The novelization of the movie went into more detail on a lot of things. The Star League had kept so many worlds safe for so long that they pretty much lost the capacity to get violent except for a very few who had 'the gift' to be Starfighters. Also, the Gunstar was designed by the same person who designed all the B5 ships, so it really is the big brother of the Star Fury.
There is a three book series about races so civilized they couldn't be violent. Only two races, one of them physically unsuitable for ground combat, could fight for their side. Then they met humans, who were terrifyingly capable of violence. The perfect ally in a generations long war against conquerors. Alan Dean Foster- The Damned trilogy
I love this film. It represents a time to me before everything had to be "gritty" in movies. It's a kind of Heroes Journey type plot for the video game generation.
I don't mind the rise of gritty story telling. It's the fall of sincerity I lament. Everything has to contain a post modern irony and cynicism that says a simple story about a good guy simply being good and taking his hard knocks while trying to prevail is for suckers. I think part of the reason audience responded so strongly to Captain America just being an old fashioned virtuous hero who believes in straight forward morals in the Marvel films is that there's a hunger for that sort of sincerity. There's an untapped market for it.
@@Strideo1 I agree to some extent. Cynicism is ultimately fatiguing to keep up, and often times it's just an excuse for people to be morally unserious about life.
@@Strideo1 Re: Captain America, also he wasn't some naive, jigositic, rah-rah, 'Merica F-Yeah! guy. He was genuine and believed in his principles and morals, not nationalism or manipulative patriotism.
I really love the part when Alex gets his first actual kill in that asteroid. Whereas Luke had no issue blasting stormtroopers left and right, Alex needed time to process what just happened. He just KILLED someone. Sure they were shooting at him, and they would eventually help destroy Earth if he didn't, but he's just a handyman in his trailer park that can't even get a college loan...
This is the over analysis of obscure sci fi properties that I'm here for. Honestly I think it's plausible even a large multi species space NATO would have a super small military, be totally unprepared for a drawn out confrontation but have the technological resources to build super advanced combat craft. The cost and complexity of these ships could believably lead to a quality over quantity mindset that impacts both manufacturing and pilot recruiting. If the single surviving prototype could knock out their C2 node and decimate their fighter fleet, the small squadron we saw early on would likely have been more than adequate to take down the Kodan Armada. Last Starfighter is my favourite Prodigy music video. RIP Keith Flint.
@@graemelamont1617 It's only implied, but I always read it as the seat rotating to reduce the amount of spinning the gunner had to cope with. The 'navigator,' on the other hand...
@@feralhistorianGiven the “victory or death” mantra, someone who probably envisioned that ship going into the thick of it and sacrificing themselves to take down as many Ko-Dan as possible before they got cacked. Dodgy strategy at best.
@@feralhistorian I see it more as a repurposing of an Aegis system, able to engage multiple targets at different ranges with different weapons. Look at the amount of missile racks. While the particle beams are for dogfighting when slaved to the Aegis they can act as point defense. Does the Gunstar 1 represent a transitional technology to automated drone fighters designed to replace craft that don't have the manpower for anymore?
The concept reel ua-cam.com/video/tAvN9000o4A/v-deo.html for anyone interested. It seems like it's dead, especially given the strikes and streaming services bleeding money, but it certainly wouldn't be the strangest soft-reboot to actually see screen.
"... and Gul Dukat has been sent to kill him." Good catch! I totally missed that. There were zero physical models of the Gunstar. Anytime you see an exterior shot of the Gunstar, it's CGI.
Damn Feral - I used to watch the VHS tape of this film incessantly as a kid, and despite knowing this film off-by-heart today; I'd have never thought of it in your perspective! I'm impressed.
@@feralhistorian - Well I can only say I'm impressed for your take on a film that I was quoting verbatim when the clips played in your vid (e.g. when Xur was cursing out his dad via hologram), so it was mind-blowing to consider things like zero Rylos starfighter pilots, Centauri 'recruiting' like a cross between a press gang and PMC's, the lack of additional starfighter bases (that one just seems so bloody simple in terms of military tactics), Xur's lack of motivation beyond having 'daddy issues' and wanting to be a militant L.Ron Hubbard; even Alex's lack of consideration for what he and Maggie were going to do in a rebuilding of Rylos military, and of what 'benevolence' could end up lacking in a very foreign culture (granted they were late teens, and who the hell knows what they're doing at 18 beyond partying at Silver Lake). Gotta stop typing here coz I'm just blethering on, but again; much impressed.
