The time is thousands of years in the future and mankind, having moved to colonise space, has been under attack from forces beyond. The planet Earth has been protected by a special shield, but still the onslaught comes and two pilots, Murat (Cüneyt Arkin) and Ali (Aytekin Akkaya) are dispatched in their spacecraft to fight back. They manage to repel the invaders, but at what cost? In a huge explosion they are sent crashing down to the ground and in a dazed state they clamber out of a pile of rubble to see that they are on a strange world they don't recognise. Little do they know that it is here that their enemy resides and they will have no choice but to battle him...
And oh, how they will battle him. Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam, translated as The Man Who Saves the World but more commonly known outside its homeland as The Turkish Star Wars, became notorious in fan circles for its liberal lifting of elements from Hollywood science fiction movies, most notably Star Wars. That squeezed-ratio space battle footage from the start unmistakably hails from George Lucas' epic, only in a bizarre twist the goodies are flying TIE Fighters and the baddies X-Wings - at least the Millennium Falcon is on the right side and piloted by the not only the star of this but also the scriptwriter, Cüneyt Arkin.
It's not just footage from the 1977 sci-fi favourite that makes it into this notably lower budget adventure, just listen to the soundtrack for a couple of minutes and you're sure to hear something you recognise, although for some reason no music from Star Wars is used. Nevertheless, John Williams' theme to Raiders of the Lost Ark is liberally sprinkled over the action, as is Queen's score to Flash Gordon, complete with Max Von Sydow's laugh - they restrain themselves from using the bit where Freddie Mercury sings out "Flash!", however.
That's not to say there's much restraint employed elsewhere, and from a Western point of view it's interesting to see this Turkish take on what amounts to an update of Hollywood serials, as Star Wars was. That said, this version comes across as even more faithful to those golden age stories, mainly because of how cheap it all looks. They don't let the lack of budget hold them back, of course, and every five minutes, maybe even shorter, a fight breaks out with our two heroes beating up a selection of stuntmen in outlandish costumes, including the distinctive large red teddy bears.
In fact there's so much violence, quite a lot of it bloodthirsty, that you wonder who this was aimed at - surely kids wouldn't want to see a bunch of fellow children killed by the bad guys' goons as happens here? But violence is apparently the only language these filmmakers understand, because when Murat and Ali aren't engaging in fisticuffs, they're indulging in a hilarious, rock-beating, trampolining training montage to limber up for yet another round of biffing.
OK, it's not all about punching off baddies' arms and stuffing them up their noses, although that also happens, as they consider themselves ladies' men and philosophers too: Ali is constantly going on about women (though it's Murat who gets the girl) and his colleague is of the opinion that nuclear war happens because people don't have a good enough sense of humour. Utterly ridiculous, the film does work up a heady delirium but does start to wear thin about the time they bring religion into the equation, so perhaps this is best enjoyed in clip form. Consider this, though: maybe The Turkish Star Wars was a look ahead to all those fan videos that took their favourite clips and edited themselves into them. Only taking that premise to absurd lengths... futuristic indeed.
