The Last Starfighter : Pressganged into the Foreign Legion

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 พ.ย. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 96

  • @incogneato790
    @incogneato790 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +115

    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.

  • @Magnulus76
    @Magnulus76 ปีที่แล้ว +56

    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.

    • @Strideo1
      @Strideo1 28 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

      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.

    • @Magnulus76
      @Magnulus76 27 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      @@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.

    • @null6634
      @null6634 19 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      ​@@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.

    • @Strideo1
      @Strideo1 19 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

      @@null6634 Of course not. Cynical people often mistake being earnest and straight forward with being naive or "simple" though.

    • @makvande576
      @makvande576 6 วันที่ผ่านมา

      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...

  • @Gruntvc
    @Gruntvc ปีที่แล้ว +73

    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.

    • @thelordofcringe
      @thelordofcringe หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      Racing sim gamers actually do fairly well in professional racing, so, there's clearly some overlap with the most realistic of games.

    • @stevenscott2136
      @stevenscott2136 27 วันที่ผ่านมา +4

      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.

    • @jebise1126
      @jebise1126 24 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      literally what drone operators are. not FPS but you get it.

    • @davidbigboutay782
      @davidbigboutay782 5 วันที่ผ่านมา

      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.

    • @TheCommissarIsDead
      @TheCommissarIsDead 3 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Flight of the navigator mentioned,sentience confirmed 😂 love that movie

  • @Tigershark_3082
    @Tigershark_3082 ปีที่แล้ว +31

    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
      @zimriel 4 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา

      pretty much every isekai ever tbh

  • @antherthalmhersser7239
    @antherthalmhersser7239 ปีที่แล้ว +46

    Ah, death blossom. Perhaps the most magnificent CQB technique ever devised.

    • @feralhistorian
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +19

      I do have to wonder how much development time went into a system with such limited utility. Who wargamed that scenario?

    • @graemelamont1617
      @graemelamont1617 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I'd need a vomit bag attachment to my helmet - that scene always left me feeling queasy just watching.

    • @boobah5643
      @boobah5643 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@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...

    • @christianoutlaw
      @christianoutlaw 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      @@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.

    • @slygore
      @slygore 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      ​@@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?

  • @mayfurrnz
    @mayfurrnz 19 วันที่ผ่านมา +11

    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 🙂

  • @sukhoi25
    @sukhoi25 ปีที่แล้ว +38

    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.

    • @LtColwtf
      @LtColwtf 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Well it is a relic of entertainment made by such a people, so there is that.

  • @chrisgenson2278
    @chrisgenson2278 ปีที่แล้ว +30

    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.

    • @feralhistorian
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +14

      The concept reel th-cam.com/video/tAvN9000o4A/w-d-xo.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.

  • @themarlboromandalorian
    @themarlboromandalorian ปีที่แล้ว +14

    Love the "something to discuss over Zima's" comment.

  • @graemelamont1617
    @graemelamont1617 ปีที่แล้ว +26

    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
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +8

      I strive to be a little off.

    • @graemelamont1617
      @graemelamont1617 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@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.

  • @Meower68
    @Meower68 25 วันที่ผ่านมา +14

    "... 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.

  • @michealcormier2555
    @michealcormier2555 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    I really love this channel. I'm so stoked the algorithm pointed this channel out to me. I look forward to future videos.

    • @feralhistorian
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +9

      The algorithm is a fickle beast.

  • @rdkap42
    @rdkap42 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    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.

  • @Orieni
    @Orieni ปีที่แล้ว +10

    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.

  • @padawanmage71
    @padawanmage71 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    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.

  • @owlsayssouth
    @owlsayssouth 17 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

    Never realized it was Gul dukat. That's great.

  • @arnie24070127
    @arnie24070127 10 วันที่ผ่านมา

    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

  • @IronWarhorsesFun
    @IronWarhorsesFun ปีที่แล้ว +8

    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.

  • @stischer47
    @stischer47 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    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.

  • @rang123yea5
    @rang123yea5 25 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

    Lance Guest that played Alex is actually a very good Jonny Cash impersonator.

  • @analysisofscifi6051
    @analysisofscifi6051 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Wow you made this movie a lot deeper than than I thought it was?

  • @whattowatchrightnow
    @whattowatchrightnow 9 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Centari is the best character. Loved this movie.

  • @chrisbenavides3176
    @chrisbenavides3176 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    Another great video. Also, Gul Dukat? Now I want to see you make a video on Deep Space 9.