Imagine, you get recruited into the Navy Seals because your K/D ratio is the best of an entire FPS player base. That'll end well. The Last Starfighter was a good fun 1980s film. We also got, Flight of the Navigator, back then too.
The big difference in your example is that the SEAL has to physically do the things that the gamer just pushes a button for. He feels actual exhaustion, pain, etc. While flying a gunstar really is just like the game, except maybe for G-forces. In fact, Alex even gets to sit instead of standing.
One of the Clerks Animated Series episodes had a joke where Randall was recruited due to his high score in a videogame, but it was a game where you were a slave building a pyramid.
7:39 "...they ask [Alex] to stay and rebuild the Starfighter corps. He neglects to ask if service guarantees citizenship." I LOL'd at the "Starship Troopers" reference 🙂
I;m still a little bitter that TRON was never allowed to enter for Best SFX in the Oscars because the organization essentially told them that by using Computers they ‘cheated’. The irony of that statement nowadays is so thick it isn’t even funny.
My brother and I wrote so much FanFic about this. The first sequel has Xur hire an unscrupulous recruiter to trick Louis into joining a Xurian "Star League" and end up accidentally fighting against Alex. The following one has the combat inhibitors removed from the Beta Units and puts Alex and Louis against a Beta Unit army of Alex Rogan Clones.
In John Ford’s Klingon novel, The Final Reflection, the klinks thought you were decaying if you were not growing. Each time I encounter this movie, I find myself wondering why anyone would voluntarily decide to decay, by cutting themselves off from the rest of the galaxy.
I had never heard of the main plot for The Last Starfighter until now, but the idea of "a young man is pressured into service with a foreign legion as a fighter pilot" sounds almost identical to the plot of Kaoru Shintani's 1979 manga series "Area 88", which was adapted into an anime OVA series in 1985-1986
@@zimriel Area 88 isn't an isekai, surprisingly It's about a Japanese airline trainee who is tricked into signing on as a mercenary fighter pilot for the Aslanian Air Force's foreign legion (Aslan is a fictional Middle Eastern/North African Kingdom), during a civil war. I'd genuinely recommend checking it out, if you are interested!
@@Tigershark_3082 yes, I realised that it wasn't an isekai... after posting. Getting information before posting on youtube is for chumps! seriously, thanks for the recommend.
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid 4 years old with the chickenpox watching it from my couch. that kid later joined the army and fought in Iraq.... You got yourself a subscriber my friend
I had just begun my PhD in Computer Science and although an SF aficionado I was attracted to the movie primarily for its early use of CGI. I ended up seeing about 5 times before it left the movie theater after a short run. One of my favorites. But your Intro description is perfect. Never thought of it that way but it's absolutely true.
my favourite part was how the "Star League" put EVERY SINGLE GUNSTAR in ONE PLACE and they naturally get BLOWN UP. really shows how overconfident they are.
Well, first off he wasn't "Pressganged" (forced unwillingly) into service. So for those who think otherwise, he was recruited and given a choice. The very fact he was taken home after presented with that choice (which he refused) is clear evidence there was never forced into service.
Hilariously, he's basically the quintessential 'kid leaves small town becomes war hero then a high ranking political position far beyond his aptitude based solely on reputation'. And his unitary position as the sole representative from Earth probably would help too.
3:31 WHAT!? It has Gul Dukat too!? I was freaking out enough when I learned it was the *Music Man* (Robert Preston) doing the recruiting, and that he died IRL pretty soon after (Starfighter in 1984, he died 1987) Interesting to hear a take on this movie that just kinda ignores the "being good at videogames will let me save the universe" pandering to kids at the time (myself included; loved this movie as a kid -- less of a fan as an adult, but still pleasant nostalgia). It's sort of Ready Player One without _Endless Non-Stop References._ Which you know is arguably a better story, but still isn't all that great.
