BATTLE lost?


Another great little sci-fi outing from the past, that seems long-lost these days. (An AMC broadcast of several years ago was the first time I'd seen this since I was a kid in the early 1970s.) To the best of my knowledge, it's never had a home video release in the U.S. It's a bit dated, but that just adds to the charm. UFOs, a secret alien moon base, rocketships racing to battle alien invaders...this was the kind of stuff we begged our parents to stay up late and watch back in those pre-VCR days. C'mon, guys, give us a DVD of this great FX epic!

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I think a DVD is probably in the works, since Tokyo Shock recently released a gorgeous print of "The Mysterians", completely uncut and in letterbox format, and loaded with goodies.

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I hope so! I've picked up a number of their other offerings, such as VARAN, MANTAGO: ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE and VARAN.

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Sony holds the rights to Battle in Outer Space, Mothra, Rebirth of Mothra 3, and The H-Man. But they'll probably never release them.

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I just contacted Sony and unfortunately I was told that they don't have a DVD in the works at the moment. Bummer... I'd really like to see this within my lifetime.

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I had the privilege of seein' this masterpiece on the Big Screen when I was ten, and skipped STAR WARS when it came out - until I had kids of my own during the enhanced reissue era....

Ye Must Be Born Again

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The folks in Sony Repertory have it for theatrical rental -- and they also have a print of the Japanese version in the vaults (with no subs). They want to produced a subbed version for theatrical rental, as they did with Honda's MOTHRA (1961), but allocating the $4000+ to strike a subtitled print is a bit of a challenge. They'd also like to do the same for THE H-MAN as well... Meanwhile, the folks Columbia/TriStar Home Video view these films as Grade-Z garbage, so talking to them about a DVD release is like talking to a wall. So, tell your local rep house that you'd like to see BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE.

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According to their website, the dubbed US release of BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE is available on DVD from scifistation.com. I've never dealt with them so have no idea whatsoever of the quality of their product. I don't think it's widescreen and don't know the source of their print, so I wouldn't expect too much.

However...

As I wrote on another thread, the original, uncut, widescreen, Japanese (with English subtitles) film can be had from videodaikaiju.com. It's an excellent print, great color and sound, and the original (UCHU DAISENSO) is far superior to the dubbed US mishmash. Check that thread for more details.

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Sony just put this film out on DVD as part of a box set. It's a gorgeous widescreen print.

"We're all part Shatner/And part James Dean/Part Warren Oates/And Steven McQueen"

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