  • @rang123yea5
    @rang123yea5 25 วันที่ผ่านมา +3

    Alex wasn't pressed into being a Pilot he was as gunner, Grig was the pilot.

  • @cynbartek9324
    @cynbartek9324 ปีที่แล้ว

    Many times I've wanted to watch this film, but never have.

  • @2yoober
    @2yoober 20 วันที่ผ่านมา +2

    Ye GAWDS. I come here for a little overthinking, and get Anton LeVeigh...
    Zima's 'round the campfire, boys. I'm buyin'! 😎

  • @mojrimibnharb4584
    @mojrimibnharb4584 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Magnificent analysis.

  • @ecmorgan69
    @ecmorgan69 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

    That was one cold opening. LOL 😂

  • @urself25
    @urself25 12 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Wow, I must have watched that movie 10 or 20 times and never recognized Mark Alaimo. 😅

  • @buildamillionbridges6153
    @buildamillionbridges6153 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Another great video. Thanks 😊

  • @pastorjerrykliner3162
    @pastorjerrykliner3162 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    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...

  • @jameslooker4791
    @jameslooker4791 21 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    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.

  • @Churchmilitant67
    @Churchmilitant67 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I would like to recommend the movie Enemy Mine.

  • @mahatmarandy5977
    @mahatmarandy5977 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    "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.

  • @davydatwood3158
    @davydatwood3158 9 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา

    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.

  • @wynfrithnichtwo8423
    @wynfrithnichtwo8423 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    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.

  • @bugslayerprime7674
    @bugslayerprime7674 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    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
      @feralhistorian  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      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.

  • @tonygoodkind7858
    @tonygoodkind7858 9 วันที่ผ่านมา

    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.

  • @adamlove3295
    @adamlove3295 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    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.

    • @feralhistorian
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +10

      My first cut actually did riff on that a bit, but the TH-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.

    • @adamlove3295
      @adamlove3295 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@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!

    • @stevemcallister4965
      @stevemcallister4965 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      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.

    • @graemelamont1617
      @graemelamont1617 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I figure what else could they do at that point but accept their fate... Pull up?

    • @feralhistorian
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@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.

  • @pbh81
    @pbh81 หลายเดือนก่อน

    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

  • @stuckbarry4163
    @stuckbarry4163 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Growing up for some reaaon I always confused this with Enemy Mine...

  • @cosmicwartoad2587
    @cosmicwartoad2587 26 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    Unwittly signing up for a foreing legion? Area 88 anybody?

  • @patrickflaherty5914
    @patrickflaherty5914 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    The Star League never learned about the Maginot Line (speaking of the French...)

  • @thephantomoftheparadise5666
    @thephantomoftheparadise5666 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Have you seen Logan's Run?

    • @feralhistorian
      @feralhistorian  ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Yes, though It's been quite a long time. There's a stack of '70s sci-fi I need to rewatch.

    • @boobah5643
      @boobah5643 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@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.

  • @DutchieTheBitter
    @DutchieTheBitter 25 วันที่ผ่านมา

    What does your shirt say?

  • @supremegodemperorpalpatine4872
    @supremegodemperorpalpatine4872 18 วันที่ผ่านมา

    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.

  • @jjggbbjunk
    @jjggbbjunk 24 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Does anyone else see a resemblance between the Feral Historian and the Rylosians?

  • @PvtSchlock
    @PvtSchlock 22 วันที่ผ่านมา

    "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.

  • @danschneider7531
    @danschneider7531 ปีที่แล้ว

    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.

  • @iandaniel1748
    @iandaniel1748 ปีที่แล้ว

    Modern games pay military government recruiting

  • @MinusMaximusXX
    @MinusMaximusXX 24 วันที่ผ่านมา

    You ARE fucking grate

  • @comentedonakeyboard
    @comentedonakeyboard 21 วันที่ผ่านมา

    But is it the French or the Spanish Foreign Legion?
    Just to figure out the apropriate hat.

  • @geographicaloddity2
    @geographicaloddity2 11 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Gul Dukat😂

  • @eliinthewolverinestate6729
    @eliinthewolverinestate6729 10 วันที่ผ่านมา

    What a great cheesy 80's movie.

  • @noahdoyle6780
    @noahdoyle6780 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Why 80s sci-fi movies were better, part the nth.

  • @radfoxuk8113
    @radfoxuk8113 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    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.

  • @williamvorkosigan5151
    @williamvorkosigan5151 7 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

    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.

  • @whattowatchrightnow
    @whattowatchrightnow 9 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Rylos = France

  • @adcaptandumvulgus4252
    @adcaptandumvulgus4252 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    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.