Culture News This forgotten sci-fi film tried to dethrone Star Wars, but no one remembers it 45 years after its release
Published on 03/27/2024 at 2:25 p.m.
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You may have never heard of it, but this feature film is known to be one of the most shameful copies of Star Wars.
In the history of cinema inspired by the filmography of George Lucas, there are plagiarisms which do not even hide the fact that they are there. Recalled by our colleagues from Allociné, The Humanoid is an Italian science fiction film that shamelessly copies the Star Wars saga. It was released barely two years after A New Hope, in 1979, and takes several elements from Star Wars without taking the trouble to actually transform them. But with a spectator rating of 1.9/5 on Allociné, it's hard to imagine that it won over the public as much as the cult franchise.
The story begins when the evil Grail wants to dethrone his brother in power on the planet Metropolis by demanding the help of Dr. Kraspin, a mad scientist who is developing a potion capable of transforming ordinary humans into super-powerful soldiers. The effects of the latter shift slightly on the pilot Golob who then transforms into an indestructible creation and will naturally serve as an instrument of revenge against the peaceful nation. A film by Aldo Lado, who before that was assistant director of Italian westerns, then directed The Last Train of the Night, Who Saw Her Die?, and I'm Alive!, which only genre fans know. His last feature film was La Desobeissance, released in theaters in 1981. Note that he also co-wrote the screenplay for L'Humanoïd.
Barely hidden plagiarism
With a still substantial budget, the feature film can boast of broadcasting an original soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, renowned composer awarded countless times, who worked for the greatest, namely Morricone Mike Nichols, Brian De Palma, John Carpenter or even Quentin Tarantino. He is also said to have influenced many popular artists such as Metallica and Radiohead. The casting, on the other hand, is more anonymous for Western audiences, but we nevertheless find Richard Kiel there, probably the most famous of the lot, he who we know best for his flagship role in Moonraker. He plays alongside Ivan Rassimov, Corinne Cléry, Barbara Bach and Venantino Venantini.
For the less curious, you won't really need to watch the film to find the similarities with the Star Wars saga; a trip to Google Images will be more than enough to find a good number of copies and pastes, between the villain costumes, the text that scrolls in the introduction, or even the robot dog whose sound effects are very reminiscent of Star Wars machines. Even funnier, the director borrows the pseudonym George B. Lewis for this project. We are no longer hiding from anything. Plagiarism has also been carefully analyzed on the site nanarland.com:
Let's just say in passing that the first scenes of the film immediately undermine its credibility by engaging in a veritable photocopy of “Star Wars”: shot based on a ship crossing space, scrolling text with perspective effect and above all, sublime appearance , a Lord Grail with a costume ENTIRELY copied from that of Darth Vader, with the exception of vague patterns in the shape of bottle openers on the sides of the helmet and a mask which reveals part of the face, like in an S&M party!
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