Travolta's 'Battlefield Earth' a dismal failure
Tom Grier - For the Budgeteer News
For those of you who don't know the history, "Battlefield Earth" by L. Ron Hubbard was one of the most popular science fiction books ever written. This movie is a 15-year effort by John Travolta to bring it to the silver screen. I only wish he had waited another 15.
It is inconceivable to me how director Roger Christian, who is famous for directing the pod-racer scenes in "The Phantom Menace," could make such naive mistakes in his first solo sci-fi epic. For starters, where did he ever get the idea that audiences like the camera tilted 30 degrees for every single shot for two hours? Didn't he ever see the "Batman" TV show? (POW)! Tilting the camera is the cinematographer's equivalent to painting Elvis on black velvet. (BAM)! "The Blair Witch Trial" had better camera work. (Ka-Blam)!
The essence of the book was a simple story. Out of the remnants of humankind, a man-animal named Jonnie Goodboy (Barry Pepper) leads a revolt against mankind's conquerors. But Travolta's ego must have kicked in, because suddenly this is a story about a Terl (Travolta), an incompetent tyrant who grunts out dialogue so corny that you couldn't serve it at the State Fair. Travolta is embarrassing as a tenor-voiced 9-foot alien who looks more like an unwashed, Rastafarian member of KISS than a bone crushing psychopathic megalomaniac.
"I was groomed since birth to conquer galaxies," Terl says to his deputy in slurred Michael Jacksonish tones. I bet the screenwriter has recurring nightmares over writing that line.
I can understand making changes to the book (after all it was over 1,100 pages long), but adding scene after scene of Travolta swilling kerbango (alien Budweiser) and exchanging worthless dialogue with bartenders was the wrong choice. By the time we get to the long overdue climax of the movie, the hero is reduced to having to expedite the story by saying things like, "Men, these are earth flying machines (1,000-year-old Harrier Jets in Texas). You and your men (cavemen who can't read or write) have one week to learn to fly them and rendezvous with me in Psychlo City (in Denver) and destroy the dome. Can you do it?" says Jonnie.
Boy, I bet that saved $10 million in actual screen time. Now, all we need is a cut-shot to Jonnie in the bar saying something like, "Well it was a hell of a fight, but we did it boys." And then the movie would be over without any need for any special effects.
Give me a break! This movie is almost a perfect parody of other sci-fi movies. (And I mean the really bad ones.) I've heard more realistic dialogue in the fifth sequel of "The Planet of the Apes." Even the little homage to "Blade Runner," with the hero crashing through six plate glass windows in a ruined shopping mall, is embarrassingly crass. Of course, adding cartoon-like CGI effects, and fight scenes filmed so close up that you can't see anything at all, adds to the film's overall lack of professionalism.
What made the book so popular among sci-fi purists was the attention to science and political hierarchies. This screenplay seems to think that closeups of Travolta snarling are better than actual plot or dialogue.
Given the material, Barry Pepper (the sniper in "Saving Private Ryan") did as well as he could as the hero Jonnie Goodboy. The director totally wasted this man's talent by using him as filler material between shots of Travolta acting like a 21st century Snidley Whiplash.
It is just too bad that unlike the book, the movie was never about the main character. One of the first signs that the movie was in real trouble was when the inspiring music written for the movie seemed glaringly out of place and annoying. In scenes when the audience was supposed to feel moved by the grandeur of the music, it was clear that the audience was less inspired than the composer was when he wrote it. When Jonnie is reading a copy of the 1,200-year-old constitution, the crescendoing music is almost unbearably embarrassing.
After reading the book and seeing the movie, I can tell you that any single chapter in the book is worth more than this entire movie. If you like science in your sci-fi then read this book. If you like cheesy, campy sci-fi movies with overacting villains, then rent one of those. "Battlefield Earth" the book rates an A- minus, the movie rates a D-plus.
Tom Grier is an author and movie buff. He can be heard on KDAL-96 Lite every Monday at 5:30 p.m. where's he'll discuss the latest in films. E-mail him at budgeteer@mx3.com.
