Battlefield Earth
USA 2000
Reviewed by Kim Newman
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
A thousand years hence. The Earth has long since been occupied by the Psychlos, an aggressively capitalist species of giant humanoid aliens. Humans live either in servitude to the invaders or in small tribes. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a young tribesman, leaves his homestead and falls in with Carlo, a hunter. They are soon captured by a Psychlo raiding party rounding up slaves.
Terl, Psychlo Security Chief on Earth, is condemned by his superiors to stay indefinitely at his post. Assisted by his deputy Ker, Terl plots to make a fortune by secretly training humans to mine gold in radioactive areas. Terl trains Jonnie for the job, subjecting him to a machine that fills him with Psychlo knowledge. Jonnie counterplots against Terl, using his newly acquired skills to scavenge gold from Fort Knox and fighter jets and nuclear weapons from a US military base. In a mass uprising against the Psychlos, Carlo sacrifices himself to destroy the dome over Denver, letting in air fatal to the Psychlos. Jonnie uses a teleport link with the Psychlos' home planet to send the aliens a suicide raider with a nuclear device, which ignites the atmosphere of the planet. Ker sides with the humans; Terl is imprisoned as insurance against reprisal from other Psychlo colonies.
Review
The 1066-page novel Battlefield Earth was L. Ron Hubbard's first published science fiction after a prolonged break from the genre spent inventing Dianetics, the peculiar system of DIY psychic self-improvement that forms the basis of the Church of Scientology. At the time of publication, it was remarked that Hubbard had retrofitted his belief system into pulp plotting by setting out a story - young man overcomes initial ignorance to achieve mastery of Earth - which could easily be read as an allegory of an initiate's progress through Scientology. It was also clear that Hubbard had taken little notice of how the genre had changed since his days in the late 30s writing at a penny a word for such magazines as Astounding Science Fiction. Full of gosh-wow devices that had long since become clichés, Battlefield Earth's juvenile tone was more in tune with the post-Star Wars science-fiction films of the late 70s than the literary field which had nurtured Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison and Alfred Bester.
For this reason, Battlefield Earth is likely to go down better with Scientology devotees - for whom Hubbard is an almost sacred figure - than with serious science-fiction fans. The path to enlightenment taken by the film's pouting, callow hero Jonnie is as fuzzy as any other post-Skywalker attempt to yoke in teachings from Joseph W. Campbell to add mythic muscle to an action scenario. It doesn't help that the film's premise, which sees stoneage cavemen turn into ace fighter pilots with only a week's training, is as naive as that of the 1939 serial Buck Rogers, where Buck mastered futuristic flying machines in as ludicrously short a period.
Roger Christian presumably won this big-budget science-fiction gig on the basis of his second-unit work on the The Phantom Menace. Unfortunately, star and co-producer John Travolta seems to have failed to notice that among Christian's mixed, often interesting directorial credits (The Sender, Nostradamus) was a previous science-fiction action film Lorca and the Outlaws that managed with far fewer resources to be exactly as muddy, silly and tedious as this effort. Battlefield Earth has the added misfortune to arrive as the latest in a line of similar exercises (Waterworld, The Postman) that have become standing jokes in the genre, failing entirely to match the hairy mix of satire and spectacle found in the first Planet of the Apes films or the Mad Max series. With sub-Gene Roddenberry bathos, villain Terl's big mistake is not filling Jonnie's head with science (basic algebra, the ability to fly a spaceship) but encouraging him to examine a dusty copy of the Declaration of Independence that inspires his rebellion.
Though he originally intended to play the hero, Travolta presumably switched to the role of alien villain because he recognised that the scheming baddie is a far meatier part. Scientology at least notionally stands as a reaction to the grey-flannel-suit excesses of early-50s US corporate culture, and the most deeply felt aspect of the novel that transfers to the film is its depiction of the Psychlos as members of a corrupt corporation where every executive is out to maximise his own personal profit. It's panto-level satire, but one that allows for welcome moments of camp - notably Travolta and Forest Whitaker's blustering, back-stabbing double act - that break up the pompous rebel-rousing. An ending which leaves them both alive while wiping out their homeworld (a blithe genocide prompting the Clerks cry of "What about the builders?") raises the possibility of a sequel, drawn from the second half of the novel. Since the plot hinges on the aeronautical prowess of stoneage-like tribesmen, it's futile to complain about lesser demands on suspension of disbelief such as the Psychlo homeworld's possession of an atmosphere that can fortuitously combust after the detonation of a simple atom bomb.