If you haven't already, I'd love to watch your thoughts on Battle Beyond the Stars. I watched that as a young boy and thought it cool enough, then saw it again about 25 years later and realized it was actually really boring, but with depth of subplot.
This is my new favorite channel, but this marks my first disappointment. You neglected to examine and analyze the philosophical relationship the Ko-Dan have with death as a vehicle for playing the absolute best, most over-the-top schlocky scene from this film: "Damage report!" "Guidance system out...auxiliary steering out...she won't answer the helm...we're locked into the moon's gravitational pull! What do we do?!" *Bzzz-click* "WE DIE." Timeless.
My first cut actually did riff on that a bit, but the UA-cam copyright algorithm kept snagging on it unless I cut the clip down so much it didn't make sense. In frustration I just dumped it. In retrospect, I can think of a couple weird workarounds that might have been entertaining in their own right.
@@feralhistorian Ah, that makes more sense. I couldn't imagine someone who very clearly taped ALL the same 70s and 80s sci-fi/action films off TBS on Sunday afternoons and watched them about 300 times between 1987 and 1996 wouldn't have had something to say about that scene. Keep it up! The wife and I love your channel!
@@graemelamont1617 The scale of that scene always messes with me. I can't tell if that moon is unusually round for being so small, or if the Kodan ship is the size of India.
Have you read the "Confederation of Valour" series by Tanya Huff? I'd not considered until just now how the Star League of Last Starfighter contains the seeds of the Confederation in those books (technologically advanced aliens recruiting humans to fight for them because they've forgotten how, with the protagonists becoming increasingly dubious about just how egalitarian the society is as the series progresses). It's not a direct lift, of course, but it feels like it might have been an inspiration in the same way Last Starfighter's visuals clearly had an influence on Babylon 5.
@@feralhistorian I was thinking you'd discussed it, but no. I'm thinking of Dave Cullen's continuing series on sci-fi movies of yesteryear. I connect you two partially because you address the same media, but also because I watched yours and his treatments of _Roller Ball_ a couple hours apart.
"Zima." Heh heh heh. I get that reference. *PLEASE* do Babylon 5 some day! I don't feel like Alex was pressganged. When it turns out Centauri broke the rules for recruitment, they *immediately* let him go. So: not pressganged. And Centauri is openly described as a con man who was just trying to make some money. (This was, I believe, Robert Preston's final film, BTW). I saw this in the theaters when it came out. It felt....pretty slight, even then. The impression I got wasn't that the Star League was some sort of FFL. I felt like they were really pushing the idea that the Rylosians simply can't fight. Not even pacifists, since they're ok with designing the weapons, and they clearly understand their necessity, just that they lack the level of aggression needed to do a good job of it. We all have the smart friend who's useless in a fight, right? I base that on nothing apart from just a vague sense I had while watching the movie at the time. Zur or Xur or whatever rambles a bit about the non-Rylosians as being unworthy of being called our equals, so I think they were just other species within the Star League.
I got more of an impression most lacked the skills and natural ability, rather than an inability to be violent. Their view of war was extreme quality. One that only a handful could achieve. War by Achilles and Ajax.
Zima, Looney Toons, and Harley Davidson were the only modern brands referenced in Babylon 5, and Zima was specifically included as a joke because everyone in production thought it was so awful that it would somehow ironically survive a few hundred years.
Double feature when released with Cloak and Dagger. Watched both with mein Oma and sister at the Galaxy in San Antonio. Edit to add: Everytime you mention zima i recall back in the day. Everybody had that one guy in the group who bought that scheiße! Granted i was the other jerk who always bought the bier that nobody but me could read the labels. Lol 😂 everybody else was a Budweiser or Coors guy.
Zima was just the lightest version of Miller or whoever made it passed through charcoal filters until it was clear with citrus flavoring added. At the same time in the States there was Crystal Pepsi which people claimed had citrus flavor but was just Pepsi filtered until it was clear.
