Okay, fans, here's a few clear-up moments for you.
How did Vic Morrow get in this movie? He needed the money and wanted the vacation. Like Nick Adams before him, he wasn't exactly at the top of his career. He had little inkling though that The Twilight Zone movie was in his near future..
Did Star Wars rip off anything from this movie? NO, since it was already made. The Japanese control distribution very carefully, and when they saw the grosses from SW they were in shock. They then summarily blocked it from the Japanese market for long enough for this film to be made. And by the way, the "Death Star Trench" was stolen from the British film "633 Squadron" along with some of its dialog. So, in fact, STAR WARS ripped off this and a bunch of other movies that people who really have seen a lot of movies could name.
As for Philip Casnoff, I met him in NY when he was doing, of all things, SHOGUN - THE MUSICAL. I saw him at the stage door (he was wearing an exquisite calf-length deerskin coat and a matching hat..) and gave him (again, of all things..) a SHOGUN WARRIORS Liabe (the main ship in the movie). He said "Where the hell did you get this?" and went back through the stage door. I hear him saying "Hey you gotta see this. Some guy just gave me a miniature of a ship from some shitty Japanese movie I did years ago!" Then he came back out and we had a long talk about the movie. Keep in mind, this is the same guy who played (and sang) the most authentic Frank Sinatra in USA TV's biopic.
Is it a bad movie? What does that mean, objectively? I like it. I actually liked it enough to see it four or five times, once in a '70s sticky-floored Times Square theater populated by the first generation of Americas' crackheads and 40 drinkers.
It doesn't have the best special effects of its era, but I thought the Bengal tigers in Gladiator looked like cartoons. I love the fake silver stuck-on nose on the warlords' mom's face..the extensive pyro effects, especially the Alliance space carrier. Enjoy it for what it is: an action adventure space opera created to drain off some STAR WARS money.
Post Script: I got a chance to see the Japanese original version of this movie, subtitled. It's a completely different movie,mostly because the translation corrects and explains a LOT.Spoiler alert: like, why Philip Casnoff's character doesn't want to fight...why the rich girl is rich...and a whole lot of other stuff that would raise the rating of this movie by a point if viewers had seen the CORRECT version instead of the shortened (but not by much) and mistranslated version seen on TV and in the movies. It's literally a whole different movie.
How did Vic Morrow get in this movie? He needed the money and wanted the vacation. Like Nick Adams before him, he wasn't exactly at the top of his career. He had little inkling though that The Twilight Zone movie was in his near future..
Did Star Wars rip off anything from this movie? NO, since it was already made. The Japanese control distribution very carefully, and when they saw the grosses from SW they were in shock. They then summarily blocked it from the Japanese market for long enough for this film to be made. And by the way, the "Death Star Trench" was stolen from the British film "633 Squadron" along with some of its dialog. So, in fact, STAR WARS ripped off this and a bunch of other movies that people who really have seen a lot of movies could name.
As for Philip Casnoff, I met him in NY when he was doing, of all things, SHOGUN - THE MUSICAL. I saw him at the stage door (he was wearing an exquisite calf-length deerskin coat and a matching hat..) and gave him (again, of all things..) a SHOGUN WARRIORS Liabe (the main ship in the movie). He said "Where the hell did you get this?" and went back through the stage door. I hear him saying "Hey you gotta see this. Some guy just gave me a miniature of a ship from some shitty Japanese movie I did years ago!" Then he came back out and we had a long talk about the movie. Keep in mind, this is the same guy who played (and sang) the most authentic Frank Sinatra in USA TV's biopic.
Is it a bad movie? What does that mean, objectively? I like it. I actually liked it enough to see it four or five times, once in a '70s sticky-floored Times Square theater populated by the first generation of Americas' crackheads and 40 drinkers.
It doesn't have the best special effects of its era, but I thought the Bengal tigers in Gladiator looked like cartoons. I love the fake silver stuck-on nose on the warlords' mom's face..the extensive pyro effects, especially the Alliance space carrier. Enjoy it for what it is: an action adventure space opera created to drain off some STAR WARS money.
Post Script: I got a chance to see the Japanese original version of this movie, subtitled. It's a completely different movie,mostly because the translation corrects and explains a LOT.Spoiler alert: like, why Philip Casnoff's character doesn't want to fight...why the rich girl is rich...and a whole lot of other stuff that would raise the rating of this movie by a point if viewers had seen the CORRECT version instead of the shortened (but not by much) and mistranslated version seen on TV and in the movies. It's literally a whole different movie.