Credits
- Director
- Roger Christian
- Producers
- Elie Samaha
- Jonathan D. Krane
- John Travolta
- Screenplay
- Corey Mandell
- J.D. Shapiro
- Based on the novel by
- L. Ron Hubbard
- Director of Photography
- Giles Nuttgens
- Editor
- Robin Russell
- Production Designer
- Patrick Tatopoulos
- Music
- Elia Cmiral
- ©Battlefield Productions, LLC
- Production Companies
- Morgan Creek Productions, Inc and Franchise Pictures present a Franchise Pictures/Jonathan D. Krane production/JTP Films production
- Executive Producers
- Andrew Stevens
- Ashok Amritraj
- Don Carmody
- Co-producers
- Tracee Stanley
- James Holt
- Associate Producers
- Anson Downes
- Linda Favila
- Executive Supervisor
- The Krane Group:
- Rino Vetrone
- Executive Production Associate
- Rob Morton
- Production Supervisor
- Francey Grace
- Production Controller
- Florian Schereck
- Production Co-ordinator
- Marie-Élaine Bailly
- Unit Production Manager
- Jacky Lavoie
- Unit Managers
- Paul Boutin
- 2nd Unit:
- Maurice Forget
- Location Manager
- Adrian Knight
- Post-production
- Supervisor:
- Michael Tinger
- Co-ordinator:
- Matthew Walsh
- 2nd Unit Director
- Richard Martin
- Assistant Directors
- Walter Gasparovic
- Penny Charter
- Erik Ajduk
- Brandon Lambdin
- Jean-Francois Duplat
- Auree Tommi Lepage
- 2nd Unit:
- Maïté Sarthou
- 2nd Unit:
- Brigitte Goulet
- Angèle Gagnon
- Karla Bluteau
- Script Supervisors
- Joanne Harwood
- 2nd Unit:
- Guylaine Chagnon
- Anne Laure D. Debay
- Casting
- Lynn Stalmaster
- Canadian:
- Andrea Kenyon
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Peter Benison
- Camera Operator
- Robert Stecko
- Addditional Operators
- Nicolas Marion
- Robert Guertin
- Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky
- Steadicam Operator
- Brad Hruboska
- Wescam Operator
- Frank Holgate
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Erik Henry
- Visual Effects Producer
- Steve Dellerson
- Visual Effects Editor
- Derrick Mitchell
- Pre-visualization Artist
- Jean-François Mignault
- Los Angeles Creatures Department
- Patrick Tatopoulos Designs Inc
- Visual Effcts
- Rhythm and Hues Studios
- Gray Matter FX
- Optical Illusions Inc
- Digital Visual Effects
- Hybride Technologies
- Computer Café
- 3DSite
- Digital Firepower, Inc
- Digital Muse
- Digital Animation Effects
- Image Savant
- Matte Paintings
- Digital Backlot
- Mechanical Special Effects
- Les Productions de l'Intrigue, Inc
- Model Shop Supervisor
- Ronny Gosselin
- Chief Model Maker
- Patrice Jacques
- Key Model Makers
- Dave Loveday
- Alain Dufresne
- Model Makers
- Joseph Baugniet
- Christopher Bobyn
- Jacques Bouchard
- Roger Bourgouin
- Fabrice Descurninges
- Luc Doyan
- Marcel-Pierre Dussol
- Dimitri Kaliviotis
- Robert Lalonde
- Patrick Lee
- Brian Penny
- Jean-François Plourde
- E. James Small
- Patrice Tremblay
- Céline Turcotte
- Matthew Willis
- Emma Russell
- Lea Russell
- Visual Effects Miniatures Directors of Photography
- Big Harry Fichter
- Little Mary Fichter
- Miniature Special Effects Supervisor
- Joe Viskocil
- Visual Effects Production Co-ordinator
- Kate St. Pierre
- Miniature Supervisor
- Bill Pearson
- Graphic Designer
- Carl Lessard
- Motion Control Operators
- Steve Switaj
- Chris Dawson
- Motion Control Miniature Supervisor
- Chris Trice
- Photosonics Operator
- Jeff Sturgill
- Supervising Art Director
- Claude Paré
- Art Director
- Oana Bogdan
- Set Designers
- Lev Bereznycky
- Joseph Browns
- Simon Guillault
- Claude Lafrance
- Russell Moore
- Richard Shean
- Lucie Tremblay
- Set Design
- LA Art Department:
- Mick Cukurs
- Doug Meerdink
- Key Set Decorator
- Anne Galéa
