MovieChat Forums > Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) Discussion > The villains.......

The villains.......

posted 19 years ago by matwsussx
6 replies | jump to latest

Anybody else think John Saxon is just fantastic in this film, hes clearly enjoying every minute hes in it and even though his dialogue contains the corniest and probably most intentionally hilarious lines ever uttered by a villain he just chews up the scenery. I wonder how John Saxon came to rule over those mutants that he commanded. He is obviously quite normal looking apart from missing a few body parts whilst they are all hideously ugly and dumb. I always imagined that maybe his surgeon Docko or whatever his name was responsible for creating the rest of the mutants because Docko looked quite normal compared to the rest of them plus he was obviously very handy when it came to appendages and chain saws. Anyone else think the two mutants looking after the planet are actually quite disturbing (especially in what they do to Richard Thomas' sister) and are quite out of sync with the rest of the tone of the picture?

[–] savagesteve13 17 years ago

I was impressed by Sador's planet killer. It was a better effect than the Star Wars deathstar ray, and probably only cost about $50 to put on film.

[–] savagesteve13 14 years ago

One of the funniest lines delivered IMHO was Saxon when he commented that the Nestor arm was very good, but when the doctor had time he needed to address the fact that he couldn't put his glove back on (Nestor hands have 3 fingers...)

[–] WyldeGoose 14 years ago

I agree. John Saxon is excellent in this. I think he was enjoying playing this character, knowing full well he was in a B-movie.

As for the mutants, nobody knows. You could be right that the doctor might've had a hand making Sador's minions. As I said in another post, these bad guys are quite interesting, if you think about them, and it would've been better if somehow they managed to delve more into who they are a bit more, especially with Sador.

[–] nyarlath 9 years ago

As for the mutants, nobody knows. You could be right that the doctor might've had a hand making Sador's minions. As I said in another post, these bad guys are quite interesting, if you think about them, and it would've been better if somehow they managed to delve more into who they are a bit more, especially with Sador.

The movie didn't give us any detail so back when I was young I made up my own background just for fun. I assumed that the Malmori were the end result of a space going warrior culture. Centuries of galactic warfare caused progressive nuclear radiation damage to the soldier's DNA who would then return home and breed genetically inferior mutant children. Eventually the society would become totally dependent on conquest, having lost its ability to support itself. Sador was the last reasonably competent Malmori leader who nevertheless had to survive by replacing degenerating limbs with grafts from other people. Just a theory. I assumed each culture we meet dealt with their self defense/DNA damage problem in their own way. Earth did it by selling weapons to potential allies who would keep the warlords away.

[–] Duragizer 11 years ago

Saxon's performance was utterly disappointing. I don't blame him, though -- he had absolutely nothing to work with.

I'm Heather Langenkamp's husband in another universe.

[–] 9 years ago

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