Seems like a Galactica or Buck Rogers 70s knockoff, with a dash of video games. Wd be interesting to see you look at the Klaus Kinski Alien ripoff Creature. That made good bank in the straight to VHS market of the 80s.
Based on the "first live target" scene, the Xurians have about as much subtlety and tact as their leader. Firing upon someone who was merely asking you to identify yourself? Dead giveaway that you're up to no good. Plus, whoever was running the weapons on that skiff had a bad case of Stormtrooper aim.
I hate giving anyone any reason to watch the ST, but in The Force Awakens there’s a line that seems to indicate the few starfighters the rebels are using are the entire military force resisting the First Order much like the pitiful Star League military.
"The Hind is full battle loaded with Zimas Cap'n. We'll get a mating outta her this time..." You ask those questions about political power, use of forces in being and projected end state within the overall context of kicking ass 8n Gunstars. Duh.
Few things help lubricate a good session of over analyzing like a nice cold Zima! Hopefully there will never be a sequel - I shudder to think what the current horde of intersectional, representation-obsessed Hollywood knuckleheads would do - maybe The Last Starfighter 2: Maggie's Rebellion 😮
Use of mercenaries never bodes well for a Society. Rome fell to its own foreign Legions. The UK year on year reduces Terms of Service and year on year increases the maximum of foreign born servicemen allowed. I don't think it includes in that number Gurkha's that aren't technically mercenaries because we say that they aren't. They are, and living on the past. Currently they are very expensive and not very good soldiers and while the rest of the UK Army amalgamates once proud regiments and lays up their colours, the Royal Gurkha Rifles has increased from 2 battalions to 3. The west is self sabotaging and rapidly heading for a fall to the determent of humans everywhere. I hope the new dark ages don't last a thousand years like last time.
This was more war by Achilles and Ajax, rather than a massive ordinary military. These were still people within the League, and Rylos welcomed the other peoples as equals, which Xur rejected.
This has to be my favourite space action movie, I honestly prefer this over Star Wars, though I think Lucas did better work with the prequels than the originals or the sequels, he writes politics and intrigue better thana he does a generic hero story.
The novelization of the movie went into more detail on a lot of things. The Star League had kept so many worlds safe for so long that they pretty much lost the capacity to get violent except for a very few who had 'the gift' to be Starfighters. Also, the Gunstar was designed by the same person who designed all the B5 ships, so it really is the big brother of the Star Fury.
There is a three book series about races so civilized they couldn't be violent. Only two races, one of them physically unsuitable for ground combat, could fight for their side. Then they met humans, who were terrifyingly capable of violence. The perfect ally in a generations long war against conquerors.
Alan Dean Foster- The Damned trilogy
I love this film. It represents a time to me before everything had to be "gritty" in movies. It's a kind of Heroes Journey type plot for the video game generation.
I don't mind the rise of gritty story telling. It's the fall of sincerity I lament.
Everything has to contain a post modern irony and cynicism that says a simple story about a good guy simply being good and taking his hard knocks while trying to prevail is for suckers.
I think part of the reason audience responded so strongly to Captain America just being an old fashioned virtuous hero who believes in straight forward morals in the Marvel films is that there's a hunger for that sort of sincerity. There's an untapped market for it.
@@Strideo1
I agree to some extent. Cynicism is ultimately fatiguing to keep up, and often times it's just an excuse for people to be morally unserious about life.
@@Strideo1
Re: Captain America, also he wasn't some naive, jigositic, rah-rah, 'Merica F-Yeah! guy. He was genuine and believed in his principles and morals, not nationalism or manipulative patriotism.
@@null6634 Of course not. Cynical people often mistake being earnest and straight forward with being naive or "simple" though.
I really love the part when Alex gets his first actual kill in that asteroid. Whereas Luke had no issue blasting stormtroopers left and right, Alex needed time to process what just happened. He just KILLED someone. Sure they were shooting at him, and they would eventually help destroy Earth if he didn't, but he's just a handyman in his trailer park that can't even get a college loan...
