director
Roger Christian
screenwriters
Corey Mandell
J.D. Shapiro
based on
the novel by
L. Ron
Hubbard
producers
Jonathan D. Krane
Elie Samaha
John Travolta
cinematographer
Giles Nuttgens
music
Elia Cmiral
editor
Robin Russell
cast
John Travolta (Terl)
Barry Pepper (Johnnie Goodboy Tyler)
Forest Whitaker (Ker)
Kim Coates (Carlo)
Sabine Karsenti (Chrissy)
Michael Byrne (Parson Staffer)
Christian Tessier (Mickey)
Sylvain Landry (Sammy)
Richard Tyson (Robert the Fox)
Kelly Preston (Chirk)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 117m
u.s.
release: 5/12/00
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
official
website
|
When
a movie attracts as much critical venom as Battlefield Earth
has, I try to go against the grain if I can; I like to champion
films nobody else appreciates. So, without further ado, here
are the good things about Battlefield Earth:
(1) It has endlessly bad dialogue ripe for Mystery Science
Theater 3000 ridicule. Right from the start, when the hero
brings medicine back to his village only to be told "The
gods took your father in the night," I knew what we were
all in for.
(2) It's only 117 minutes long. It could have been longer.
Battlefield Earth is this year's what-were-they-thinking?
movie -- a folly so supreme that it occasionally inspires awe,
in the sense that so many people spent so much time and money
on it without ever realizing how awful it is. John Travolta,
the star and co-producer of this adaptation of a "best-seller"
by his Scientologist mentor L. Ron Hubbard, has said that the
movie only covers the first half of the lengthy book, which obviously
leaves things open for -- you're sitting down, right? -- a sequel.
I have just one thing to say to that: You mean there's more?
We're in the year 3000, when humans have been all but wiped out
by a warlike, Klingon-esque race called the Psychlos. A handful
of humans, reduced to grungy caveman status, are still subsisting
on the small wildlife of Earth. One of them, Johnnie Goodboy
Tyler (Barry Pepper), steps forth and leads the enslaved humans
in a mutiny against the Psychlos. Partially, this involves a
ploy by the Psychlos' "leader of security," Terl (Travolta),
who actually facilitates the mutiny so that he can make off with
the gold he's forcing the humans to mine for him. No dummies,
the humans just travel to Fort Knox and bring back a bunch of
gold bars for Terl, who never asks what technology the humans
used to smelt the gold.
For long stretches, Travolta gets more screen time than the nominal
hero; we get a few scenes of Terl grousing about orders from
the "home office," like a latex-laden Dilbert. I wouldn't
call Travolta's performance bad, exactly -- he's fascinating
here, because you constantly monitor him for signs that he realizes
how silly the movie is. He doesn't seem to notice. He tries to
work up a diabolical head of steam, but I kept feeling that he
was making some deep Scientological point with his character,
some object lesson of how not to be. He seems, at least, to be
having some fun, which cannot be said of poor Barry Pepper, whose
strong supporting work in Saving Private
Ryan and The Green Mile
should remain pure in your memory, unblemished by his helplessly
bland performance here.
The plot is so nonsensical as to be almost surreal -- perhaps
it came from the home office. Terl obligingly pumps Johnnie full
of helpful data, including the Psychlonian language, so that
Johnnie can eventually use it to teach his fellow humans how
to fly centuries-old jet fighters and blow up the Psychlos. I
would've loved just one human to say "I can't believe how
stupid these guys are." Viewers may well say that
about the movie, too. Believe it. Battlefield Earth isn't
the usual boring waste of resources. It's a laughable
waste of resources that, more laughable still, aspires to higher
things. And there's something almost touching about that
ending, which so innocently, so trustingly leaves the door open
for a sequel, as if this mess were going to make so much money
and inspire such love in our hearts that we'd clamor for Battlefield
Earth 2. I have every confidence that the second half of
the novel will go unfilmed, and will also go as largely unread
as the first half. |