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EFFORTPOST 'Battlefield Earth' is the most entertaining film I've ever seen

Battlefield Earth (2000) is the infamous Scientology propaganda film commissioned by John Travolta. It is considered one of the worst moves ever made, but I'd never seen it before yesterday.

It is now one of my favourite films. :marseyprojection:

Literally everthing about this movie is hillariously bad. The sheer incompetence is awe-inspiring and I didn't want it to end.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1713567018247782.webp

Story & Writing

In Battlefield Earth, a species of 10-foot tall aliens called Psychlos (seriously) run a mining colony on Earth after conquering the planet a thousand years ago after a war lasting just nine minutes. Humans are now reduced to stone-age tribes in irradiated wastelands, or slaves of alien masters.

I can't really say much more except it makes no sense. The Psychlos believe "man-animals" are too stupid to mine for gold, but they already employ humans as a labour force in their city. :marseyhuh2:

Also, how the heck did illiterate tribesmen learn to fly Harrier attack jets in seven days without electricity or fuel?

The film is filled with the most ham-fisted exposition I've ever heard. As an audience-member, can you understand what blackmail is? Yes? Too bad! We're going to tell you anyway in 90 additional seconds of dialogue!

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1713567018355073.webp

The Acting

John Travolta stars the scheming Psychlo security chief named Terl (seriously), trying to earn a transfer off the planet. His nemesis is the human Johnny Goodboy (seriously), played by a wooden Barry Pepper, who must lead humans to freedom.

Travolta's (and everyone else's) performance is so far over the top, he can't see all the way down. He isn't chewing the scenery, he is engorging himself upon it. Hense my favourite line in any movie anywhere:

If you ever wanted to see John Travolta in dreadlocks and a codpiece shooting the legs off a cow, this is the film for you.

Even Forest Whitacker, who's acting talent is undeniable, is wasted with nothing to do except deliver terrible dialogue.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1713567018487786.webp

Cinematography

A "Dutch angle" is a filming technique where the camera is tilted off the horizon to portray a scene of uneasiness or tension.

Literally the entire film is shot in this way. It looks like the DP had a stroke.

Also, there are loads of corny slo-mo shots, an over-use of wipe transitions, and most scenes are shot with an ugly, sickly purple filter.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/1713567018812161.webp

Pacing

Battlefield Earth is all over the place. Fast-paced action set pieces are inter-cut with corny slo-mo. Thematically important scenes are not allowed to breathe, but are immediately followed by more exposition or John Travolta overacting.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/17135670185674407.webp

Special Effects

Honestly, for 2000, the special effects aren't half bad. It all looks ugly as sin, of course. But I think this was a deliberate choice rather than technical negligence.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/17135670186938367.webp

Summary

This film is worse than I ever thought possible and lives up to its reputation. But it's so bad, it became a joy to watch. I found myself laughing many times at the sheer absurd awfulness of this movie.

If you haven't seen Battlefield Earth, I thoroughly recommend it. I love this movie.

https://i.rdrama.net/images/17135670189031603.webp

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Hey, I saw that you just joined rdrama and a group of people who hate me are trying to smear my name by calling me a date male feminist. I just wanted to let you know that it's not true. If you want all the receipts proving it they're right here.

The TL;DR is that I hooked up with one of the hot girls on rdrama, and since I was twice her age, a lot of the guys here who wanted to bang her got jealous and assumed that the only way I could have managed that was by raping her, even though she herself said both before and afterwards that it was all completely consensual. So now that you're the new hot girl on rdrama, I guess they think that I'm going to somehow seduce you into flying all the way across the country (or some crazy shit like that) to hook up with me and they're trying to talk shit about me to make sure that doesnt happen. I don't understand it either, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm a nice guy and I hope you'll look at the evidence and make up your own mind instead of listening to all the jealous haters.

Anyway, with that little intro out of the way, welcome to rdrama! The culture's a little rough here and you're probably going to get tons of requests to •show boobsU but if you talk to some of the women here first before engaging with all the creepy dudes, they'll give you some good advice to avoid stalkers and predators. Or (If you haven't been scared off by the rumor mill) you're welcome to ask me and I'm happy to help.

Just out of curiosity, how did you find this place?

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:mars#eyflirt:

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