Battlefield Earth

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Battlefield Earth is the title of both a science fiction novel written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and a film adaptation of the novel produced by and starring John Travolta.

1 The book
- 1.1 Scientology-related content
2 The movie
3 Cast
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links
- 6.1 The movie

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The book

The novel Battlefield Earth was first published in 1980 by St. Martin's Press, though all subsequent reprintings have been by Church of Scientology publishing companies Bridge Publications and Galaxy Press. This was Hubbard's first science fiction novel since his pulp magazine days of the 1940s, and it was promoted as Hubbard's "return" to science fiction after a long hiatus.

Written in the style of the pulp fiction era (during which Hubbard began his writing career), the novel is a massive work (over 750 pages in hardcover, 1000+ in paperback) telling a fictional story set approximately 1,000 years in our future. Before the story begins, the reader learns, an evil alien race called the "Psychlos" invaded Earth near the end of the 20th century, destroying human civilization in a matter of days and reducing humankind to little more than cave dwellers. A thousand years later, a series of events is put into action that finally gives humanity a chance to rebel against their alien overlords and free Earth from the control of a massive galactic empire.

Reaction to the book from literary critics and science fiction fans has been decidedly mixed since its publication. While generally acknowledged to be one of Hubbard's better books, reviews and comments on it have ranged from being thrilling and action-packed to plodding, overlong, and even unreadable. In particular, accusations have been made that the book includes themes of Scientology.

A large number of booksellers, publishing executives, and former Scientologists state that, as with other Hubbard books, the organization of Scientology engaged in a massive public relations campaign to buy enormous quantities of the book, in order to place it onto best-seller lists and foster the image of Hubbard as a best-selling author. As reported in The San Diego Union, representatives of Hubbard actually promised the publishing house a particular number of copies would be bought by subsidiary organizations of Scientology. Various bookstore chains (including Waldenbooks) have cited examples of Scientologists repeatedly coming into stores and buying armfuls of the book at a time. Several bookstores reported that shipments of the book arrived with the store's own price tags already affixed to them, even before they were unpacked from the shipping boxes. <ref>McIntyre, Mike (Apr. 15, 1990). "Hubbard Hot-Author Status Called Illusion". San Diego Union, p. 1.</ref>

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Scientology-related content

Within the book the Catrists, a pun on psychiatrists, are described as a group of evil charlatans, claiming to be mental health experts, who rule the alien Psychlo species. This is comparable to the Church of Scientology's views on psychiatry. Those among the Psychlos who do not share the views of the Catrists or oppose them are subjected to various forms of persecution; particularly, the Catrists use surgical mind control to maintain their power.

It is stated that a supporting character, a Psychlo mathematician named "Soth", was shaped by the views of his mother who was a member of a resistance group, a so-called "church", which held religious meetings secretly.

Early in its history, the Psychlo species had no fixed name, instead being named after the Emperor of the day. The word "Psychlo" is revealed to have originally meant "mental patient" in the alien language, signifying that the Catrists feel that the entire population requires treatment as mental patients, and thus making the story an allegory on Scientology's own views of modern society being engaged in a real-life war between psychiatry and Scientology.

Space opera in Scientology doctrine is a common recurring motif, and the OT III levels of Scientology include stories of intergalactic battles between alien races (most notably the Xenu teachings), and Hubbard went as far as to claim that the modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is merely an unconscious recollection of real events from millions of years ago.

Image:BattlefieldEarth.jpg

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The movie

After his success in the movie Pulp Fiction, Hollywood star John Travolta pushed hard to make a movie adaptation of Battlefield Earth a reality. Travolta, a devoted Scientologist and one of the organization's most vocal supporters, described the book in interviews as "like Star Wars, only better." The movie adaptation finally came out in 2000, only to meet poor box-office results and even worse reviews. It was produced by Franchise Pictures, JTP Films (Travolta's company), and Morgan Creek Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. in the U.S. It was directed by Roger Christian and starred Travolta, Barry Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, Richard Tyson, Sabine Karsenti, and Michael Byrne. Travolta's wife Kelly Preston also appeared; her role is often incorrectly described as "starring" even though she only appears in one scene.

In the movie, a greedy alien security chief, played by John Travolta, enslaves human prisoners to mine gold for him. Barry Pepper plays Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a human (or "man-animal", as the Psychlos call them) who decides to liberate his people by fighting the security chief. Originally Travolta saw himself in the role of Tyler, but by the time the movie was actually made, Travolta felt he was too old to play the role, and took the role of the main villain instead. [1]

Released in over 3,300 theaters, Battlefield Earth grossed $21,471,685 in the United States [2] and a total of $29,725,663 worldwide, falling far short of its $73 million production budget and $30 million in estimated marketing costs. Financially, it is regarded as one of the great box office failures.

Critically, the movie was also a disaster and reviews were nearly unanimously bad. Acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert, described it as "something historic, a film that for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about bad movies." Rita Kempley of the Washington Post offered a rather pointed critique, stating in part: "A million monkeys with a million crayons would be hard-pressed in a million years to create anything as cretinous as Battlefield Earth." Particular points that critics held up for censure included its overuse of angled camera shots, derivative special effects, and unbelievable plotting. The film frequently appears on worst film lists, such as the Internet Movie Database's "Bottom 100" list, where patron voting has continuously kept it listed as one of the 100 worst films of all time. [3] The ultimate insult came in 2001, when the movie received seven Razzie Awards, including Worst Movie of the Year and Worst Actor (Travolta), effectively classifying the movie as the worst film made in Hollywood since Showgirls. In 2004, the movie received a Razzie for Worst 'Drama' Of Our First 25 Years. The negative reaction to the movie halted plans to make a sequel.