John Travolta in "Battlefield Earth."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: John Travolta, Barry Pepper and Forest Whitaker Director: Roger Christian Rated: Rated PG-13, with action violence and brief sexual innuendo Length: 117 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(May 12, 2000) -- Do you know the problem with a labor of love?

Love is blind.

For proof, check out Battlefield Earth, the project an impassioned John Travolta has espoused for 18 years.

Now that it's finally on the screen, we discover that the science-fiction epic Travolta considered a Holy Grail is silly junk. And the sight of Travolta, mercilessly hamming it up as a seven-foot-tall, dread-lock sporting evil alien, doesn't help.

Now we can see why Hollywood impeded the superstar's attempts to make a film from L. Ron Hubbard's long, pulp sci-fi novel for 17 years. And now it's clearly on the screen only because Travolta's "Pulp Fiction" comeback gave him the necessary clout.

Travolta, of course, is one of Hollywood's most high-profile practitioners of the Church of Scientology, the eccentric techno-religion which was founded by Hubbard in the years following his stint as a sci-fi novelist.

The film version of Battlefield Earth reportedly is based on only the first half of Hubbard's giant-sized novel (which I've managed to avoid reading). The film details life on a post-apocalyptic earth, circa 3000. The planet was long ago taken over by a race of greedy alien giants called Psychlos, who've converted earth into a wasteland junkyard, only good for the mining of gold.

Most humans were killed; a few remain as Psychlo slaves -- and are called "man-animals." A few have remained at large, living a retro Stone Age existence in the mountains near what used to be Denver.

Running earth is a scheming Psychlo slimeball named Terl (Travolta), who plots ways to hoard the planet's gold for his own purposes. Part of his plan is to use man-animals to help dig it up.

From among the humans, a hero emerges; a blond-haired youth of high ideals named Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper). You recognize him because he's the only creature in the film -- human or Psychlo -- who isn't filthy dirty.

The plot is the tried-and-true fight of the righteous against oppressors -- it could be Indians against the cavalry, the "Star Wars" rebels against the evil Empire, the colonialists against the Redcoats, etc., etc. But while most of those stories achieve mythic stature, this never rises above an array of ludicrous improbabilities and comic-book dialogue.

Mull over just this one example: In exactly seven days, a tribe of cavemen humans who barely know how to strike a flint and couldn't add two plus two, teach themselves how to fly sophisticated Harrier hover-jets. (The jets have been standing unused for several centuries and still work like they had an oil, lube and filter job yesterday.) P-L-E-A-S-E!

Battlefield Earth has been directed by Roger Christian, a former "Star Wars" second-unit director and set decorator. For visual style, though, Christian has chosen a dark, murky look that makes it almost impossible to follow much of the action. He also favors extreme close-ups of fight scenes, which further clutters his images.

And, apparently, he also declined to tell his superstar (and producer) to tone down his performance. Travolta's Terl is the Snidely Whiplash of sci-fi, a laughable villain who would twirl his moustache if he had one.

The actor is on the record declaring that Battlefield Earth is not Scientology propaganda. "(Hubbard) was a famous science fiction writer," he has said. "That's the deal with this. It's an entertainment piece, and that's all it is."

Travolta can be believed, because there's nothing in this inane film that would make me walk across the street, let alone change my way of life.