This is the over analysis of obscure sci fi properties that I'm here for. Honestly I think it's plausible even a large multi species space NATO would have a super small military, be totally unprepared for a drawn out confrontation but have the technological resources to build super advanced combat craft. The cost and complexity of these ships could believably lead to a quality over quantity mindset that impacts both manufacturing and pilot recruiting. If the single surviving prototype could knock out their C2 node and decimate their fighter fleet, the small squadron we saw early on would likely have been more than adequate to take down the Kodan Armada.
Last Starfighter is my favourite Prodigy music video. RIP Keith Flint.
Well it is a relic of entertainment made by such a people, so there is that.
Ah, death blossom. Perhaps the most magnificent CQB technique ever devised.
I do have to wonder how much development time went into a system with such limited utility. Who wargamed that scenario?
I'd need a vomit bag attachment to my helmet - that scene always left me feeling queasy just watching.
@@graemelamont1617 It's only implied, but I always read it as the seat rotating to reduce the amount of spinning the gunner had to cope with. The 'navigator,' on the other hand...
@@feralhistorianGiven the “victory or death” mantra, someone who probably envisioned that ship going into the thick of it and sacrificing themselves to take down as many Ko-Dan as possible before they got cacked. Dodgy strategy at best.
@@feralhistorian I see it more as a repurposing of an Aegis system, able to engage multiple targets at different ranges with different weapons. Look at the amount of missile racks. While the particle beams are for dogfighting when slaved to the Aegis they can act as point defense. Does the Gunstar 1 represent a transitional technology to automated drone fighters designed to replace craft that don't have the manpower for anymore?
There was an attempt to drum up interest in a sequel a few years ago. They made some cool looking preproduction art. Then nothing happened.
The concept reel ua-cam.com/video/tAvN9000o4A/v-deo.html for anyone interested. It seems like it's dead, especially given the strikes and streaming services bleeding money, but it certainly wouldn't be the strangest soft-reboot to actually see screen.
They would wreck it. Cherish the 80s version.
"... and Gul Dukat has been sent to kill him."
Good catch! I totally missed that.
There were zero physical models of the Gunstar. Anytime you see an exterior shot of the Gunstar, it's CGI.
Damn Feral - I used to watch the VHS tape of this film incessantly as a kid, and despite knowing this film off-by-heart today; I'd have never thought of it in your perspective! I'm impressed.
I strive to be a little off.
@@feralhistorian - Well I can only say I'm impressed for your take on a film that I was quoting verbatim when the clips played in your vid (e.g. when Xur was cursing out his dad via hologram), so it was mind-blowing to consider things like zero Rylos starfighter pilots, Centauri 'recruiting' like a cross between a press gang and PMC's, the lack of additional starfighter bases (that one just seems so bloody simple in terms of military tactics), Xur's lack of motivation beyond having 'daddy issues' and wanting to be a militant L.Ron Hubbard; even Alex's lack of consideration for what he and Maggie were going to do in a rebuilding of Rylos military, and of what 'benevolence' could end up lacking in a very foreign culture (granted they were late teens, and who the hell knows what they're doing at 18 beyond partying at Silver Lake). Gotta stop typing here coz I'm just blethering on, but again; much impressed.
Love the "something to discuss over Zima's" comment.
Imagine, you get recruited into the Navy Seals because your K/D ratio is the best of an entire FPS player base. That'll end well.
The Last Starfighter was a good fun 1980s film. We also got, Flight of the Navigator, back then too.
Racing sim gamers actually do fairly well in professional racing, so, there's clearly some overlap with the most realistic of games.
The big difference in your example is that the SEAL has to physically do the things that the gamer just pushes a button for. He feels actual exhaustion, pain, etc.
While flying a gunstar really is just like the game, except maybe for G-forces. In fact, Alex even gets to sit instead of standing.
literally what drone operators are. not FPS but you get it.
One of the Clerks Animated Series episodes had a joke where Randall was recruited due to his high score in a videogame, but it was a game where you were a slave building a pyramid.
Flight of the navigator mentioned,sentience confirmed 😂 love that movie
7:39 "...they ask [Alex] to stay and rebuild the Starfighter corps.
He neglects to ask if service guarantees citizenship."
I LOL'd at the "Starship Troopers" reference 🙂
I really love this channel. I'm so stoked the algorithm pointed this channel out to me. I look forward to future videos.
