Battlefield Earth (2000) John Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Richard Tyson, Sabine Karsenti, Michael MacRae, Michael Byrne, Sean Hewitt, Michel Perron, Shaun Austin-Olsen, Christian Tessier, Kelly Preston. Music by Elia Cmiral. Screenplay by Corey Mandell and J.D. Shapiro, from the novel by L. Ron Hubbard. Directed by Roger Christian. 116 minutes. Rated PG-13, no star rating (explanation below)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Edward+Johnson-Ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to ejohnsonott@prodigy.net or e-mail ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
I've assigned no star rating to John Travolta's "Battlefield Earth" because, frankly, I'm unsure how many stars to give a film that is so bad that it's good. In general, I find the practice of championing lousy movies to be distasteful. Mocking the efforts of others is snide, and besides, there are plenty of quality films dying on the vine for lack of a receptive audience.
But still…
Every so often a movie comes along that is so overwrought, overacted and overwhelmingly inept that it must be seen to be believed. Glorious disasters like "Valley of the Dolls," "Mommie Dearest," "Road House" and "Showgirls." And now comes "Battlefield Earth," the newest entry to the Grade Z Hall of Fame.
Travolta optioned the source novel in 1983, and has been trying to get the 1000 page opus by his mentor, L. Ron Hubbard, onto the big screen ever since. Originally, he dreamed of starring as the young hero, but as the years passed and his waistline thickened, Travolta (who also co-produced the film) opted to play the villain instead.
The story is set in the year 3000; nearly a millennium after the Psychlos, a supremely arrogant alien race, wiped out most of humanity. As security chief Terl (Travolta) graciously explains, "When we attacked your planet... all your soldiers and all their advanced technology, you only put up a measly nine-minute fight. This is why Man is an endangered species!" From domed installations, the Psychlos force the surviving "man-animals" to mine for gold.
The remnants of our species are primitives, many of whom consider the Psychlos to be vengeful gods. When Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper, the sharpshooter from "Saving Private Ryan") dares to leave his people in the hills to go exploring, he is quickly captured by the aliens and comes face to face with Mr. Psychlo himself. Terl, enraged after being passed over for promotion, uses Jonnie as a pawn in an elaborate scheme to regain the power he feels he deserves. But Jonnie has plans of his own. Assembling a ragtag (is there any other kind?) team of patriots, he intends to drive the Psychlos off the planet, by any means necessary.
The plot is serviceable; it's the execution that makes "Battlefield Earth" such a joke. The filmmakers are so determined to make viewers realize they are watching an !!EPIC!! that they turn the production into a gigantic block of cheese.
>From the opening scenes, which employ a "Beastmaster" motif, Elia Cmiral's "majestic" score bludgeons the audience with thunderous noise. If one of the noble human savages even raises an arm, you can count on a pounding kettledrum or a fanfare to accompany the movement.
The acting matches the music. Barry Pepper adopts a stilted Mid Atlantic accent, the kind community theater actors use when they play royalty. Sincere to a fault, his strained delivery suggests constipation rather than heroism. Perhaps the strain was from trying to keep a straight face while spouting lines like "We're gonna destroy their home world… of course, we'll need some extra supplies for that."
Pepper is a master of subtlety compared to Travolta, who gives a performance that would make William Shatner wince. Decked out like the bastard son of a Klingon and Gene Simmons, the dreadlocked Travolta crinkles his fingers while hissing, snarling and overenunciating absurdly, punctuating sentences like "Once we finish mining-out this miserable little planet, let's do the Universe a favor: Let's exterminate the life from it!" with maniacal laughter. He also swears a lot, mostly using peculiar variants of the word "crap."
The Psychlos are supposed to be overconfident fools who fatally underestimate humanity ("A man-animal getting leverage over a Psychlo," cackles Terl, "that'll be the day!"), and Travolta gets that part right. But they're also supposed to be frightening, and these boobs in KISS boots are anything but. As Terl's underling, Ker, Forest Whitaker (looking extremely uncomfortable in freaky contact lens) is a bit less embarrassing than Travolta, though he has his share of cringe-worthy moments. Kelly Preston, Mrs. Travolta, also appears briefly, just long enough to lasciviously waggle her mega-long CGI tongue.
As for the mechanics of the "man-animal" revolt, suffice to say the plot has more holes than a tattooist's ears. Oh sure, the Psychlos took Earth in nine minutes, but the savages have an edge because, hey, they're spunky. Luckily for them, aircraft that has sat untouched for nearly a thousand years still works. And if you thought the resolution of "Independence Day" was ridiculous, wait until you get a load of the finale here.
Visually, the film is a muddy pastiche of images and set pieces from other sci-fi films, ripping off everything from "Planet of the Apes" to "The Matrix." Adding to the absurdity is Director Roger Christian's attempt to weird things up by repeatedly shooting scenes at an angle, à la "The Twilight Zone."
If you think this all sounds horrific, trust me – I've barely scraped the surface. "Battlefield Earth" is an absolute disaster… and a crapload of campy fun. The icing on the cheesecake is Travolta's assurance that there will positively be a sequel. Jeepers, I can hardly wait!
© 2000 Ed Johnson-Ott
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