Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam (The Man Who Saved The World) [1982]

This movie is not really known by its real name, but it is instead often referred to as "Turkish Star Wars." It's not that the film is particularly like Star Wars in any way outside of being a science fiction movie. The nickname comes from the fact that it uses a ton of footage from Star Wars to provide galaxy scenes and battles to the movie. And that's not all. It excessively uses the theme from Indiana Jones during fight scenes. I don't know enough about copyright law to comment but I would imagine that the Turkish film industry of the 80s wouldn't have much of an impact on Western media. 

So if it's not actually a direct ripoff, what's it actually about? The film gives a massive information dump right in the beginning that is a little hard to follow but here's what we got: Earth has exploded into smaller rocks, aliens don't have brains and want human brains because they have superior willpower, and humanity's fate is in the hands of a martial artist and a misogynist. From there the film involves the two characters getting captured over and over and fighting off the aliens in completely absurd ways. The absolute best moment is when one of them rips off a red, fuzzy aliens arms and beats him with them. Eventually the misogynist friend dies and the other guy goes on a hilarious killing rampage. That's most of the film really. There's some religious stuff in there about Islam being proof of humanity's power and Jesus building a seven layer underground bunker to protect people, but I couldn't tell you how that fits into anything.

While a bit slow at first, this film is a winner. The fight scenes and effects are absurd, the dialogue is hilarious, and the liberal thievery just adds to the whimsy. It's one of the best we've seen in a while and well worth your time.

Spoon Rating: 8