The algorithm is a fickle beast.
I;m still a little bitter that TRON was never allowed to enter for Best SFX in the Oscars because the organization essentially told them that by using Computers they ‘cheated’.
The irony of that statement nowadays is so thick it isn’t even funny.
Look how many people stomp their feet and pitch fits about AI art nowadays.
My brother and I wrote so much FanFic about this.
The first sequel has Xur hire an unscrupulous recruiter to trick Louis into joining a Xurian "Star League" and end up accidentally fighting against Alex. The following one has the combat inhibitors removed from the Beta Units and puts Alex and Louis against a Beta Unit army of Alex Rogan Clones.
In John Ford’s Klingon novel, The Final Reflection, the klinks thought you were decaying if you were not growing. Each time I encounter this movie, I find myself wondering why anyone would voluntarily decide to decay, by cutting themselves off from the rest of the galaxy.
I had never heard of the main plot for The Last Starfighter until now, but the idea of "a young man is pressured into service with a foreign legion as a fighter pilot" sounds almost identical to the plot of Kaoru Shintani's 1979 manga series "Area 88", which was adapted into an anime OVA series in 1985-1986
pretty much every isekai ever tbh
@@zimriel Area 88 isn't an isekai, surprisingly
It's about a Japanese airline trainee who is tricked into signing on as a mercenary fighter pilot for the Aslanian Air Force's foreign legion (Aslan is a fictional Middle Eastern/North African Kingdom), during a civil war. I'd genuinely recommend checking it out, if you are interested!
@@Tigershark_3082 yes, I realised that it wasn't an isekai... after posting. Getting information before posting on youtube is for chumps!
seriously, thanks for the recommend.
As an 80s kid, this was the ultimate dream of gamers, just as The Matrix is the ultimate dream of hackers.
Never realized it was Gul dukat. That's great.
This was one of my favorite movies as a kid 4 years old with the chickenpox watching it from my couch. that kid later joined the army and fought in Iraq.... You got yourself a subscriber my friend
Another great video. Also, Gul Dukat? Now I want to see you make a video on Deep Space 9.
Very special movie for me, my first VHS and watched it hundreds of times, but never noticed Marc Alamo until your subtle joke.
I had just begun my PhD in Computer Science and although an SF aficionado I was attracted to the movie primarily for its early use of CGI. I ended up seeing about 5 times before it left the movie theater after a short run. One of my favorites. But your Intro description is perfect. Never thought of it that way but it's absolutely true.
my favourite part was how the "Star League" put EVERY SINGLE GUNSTAR in ONE PLACE and they naturally get BLOWN UP. really shows how overconfident they are.
All but one.
Or inexperienced
Wow you made this movie a lot deeper than than I thought it was?
Ye GAWDS. I come here for a little overthinking, and get Anton LeVeigh...
Zima's 'round the campfire, boys. I'm buyin'! 😎
Lance Guest that played Alex is actually a very good Jonny Cash impersonator.
Alex wasn't pressed into being a Pilot he was as gunner, Grig was the pilot.
Well, first off he wasn't "Pressganged" (forced unwillingly) into service. So for those who think otherwise, he was recruited and given a choice. The very fact he was taken home after presented with that choice (which he refused) is clear evidence there was never forced into service.
Many times I've wanted to watch this film, but never have.
Robert Preston playing an outer space Harold Hill but instead of band equipment its military recruitment
Monorail!
That's so funny... I had no idea that Mark Alaimo was the assassin... I do know that Wil Wheaton has a bit part in the movie as well...
Centari is the best character. Loved this movie.
That was one cold opening. LOL 😂
Magnificent analysis.
Another great video. Thanks 😊
Hilariously, he's basically the quintessential 'kid leaves small town becomes war hero then a high ranking political position far beyond his aptitude based solely on reputation'. And his unitary position as the sole representative from Earth probably would help too.
