, Caroline Munro, Judd Hamilton, Christopher Plummer, David Hasselhoff, Joe Spinell and Robert Tessier 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 year after the original Star Wars and tried to re-mix the same elements, but without much success. 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's Cult Classics" series.

Plot

In a distant galaxy, a starship searches for the evil Count Zarth Arn. The ship is attacked by a mysterious weapon which drives the crew insane causing them to kill each other.

Meanwhile, outlaw smuggler Stella Star and her sidekick Akton run into the Imperial Space Police led by robot sheriff Elle. Akton and Stella escape by jumping into hyperspace. Later, they discover an escape pod from the attacked starship, in it is a last survivor. They are suddenly apprehended by the police who tracked their hyperspace trail.

Tried, convicted and found guilty of piracy, they are sentenced to life in prison. Stella creates a diversion and escape the prison. Police Chief Thor recaptures her and she is taken to an orbiting ship, where she is reunited with Akton. They are contacted by the Emperor of the Galaxy, who thanks them for recovering the starship survivor. They are offered clemency, if they help find three more missing escape pods, one of which contains the Emperor's son.

The Emperor is in a feud with Count Zarth Arn, who has a secret weapon hidden away. WA weapon he can use to take over the galaxy. With Chief Thor and Elle accompanying them, the Emperor orders Stella and Akton to find the Count's weapon, as well as rescue his son. Stella and Akton travel to many systems trying to find the pods and the Emperor's son.

On a jungle world, Stella is abducted by Amazonian warriors, who shoot Elle, leaving him for dead. But Elle can't die and he makes his way to the throne room of Corelia, Queen of the Amazons, taking her hostage to secure Stella's release. they're are chased by a giant robot, but are rescued by Akton and Thor.

On a frozen planet, Stella and Elle investigate the second escape pod crash site, but find no survivors. they do discover, however, that Thor is a spy for the Count. Thor subdues Akton and traps Stella and Elle outside where he knows they will freeze to death. Akton revives and kills Thor, but the sun has already set and the planet's surface is frozen solid. Elle keeps Stella alive by putting her in suspended animation. The next morning, Akton is to bring Elle and frozen Stella back onto the ship, where she is thawed out.

On the planet of the third escape pod, they also find the Count's secret weapon. They are attacked by barbarian tribesmen who hack Elle to pieces and abduct Stella. She escapes and flees to a nearby cave where she meets a man in a golden mask who rescues her. He is revealed to be the Emperor's son, Simon. Akton arrives and starts a lightsaber duel with Simon, unaware of his identity. Simon proves his relation to the Emperor and the trio set off to find the Count's secret weapon.

Arriving at an underground laboratory, the three by captured by the guards. The Count reveals his plan to use them as bait to bring the Emperor to the planet. The Count will then have his weapon self-destruct, destroying the planet. Meanwhile, he escapes to conquer the Emperor's homeworld. The Count leaves, ordering two bodyguard robots to keep the group there. Akton engages them in a duel, but is mortally wounded. The Emperor arrives at the planet, but is aware that the whole thing is mined with nuclear bombs. He uses a device to block the detonation timers for three minutes, giving Stella and Simon a chance to get back to their ship.

Stella stands with the Emperor on his flagship, watching a huge battle between his armada and the Count's space station. The Count also attacks the Emperor's homeworld, but the attack is a failure. The Emperor's soldiers storm the space station, but are stopped short by Count's reinforcements.

With no option left, the Emperor decides to collide his space stations into the Count's, destroying them both. Stella and Elle volunteer to steer an abandoned station into the Count's and destroy it. Stella and Elle manage to escape just as their station crashes into the Count's, finally winning the war.

Stella and Elle are picked up the Emperor's son Simon. He is happy Stella survived and asks her to marry him.

Main cast

• Caroline Munro - Stella Star: a young and sensual woman smuggler, who is supposedly the best astro-pilot in the whole universe. She and her companion Akton end up helping the Emperor after a short prison sentence.
• Marjoe Gortner - Akton: Stella's loyal sidekick, human in appearance but also endowed with considerable mystical powers (including the power to restore people to life); nothing is truly explained about his nature or his origins; he fights with a laser sword similar to a Star Wars lightsaber.
• Judd Hamilton - Elle: A powerful robot policeman endowed with emotions, who ends up helping Stella and Akton. Apparently destroyed by cavemen on the third planet, he comes back later after being repaired by the Emperor's men.
• David Hasselhoff - Simon: the Emperor's only son, only survivor of Zarth Arn's assault on his ship.
• Christopher Plummer - The Emperor: The known universe's benevolent, wise ruler, whose only son has disappeared after an encounter with the space forces of evil Count Zarth Arn.
• Joe Spinell - Count Zarth Arn: a megalomaniac renegade, who is bent on dethroning the Emperor and proclaiming himself supreme ruler of the universe.
• Robert Tessier - Thor: Chief of the Imperial State Police, and Elle's superior. Turns out to be a traitor working for Zarth Arn. Knocks out Atkon on the second planet, believing him dead, but is then killed by Atkon who is able to deflect laser blasts with his hands.
• Nadia Cassini - Corelia: Queen of the Amazon women on the first planet that Stella and her crew visit. She is an ally of Count Zarth Arn.

Soundtrack

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.

1. "Starcrash Main Title" (2:36)
2. "Escape Into Hyperspace" (1:49)
3. "Captured" (2:09)
4. "Launch Adrift" (1:42)
5. "Beach Landing" (2:09)
6. "The Ice Planet/Heading for Zarkon" (3:03)
7. "The Emperor's Speech" (3:17)
8. "Strange Planet/The Troggs Attack" (2:37)
9. "Akton Battles the Robots" (2:18)
10. "Network Ball Attack" (1:00)
11. "Space War" (4:40)
12. "Goodbye Akton" (3:34)
13. "Starcrash End Title" (2:57)
14. "Starcrash Suite" (7:14)

Production

Shooting took over six months and was frequently brought to a halt due to financing problems. The film was originally made for American International Pictures but after seeing the final cut they declined to release it. New World Pictures stepped in instead.

The 1981 science fiction film Escape from Galaxy III was also known as Starcrash II.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

At the time, the film was panned by critics, but later gain a cult following.^{[citation needed]}

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."

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."

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.

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."

In his article "Top 10 Reasons Why Star Crash is Better Than Star Wars", Bobby Morgan of EuroCultAV wrote about Cozzi's film, "To call it a rip-off of Star Wars would be an egregious insult since the term 'Star Wars rip-off' is an oxymoron. The two films are separated by language barriers and a few million dollars in production costs but are united by an unabashed love of fantastic cinema and the spectacular heights they can scale when the crucial components are in place."

External links

• Starcrash at the Internet Movie Database
• Starcrash at the Internet Archive
• Starcrash at AllRovi
• Starcrash at Rotten Tomatoes
• Female Space Invaders at Rotten Tomatoes
• Starcrash B-Movie Review at www.badmovies.org
• Star Crash - Scontri stellari oltre la Terza Dimensione at terrediconfine.eu (Italian)
• Starcrash at Livestream
• Starcrash at YouTube