Battlefield Earth ** (2000, John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper, Kim Coates, Sabine Karsenti) – Classic Movie Review 10,509

Director Roger Christian’s 2000 American science fiction action film Battlefield Earth is based on the 1982 novel by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, and stars John Travolta, Barry Pepper and Forest Whitaker. It got a then record seven Golden Raspberry Awards and won Worst Picture of the Decade award in 2010.

Scientologist Travolta tried for many years to make a film of Hubbard’s novel, but production finally began in 1999, largely funded by the German distribution company Intertainment AG. Co-producer Travolta also contributed millions of dollars. He planned Battlefield Earth, which only covers the first half of the novel’s story, as the first in a two-part adaptation of the book, but the film’s financial woes and its poor reception ended Travolta’s plans for a sequel.

In the year 3000, there are no countries or cities, Earth is a wasteland and man is no match for the Psychlos, a race of manipulative aliens on a quest for global domination. Led by the seductive, powerful and downright evil Terl (John Travolta), the Psychlos have taken all the Earth’s natural resources for themselves and left mankind to rot. After humanity has given up the fight against the alien race, a young hero named Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper) decides to leave his desolate home high up in the Rockies and take a final, courageous stand to take back the planet.

Pepper makes a decent hero and does a lot of energetic running around, but doesn’t really have enough lines to create a full, exciting character. With less screen time, Travolta has almost all the dialogue in the film, but the lines aren’t exactly brilliant and he is acting in funny dreadlocks, green contact lens and fat suit, which may explain his camp, panto-style performance, though it is quite fun. Heroine Chrissy (Sabine Karsenti) hardly appears and Forest Whitaker’s performance as Travolta’s sidekick Ker is subdued, hampered perhaps by his alien makeup.

The very costly movie bombed in the States, after it was ridiculed on its opening weekend, though it is not nearly as bad as advance reports suggested. It could profitably have been either tougher and like an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie or camper like Flash Gordon, and it has got caught in a dull area between these two stools, with the plot hardly much more than a derivative premise (spot the shades of Blade Runner, Star Wars and Planet of the Apes) with a tacked-on conclusion.

There are signs of heavy editing in the jumpy, jittery film product, a mix of hasty exposition and longueur-filled scenes, in the 118 minute running time. The special effects, sets and action are variable, but some are truly impressive and provide the best reason to see the movie. Giles Nuttgens’s cinematography deserves praise too.

The screenplay by Corey Mandell and J David Shapiro is based on the best-selling novel by L Ron Hubbard, who founded the Church of Scientology in 1954.

Director Christian is the joint winner of the Oscar for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for Star Wars (1977) and a 1981 BAFTA Film Award nominee for Best Short Film for The Dollar Bottom (1980). The Sender (1982) is his promising feature film directorial début. Unfortunately he is also the 2001 Razzie Award winner for Worst Director for Battlefield Earth (2000).

Also in the cast are Kim Coates, Michael Byrne, Christine Tessier, Sylvain Landry, Richard Tyson, Christopher Freeman, John Topor, and Tim Post.

It cost $73,000,000 and grossed $21,471,685 in the US, with a cumulative Worldwide Gross of $29,725,663.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,509

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