3:31 WHAT!? It has Gul Dukat too!? I was freaking out enough when I learned it was the *Music Man* (Robert Preston) doing the recruiting, and that he died IRL pretty soon after (Starfighter in 1984, he died 1987)
Interesting to hear a take on this movie that just kinda ignores the "being good at videogames will let me save the universe" pandering to kids at the time (myself included; loved this movie as a kid -- less of a fan as an adult, but still pleasant nostalgia). It's sort of Ready Player One without _Endless Non-Stop References._ Which you know is arguably a better story, but still isn't all that great.
If you haven't already, I'd love to watch your thoughts on Battle Beyond the Stars. I watched that as a young boy and thought it cool enough, then saw it again about 25 years later and realized it was actually really boring, but with depth of subplot.
Battle Beyond the Stars has been sitting on the pile for awhile. I'm not sure yet what to do with it, but sooner or later it's going to come up.
This is my new favorite channel, but this marks my first disappointment. You neglected to examine and analyze the philosophical relationship the Ko-Dan have with death as a vehicle for playing the absolute best, most over-the-top schlocky scene from this film:
"Damage report!"
"Guidance system out...auxiliary steering out...she won't answer the helm...we're locked into the moon's gravitational pull! What do we do?!"
*Bzzz-click* "WE DIE."
Timeless.
My first cut actually did riff on that a bit, but the UA-cam copyright algorithm kept snagging on it unless I cut the clip down so much it didn't make sense. In frustration I just dumped it. In retrospect, I can think of a couple weird workarounds that might have been entertaining in their own right.
@@feralhistorian Ah, that makes more sense. I couldn't imagine someone who very clearly taped ALL the same 70s and 80s sci-fi/action films off TBS on Sunday afternoons and watched them about 300 times between 1987 and 1996 wouldn't have had something to say about that scene.
Keep it up! The wife and I love your channel!
Man, you keep coming out with bangers! I love overanalyzing my favorite childhood books and films over beers so I'm eagerly awaiting every upload.
I figure what else could they do at that point but accept their fate... Pull up?
@@graemelamont1617 The scale of that scene always messes with me. I can't tell if that moon is unusually round for being so small, or if the Kodan ship is the size of India.
Wow, I must have watched that movie 10 or 20 times and never recognized Mark Alaimo. 😅
I would like to recommend the movie Enemy Mine.
Have you read the "Confederation of Valour" series by Tanya Huff? I'd not considered until just now how the Star League of Last Starfighter contains the seeds of the Confederation in those books (technologically advanced aliens recruiting humans to fight for them because they've forgotten how, with the protagonists becoming increasingly dubious about just how egalitarian the society is as the series progresses). It's not a direct lift, of course, but it feels like it might have been an inspiration in the same way Last Starfighter's visuals clearly had an influence on Babylon 5.
Have you seen Logan's Run?
Yes, though It's been quite a long time. There's a stack of '70s sci-fi I need to rewatch.
@@feralhistorian I was thinking you'd discussed it, but no. I'm thinking of Dave Cullen's continuing series on sci-fi movies of yesteryear. I connect you two partially because you address the same media, but also because I watched yours and his treatments of _Roller Ball_ a couple hours apart.
Growing up for some reaaon I always confused this with Enemy Mine...
"Zima." Heh heh heh. I get that reference. *PLEASE* do Babylon 5 some day!
I don't feel like Alex was pressganged. When it turns out Centauri broke the rules for recruitment, they *immediately* let him go. So: not pressganged. And Centauri is openly described as a con man who was just trying to make some money. (This was, I believe, Robert Preston's final film, BTW).
I saw this in the theaters when it came out. It felt....pretty slight, even then. The impression I got wasn't that the Star League was some sort of FFL. I felt like they were really pushing the idea that the Rylosians simply can't fight. Not even pacifists, since they're ok with designing the weapons, and they clearly understand their necessity, just that they lack the level of aggression needed to do a good job of it. We all have the smart friend who's useless in a fight, right? I base that on nothing apart from just a vague sense I had while watching the movie at the time.
Zur or Xur or whatever rambles a bit about the non-Rylosians as being unworthy of being called our equals, so I think they were just other species within the Star League.
I got more of an impression most lacked the skills and natural ability, rather than an inability to be violent. Their view of war was extreme quality. One that only a handful could achieve. War by Achilles and Ajax.
