An Apology for Battlefield Earth

[CeeKay]

finally!  at long last we can rest easily knowing at least some of the parties responsible for the debacle know as Battlefield Earth have admitted their mistakes.

[Purge]

Loved the article.

[Scraper]

That guy is my hero. I really need to re-watch that movie, the first time I saw it I went in thinking it was going to be the worst movie ever, and I came away thinking it wasn't good, but far from the worst. That was several years ago, I need to go back and see how wrong I was.

[Isgrimnur]

That is a great article.  I didn't know he was the Men in Tights writer.  Much respect for him going on about that, especially given the amount of flack the scientologists are suposedly able to bring to bear.

[Bullwinkle]

Good piece.  I think some of the guys attempts at being "funny" are a little off-the-mark and adding some of his other screen-writing credits, I have to wonder how good his original script was.  Still, good of him to own the bad.

[Teggy]

It's not so much an apology as a shifting of the blame. But its funny.

[Razgon]

Did he really own up to anything? As I see it, he basically says, that the camp with Scientology in it rewrote his script, making it bad.

[deadzone]

I never subjected myself to that movie because of how bad I heard it was.    Maybe I should check it out.  Is it like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus bad or more like Transformers 2 bad? 

[Scraper]

I never subjected myself to that movie because of how bad I heard it was.    Maybe I should check it out.  Is it like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus bad or more like Transformers 2 bad? 

It's not campy bad, it's just bad because it has such a huge budget and yet it still sucks. If the Mega Shark people had the same budget their movie would most likely be much better than Battlefield Earth.

[CeeKay]

That guy is my hero. I really need to re-watch that movie, the first time I saw it I went in thinking it was going to be the worst movie ever, and I came away thinking it wasn't good, but far from the worst. That was several years ago, I need to go back and see how wrong I was.

it was on HBO or Starz a couple of weeks ago, and not wanting to see yet another re-run of Spartacus I put it on as background noise.

I'm still having nightmares 

[Purge]

I never subjected myself to that movie because of how bad I heard it was.    Maybe I should check it out.  Is it like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus bad or more like Transformers 2 bad? 

Transformers 2 wasn't bad - it was a bad MOVIE.

It was a fantastic COMMERCIAL.

[Jaddison]

I think it is mesmerizingly bad.  The book, though, is no better.....as i read it i kept thinking "this is really a poorly written and very stupid book", finished it but had no interest in anything else L Ron Hubbard touched

[Orgull]

I think it is mesmerizingly bad.  The book, though, is no better.....as i read it i kept thinking "this is really a poorly written and very stupid book", finished it but had no interest in anything else L Ron Hubbard touched

Wow. I found the book to be terrific. It's one of my favorite science fiction novels. There was no Scientology in the book at all, it's a straight action adventure. I can't help but wonder if they'd stuck to the best parts of the book and left out the goofy crap John Travolta wanted, if it might not have been a decent film.

[Flatlander]

I think it is mesmerizingly bad.  The book, though, is no better.....as i read it i kept thinking "this is really a poorly written and very stupid book", finished it but had no interest in anything else L Ron Hubbard touched

Wow. I found the book to be terrific. It's one of my favorite science fiction novels. There was no Scientology in the book at all, it's a straight action adventure. I can't help but wonder if they'd stuck to the best parts of the book and left out the goofy crap John Travolta wanted, if it might not have been a decent film.

       I'd read the book in High School.    One of the biggest differences  If I remember correctly, was that the  alien Psychlo in the book were green furred Kzinti like creatures,  while in the movie they'd been turned into Rastafarian Klingon knock-offs,  stumbling around on stilts,  played by Travolta and an extremely embarassed looking Forrest Whittaker.

[Jag]

I think it is mesmerizingly bad.  The book, though, is no better.....as i read it i kept thinking "this is really a poorly written and very stupid book", finished it but had no interest in anything else L Ron Hubbard touched

Wow. I found the book to be terrific. It's one of my favorite science fiction novels. There was no Scientology in the book at all, it's a straight action adventure. I can't help but wonder if they'd stuck to the best parts of the book and left out the goofy crap John Travolta wanted, if it might not have been a decent film.

I agree. I loved the book. There were some messages in there,  more about overall morality than anything else. Nothing that made me run off and join OMGACULT. I stayed away from the movie because of the reviews preferring to remember the book as it was.

[Jaddison]

you guys loved the book?  Really?  I kept comparing it to Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke and it didn't hold up well.  I read it in my late 20s-earl 30s maybe that's why.  But the story was pedestrian, the characters not really developed in my opinion.  Early Heinlein is a little rough around the edges but I always appreciated his characters and his settings...and that he didn't take himself all that seriously.

[Crawley]

Not a huge fan of the book either. I had someone suggest to me it was a great book but didn't sit down to read it until I heard they were going to make a movie out of it. It wasn't a horrible book. I'd say its good but I can never see myself re-reading it.

The movie was bad but not Wing Commander bad. I at least go through the whole thing.

[Jaddison]

Think of the "Star Wars" sagas, and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," mix in the triumph of "Rocky I," "Rocky II" and "Rocky III" and you have captured the exhuberance, style and glory of "Battlefield Earth." -- Baltimore Evening Sun, November 14, 1982

When I read it I knew nothing about Scientology but it was a slog to get through 800 pages.

I just read Live Free or Die by John Ringo and I would consider it to be far superior in every way to BFE.  Same general topic but a much better story, better writing and more real imo...and I think Ringo is just an okay author...sometimes bad, sometimes very suprising.

[ravenvii]

I somewhat enjoyed the book as well, but only the first half. The second half is junk.

[Rumpy]

Now if only we could get Ron Hubbard to apologize for Scientology.

[TiLT]

Now if only we could get Ron Hubbard to apologize for Scientology.

Haven't you seen Life of Brian? It would only make people believe in Scientology even more.

[Jaddison]

apologize?  He and Heinlein have to laughing their asses off.  That would be the Hubbard before his brain went bye bye.

[Sarkus]

I've never understood how that movie got made the way it did, and that article really doesn't shed a lot of light on that.  While not a great book, it's not the worst thing ever either and there was an interesting premise there to work with.  Why Travolta and co. wanted to make it into something different escapes me.  Unless that really was Hubbard's "vision," but that seems pretty unlikely to me.

[Chaz]

I've liked the book since I was a little kid.  It's not great lit, but it's decent pulp-ish sci-fi.  I always liked the turn it took halfway through.  Basically, the humans blow up the death star at the end of Jedi, and instead of ending, the book goes on to answer "what now?" 

Like I always say when comparisons to the movie are made, basically everything that was wrong with the movie was a huge change from the book.

[kronovan]

"Stooopid humans"... don't you know a B-rate Sci-Fi masterpiece when you see it! 

[Jaddison]

I take Battlefield Earth which is his "masterpiece" and compare it to Dune, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Land, Martian Chronicles and other "masterpieces" of sci-fi and it just didn't do it for me.

I enjoy watching parts of the movie when it is on...in fascination and awe of it's awfulness.  I can marvel at it's wretchedness without getting tired....unlike trying to watch the excrement that is the remake of Planet of the Apes, it is just too foul to see ever again

[Jag]

I've liked the book since I was a little kid.  It's not great lit, but it's decent pulp-ish sci-fi.  I always liked the turn it took halfway through.  Basically, the humans blow up the death star at the end of Jedi, and instead of ending, the book goes on to answer "what now?" 

That's kind of my take on the book. I read it when I was pretty young and basically had only read Dragonlance up that point. It was an interesting, pulpy sci-fi story. I wouldn't equate it with Dune or Tolkien though.