The Turkish Star Wars

Sometimes a friend will make you watch a film and it will take you a few days before you even believe that you actually fucking saw it in the first place.

One of those films is The Turkish Star Wars (AKA Dünyayi kurtaran adam AKA The Man Who Saves the World).

OK. Trash film lore goes like this; In Turkey, in 1982, the copyright laws were so lax that it wasn't uncommon for big budget movies to be excised of all their big budget special effects and have a completely new plotline and story written around those special effects.

So watch out when in 1982 (5 years after its release) the film Star Wars reaches the Balkan Region.

This wondrous piece of cult ephemera just has to be seen to be believed, if not only just for the amazingly liberal use of George Lucas original film footage (the strange twist here being that the X-Wings are the Bad Guys and the Tie Fighters are the good guys), but the sets, costumes and especially the dialogue are all so deliciously bad.

Special mention should also go to their liberal use of several other soundtracks and film scores directly purloined from other Western cinematic fair, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Queen's Flash Gordon Soundtrack and an incredibly strange disco re-working of Battlestar Galactica, used to hilariously great effect in this unbelievable training montage. Note also John Williams Raiders of the Lost Ark gets a serious look in while our heroes discover some exploding rocks!!



The set design and characters and especially the monsters look like how Sesame Street would look if it were made as a "dirty money grubbing exercise" rather than entertaining and uplifting pursuit bringing joy into the hearts of children. Especially the films villian, the Darth Vader character, whose costume looks like a childs cardboard and dried macaroni collage bought to life.



This is a delightful piece of crap. A rare cinematic experience and if like me you cherish the odd and wonderfully awful, this film is a must see. Find, borrow, steal,... get thee to the bit torrent.


P.S. the very few clips i could find have no english subtitles (sorry folks) but if you got the time there is this at Google Video.