- Conceptual Designers
- LA Art Department:
- Harald Belker
- Kevin Ishioka
- Illustrators
- Geoff Isherwood
- LA Art Department:
- Tom Lay
- Mariano Diaz
- Stephan Martiniere
- Head Scenic Artist
- Alain Gigure
- Storyboard Artists
- Kasia Adamik
- LA Art Department:
- David Negron Jr
- Michael Jackson
- Costume Designer
- Patrick Tatopoulos
- Costumes Supervisor
- Francesca Chamberland
- Costumes Department Co-ordinator
- Catherine Handfield
- Wardrobe Mistresss
- Suzie Coutu
- Maryse Papineau
- Key Make-up Artist
- Jocelyne Bellemare
- Make-up Artists
- Nicole Lapierre
- 2nd Unit:
- Josée Doucet
- Nadine Gilliot
- Key Special Effects Make-up Artist
- Adrien Morot
- Contact Lens Technician
- Caroline Daoud
- Key Hairdresser
- Bob Pritchett
- Hairdresser
- André Duval
- Key Special Effects Hairdresser
- David Fedele
- Special Effects Hairdressers
- Deborah McNulty
- Martina Köhl
- Claudia Monseau
- Jayson Philapil
- 2nd Unit Hairdresser
- Martin Rivest
- Titles/Opticals
- Howard Anderson Company
- Orchestra Conductor
- Conrad Pope
- Choir Conductor
- Thomas Bartke
- Orchestrations
- Erik Lundborg
- Music Editor
- Mike Flicker
- Orchestral/Electric Score Recorder/Mixer
- John Whynot
- Sound Design
- John Fasal
- John Nutt
- James LeBrecht
- Production Sound Recordist
- Patrick Rousseau
- Recordists
- Mark Johnson
- Charles Hamilton
- Laverne Dewberry
- Rick Canelli
- Re-recording Mixers
- John Reitz
- Greg Rudloff
- David Campbell
- Christian Minkler
- Ken S. Polk
- Dan Hiland
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Christopher Aud
- Co-supervising Sound Editor
- Robert Redpath
- Dialogue Editors
- Gloria D'Alessandro
- Teri Dorman
- Patrick J. Foley
- Effects Editors
- Rick Hromadka
- Adam Johnston
- Andrew M. Somers
- David Werntz
- ADR
- Mixers:
- Troy Porter
- Tom O'Connell
- Editor:
- Jessica Gallavan
- Foley
- Artists:
- Kevin Bartnof
- Casey Crabtree
- Recordist:
- Christopher Munyon
- Mixer:
- Eric Gotthelf
- Editors:
- Andy Kopetzky
- David Horton Jr
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Steve Lucescu
- Stunt Co-co-ordinators
- Mark Riccardi
- J.P. Romano
- Weapon Co-ordinator/
Handler - Brent W. Radford
- Animal/Equestrian Co-ordinator
- Pete White
- Animal Trainer
- Nicole Germain
- Helicopter Pilot
- Jim Dirker
- Cast
- John Travolta
- Terl
- Barry Pepper
- Jonnie Goodboy Tyler
- Forest Whitaker
- Ker
- Kim Coates
- Carlo
- Richard Tyson
- the wild woodsman
- Sabine Karsenti
- Chrissy
- Michael Byrne
- Parson Staffer
- Christian Tessier
- Mickey
- Sylvain Landry
- Sammy
- Christopher Freeman
- John Topor
- processing clerks
- Shaun Austin-Olsen
- Planetship
- Tim Post
- Assistant Planetship
- Earl Pastko
- bartender
- Michel Perron
- Rock
- Michael MacRae
- District Manager Zeta
- Todd McDougall
- Psychlo wrangler
- Derrick Damon Reeve
- Psychlo hoser
- Jason Cavalier
- Floyd
- Sean Hewitt
- Heywood
- Andrew Albert
- labour supervisor
- Alan Legros
- heavy set guard
- John Topor
- one eyed guard
- Andy Bradshaw
- Mason
- Jim Meskimen
- Blythe
- Robert Higden
- supply clerk
- John Topor
- teleportation supervisor
- Rejean Denoncourt
- communication officer
- Tait Ruppert
- Rodman
- Tim Post
- Psychlo guard
- Mulumba Tshikuka
- human pilot
- Kelly Preston
- Chirk
- Marie-Josée Croze
- Mara
- Nadine Corde
- Psychlo babe
- Russell Yuen
- speaking bandit
- Andrew Campbell
- leering grin bandit
- Noel Burton
- Clinko
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Warner Bros Distributors (UK)
- 10,577 feet
- 117 minutes 32 seconds
- (2 seconds 15 frames cut)
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- In Colour
- Super 35 [2.35:1]