Swallowing Toads

Commentary

Berlin, Germany
May 24, 2000
Der Tagesspiegel

by Kai M=FCller=20

He will have told them that they had him to be grateful for. They had already earned millions through him. He turned movies which would not have interested a single person into top successes. "Therefore," John Travolta could say, "You owe me! Make the damn movie!"=20

Some superstars in Hollywood are more powerful than producers. Otherwise, how could you explain Warner Studios producing a movie like Battlefield Earth which was based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and which the New York Times has already described as the "worst film of the century"?=20

Making this movie was John Travolta's life's dream come true. His membership in the sect, which has been and still is denied acknowledgment as a religious community in Germany, is no secret. In the strict organization, he wears the ranks of a Thetan, a spiritual leader who, according to Scientology, has expelled negative influences from his life. He therefore took the filming of Hubbard's best-seller material seriously because he had his master to thank posthumously for that kind of spiritual support. They had helped the "Saturday Night Fever" dancer back to fame.=20

Travolta thanked Hubbard, Warner thanked Travolta, and what came out of that was a movie which, apparently, nobody wants to see. That is how it goes sometimes with gratitude: one wants to do good on all accounts, but there still are those who do not understand the message. In this case it was the public who kept their distance from the testimony to thanks in the American movie theaters. Even the plot of the bombastic science fiction epic seemed to have arisen from a head drunk with missionary zeal: the earth in the year 3000 is a slave state ruled by extraterrestrial "Psychlos" who keep humans around as beasts of burden. Yet one person succeeds in instigating a rebellion and casting off the yoke of slavery. Anybody familiar with Scientology's teachings of salvation will not be able to overlook the allusions. Hubbard detested modern psychiatry, whose representatives perpetuate the servitude of humanity here as "Psychlos."=20

The German "Intertainment" company had financed almost a third of the $73 million movie project. This is not pleasant anymore for the Munich corporation which is quoted on the new market - but they apparently had no choice last year in a five year partnership with Time Warner. A classic case of acting the toady: in the package of 60 movies which included "No half matter" [not sure of English title] with Bruce Willis or "The Pledge" with Jack Nicholson, Battlefield Earth was also financed - with a share however which, in contrast to the USA ($40 million advertising budget), was to be "as little as possible." It was said that the losses were to be kept at a minimum, the television rights were sold a long time ago.=20