Battle Beyond the Sun details

Battle Beyond the Sun
Format: PG LOVEFiLM Instant
Starring: Ivan Pereverzev, Aleksandr Shvorin, Linda Barrett
Directors: A Kozyr, Thomas Colchart
Genres: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy - Sci-fi - General, World Cinema - Japanese
Original title Nebo zovyot
Collections: Alien Invasion, Spaced Out
Title Runtime Certificate
Battle Beyond the Sun
 1hr 1 min PG

LOVEFiLM Instant Information

Run time: 1 hour 1 minute
Rental release: To be confirmed
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Most helpful review Battle Beyond the Sun

  • Josef Stalin's The Conquest of Space

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By Fishpaste_42 (5 reviews) from Nottingham , 07 Feb 2013

    THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Show review anywayHide

    [Highly rated reviewer]

    Producer Roger Corman bought the rights to distribute several Soviet sci-fi flicks in the 1960's - among them this one, the 1959 Soviet film Nebo Zovet ('The Sky is Calling'). Corman hired the young Francis Ford Coppola to adapt it for US audiences - aside from dubbing into English, new sequences with extremely Freudian space monsters were added.

    Though originally set as a race to Mars between the USSR and the US, the English-language script re-sets the action in a post-apocalypse world divided between the Northern and Southern hemispheres - 'North Hemis' and 'South Hemis.' This eliminates the problem of the somewhat negative portrayal of the US characters in the film - while not actually evil, they're shown as being more selfish, indecisive, hasty, morally weak and prone to Evil Blue Side-lighting than their stalwart Soviet opposite numbers. Plus, their spaceship breaks down and they have to be rescued (look out for the amusingly wobbly optical patches over the US insignia on the 'North Hemis' ship)!

    Despite this, the tone is remarkably conciliatory, with an general message that the two great powers should put aside their differences in the search for knowledge.

    Overall, the film isn't desperately thrilling - it's pretty much the same thing as George Pal's Destination Moon or Conquest of Space, except with no annoying accents and even more stilted acting - but it is a fascinating look both at the 1950's Soviet vision of a perfected technological future, and an encapsulation of the tensions between the great powers at the height of the Cold War.

    A rather more watchable example of a Soviet film adapted by Corman is Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (originally Planeta Bur, 'Planet of Storms'), which has better action, a haunting atmosphere, Basil Rathbone and a really cool robot, but unfortunately it's only available to rent, not watch online.

    Finally, watch out for the following really nice non-Hollywood detail: it's an older couple who get both the touching parting scene at the start of the film, and the touching reunion at the end!
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  • Josef Stalin's The Conquest of Space

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By Fishpaste_42 (5 reviews) from Nottingham , 07 Feb 2013

    THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Show review anywayHide

    [Highly rated reviewer]

    Producer Roger Corman bought the rights to distribute several Soviet sci-fi flicks in the 1960's - among them this one, the 1959 Soviet film Nebo Zovet ('The Sky is Calling'). Corman hired the young Francis Ford Coppola to adapt it for US audiences - aside from dubbing into English, new sequences with extremely Freudian space monsters were added.

    Though originally set as a race to Mars between the USSR and the US, the English-language script re-sets the action in a post-apocalypse world divided between the Northern and Southern hemispheres - 'North Hemis' and 'South Hemis.' This eliminates the problem of the somewhat negative portrayal of the US characters in the film - while not actually evil, they're shown as being more selfish, indecisive, hasty, morally weak and prone to Evil Blue Side-lighting than their stalwart Soviet opposite numbers. Plus, their spaceship breaks down and they have to be rescued (look out for the amusingly wobbly optical patches over the US insignia on the 'North Hemis' ship)!

    Despite this, the tone is remarkably conciliatory, with an general message that the two great powers should put aside their differences in the search for knowledge.

    Overall, the film isn't desperately thrilling - it's pretty much the same thing as George Pal's Destination Moon or Conquest of Space, except with no annoying accents and even more stilted acting - but it is a fascinating look both at the 1950's Soviet vision of a perfected technological future, and an encapsulation of the tensions between the great powers at the height of the Cold War.

    A rather more watchable example of a Soviet film adapted by Corman is Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (originally Planeta Bur, 'Planet of Storms'), which has better action, a haunting atmosphere, Basil Rathbone and a really cool robot, but unfortunately it's only available to rent, not watch online.

    Finally, watch out for the following really nice non-Hollywood detail: it's an older couple who get both the touching parting scene at the start of the film, and the touching reunion at the end!
    • Was this review helpful to you?
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    •  No (0)
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  • Two states competing in a space race

    Rated - 3.0 stars  
    By Viveka (57 reviews) , 18 Jan 2013
    Not actually riveting viewing but certainly interesting to consider what people expected to come in the space age. There are certainly references to the race for space between east and west with scientists from two divided parts of Earth wishing they could work together instead of being divided into two. competing parties. Also interesting is the fact we seem to have lost much of the fascination for space and what might be out there as such films are very much of the time.
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