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.
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.
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.
@@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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
Love the "something to discuss over Zima's" comment.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Another great video. Also, Gul Dukat? Now I want to see you make a video on Deep Space 9.
Wow you made this movie a lot deeper than than I thought it was?
Many times I've wanted to watch this film, but never have.
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.
Magnificent analysis.
That was one cold opening. LOL 😂
Another great video. Thanks 😊
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...
"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.
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.
I would like to recommend the movie Enemy Mine.
Growing up for some reaaon I always confused this with Enemy Mine...
The Star League never learned about the Maginot Line (speaking of the French...)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Modern games pay military government recruiting
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.
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.
I liked this movie. 😂