MovieChat Forums > Gandahar (1989) Discussion > Why the title 'Light Years' for the Amer...

Why the title 'Light Years' for the American version?

posted 12 years ago by alpha128
5 replies | jump to latest

The plot of this movie has nothing to with space travel. Therefore, I never understood why the title "Light Years" was used for the American version.

I don't begrudge them changing the title. "Gandahar" is not the snappiest or most descriptive of titles. But why not something that actually fits the plot, like "Time War" or "War Across Time"?

If they wanted to avoid spoiling the time travel aspect, they could have used something more vague like "The Thousand Year War".

But why "Light Years"? Anyone know?

[–] hallogallo 12 years ago

Apparently last time anyone checked something like 98% of American's wouldn't go and see a movie with a foreign language title, not even if the movie itself was in English. That's why the title was changed for the USA release.

Wasn't some of the sexual content cut and much of the movie re-scored as well?

"Who's driving this plane? Stan Butler?"

[–] Ray_BLOODY_Purchase 10 years ago

Funny thing to me is that "Gandahar" just sounds like an alienish name for the planet or such. Going into a sci-fi movie without any knowledge of its content, I wouldn't look at the world "Gandahar" and think, "ew, foreign language."

::I give into sin because you have to make this life livable...
Because I practice what I preach::

[–] hallogallo 10 years ago

But someone just seeing the movie's name in the listings in the local newspaper with no knowledge of what it was would probably automatically think "Foreign movie. Delta Force staring Chuck Norris? That sounds more fun."

Who's driving this plane? Stan Butler?

[–] Ray_BLOODY_Purchase 10 years ago

I can't speak for newspapers in the 80's, or all over the country, but whenever I was a kid and would check the newspaper for movies when we did go to the cinema, there was always a page full of three-to-four sentence synopses and a star-rating, with the time tables opposite.

::I give into sin because you have to make this life livable...
Because I practice what I preach::

[–] scribe1270 12 years ago

According to Wikipedia The English title is a translation, not of the original title, but of the original tag line "Les Années lumière" ("The Light Years") as seen on the French poster. So someone had apparently seen the original poster and translated the tag line as being a fitting title for the English language market.