@ ompletely fair observation. I could be wrong
Zima, Looney Toons, and Harley Davidson were the only modern brands referenced in Babylon 5, and Zima was specifically included as a joke because everyone in production thought it was so awful that it would somehow ironically survive a few hundred years.
@@donkeysaurusrex7881 that’s true. I remember them being annoyed that it was thought to be product placement
I f*cking love this review. Somehow come off as cynical and not cynical at the same time. Anyone else get tucker Carlson vibes off Alex
You make it sound bad, but when I first saw this movie as a kid I wanted something like this to happen to me so badly
Now there's COD, dreams can come true!
Double feature when released with Cloak and Dagger. Watched both with mein Oma and sister at the Galaxy in San Antonio. Edit to add: Everytime you mention zima i recall back in the day. Everybody had that one guy in the group who bought that scheiße! Granted i was the other jerk who always bought the bier that nobody but me could read the labels. Lol 😂 everybody else was a Budweiser or Coors guy.
Zima was just the lightest version of Miller or whoever made it passed through charcoal filters until it was clear with citrus flavoring added. At the same time in the States there was Crystal Pepsi which people claimed had citrus flavor but was just Pepsi filtered until it was clear.
What does your shirt say?
The Star League never learned about the Maginot Line (speaking of the French...)
Unwittly signing up for a foreing legion? Area 88 anybody?
Wait, are Zimas still around?
Does anyone else see a resemblance between the Feral Historian and the Rylosians?
Seems like a Galactica or Buck Rogers 70s knockoff, with a dash of video games.
Wd be interesting to see you look at the Klaus Kinski Alien ripoff Creature. That made good bank in the straight to VHS market of the 80s.
Based on the "first live target" scene, the Xurians have about as much subtlety and tact as their leader. Firing upon someone who was merely asking you to identify yourself? Dead giveaway that you're up to no good. Plus, whoever was running the weapons on that skiff had a bad case of Stormtrooper aim.
I hate giving anyone any reason to watch the ST, but in The Force Awakens there’s a line that seems to indicate the few starfighters the rebels are using are the entire military force resisting the First Order much like the pitiful Star League military.
This movie is desperate for a remake.
"The Hind is full battle loaded with Zimas Cap'n. We'll get a mating outta her this time..."
You ask those questions about political power, use of forces in being and projected end state within the overall context of kicking ass 8n Gunstars. Duh.
Modern games pay military government recruiting
But is it the French or the Spanish Foreign Legion?
Just to figure out the apropriate hat.
Few things help lubricate a good session of over analyzing like a nice cold Zima! Hopefully there will never be a sequel - I shudder to think what the current horde of intersectional, representation-obsessed Hollywood knuckleheads would do - maybe The Last Starfighter 2: Maggie's Rebellion 😮
The thing is... the Gunstar is ugly.
Gul Dukat😂
What a great cheesy 80's movie.
Use of mercenaries never bodes well for a Society. Rome fell to its own foreign Legions. The UK year on year reduces Terms of Service and year on year increases the maximum of foreign born servicemen allowed. I don't think it includes in that number Gurkha's that aren't technically mercenaries because we say that they aren't. They are, and living on the past. Currently they are very expensive and not very good soldiers and while the rest of the UK Army amalgamates once proud regiments and lays up their colours, the Royal Gurkha Rifles has increased from 2 battalions to 3. The west is self sabotaging and rapidly heading for a fall to the determent of humans everywhere. I hope the new dark ages don't last a thousand years like last time.
This was more war by Achilles and Ajax, rather than a massive ordinary military. These were still people within the League, and Rylos welcomed the other peoples as equals, which Xur rejected.
You ARE fucking grate
Why 80s sci-fi movies were better, part the nth.
Rylos = France
I wouldn't count out of the part too you never know with the way they're scraping the bottom of the barrel with IP nostalgia schlock lately.
This has to be my favourite space action movie, I honestly prefer this over Star Wars, though I think Lucas did better work with the prequels than the originals or the sequels, he writes politics and intrigue better thana he does a generic hero story.