Product Details

• Actors: John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, Barry Pepper, Kim Coates, Sabine Karsenti
• Directors: Roger Christian
• Writers: Corey Mandell, J.D. Shapiro, L. Ron Hubbard
• Producers: Andrew Stevens, Anson Downes, Ashok Amritraj, Don Carmody
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: June 5, 2001
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (401 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CXIU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #259,801 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

When Battlefield Earth was released in May 2000, this inept sci-fi epic qualified as an instant camp classic, prompting Daily Variety to call it "the Showgirls of sci-fi shoot-'em-ups." Other reviews were united in their derision, and toy stores were left with truckloads of Battlefield Earth action figures that nobody wanted. As the film's star and coproducer, John Travolta must have felt an urge to enlist in the witness protection program.

Recklessly adapted from the novel by sci-fi author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and set in the year 3000, the film is no worse than many cheesy sci-fi flicks, but the sight of Travolta as a burly, dreadlocked alien from the planet Psychlo provokes unintentional laughter from first frame to final credits. As Terl, the Psychlo security chief who conquers Earth and hatches a secret scheme to steal all the gold from Fort Knox (which sits conveniently in wide-open vaults), Travolta hams it up as if he knows he's in a camp-fest. (In a cameo as a long-tongued Psychlo seductress, Travolta's wife, Kelly Preston, only adds to the absurdity.) Barry Pepper (the praying sharpshooter from Saving Private Ryan) tries his best to convey charisma as Jonnie, the human slave who leads an uprising against Terl's tyranny, but he's adrift in a foolish plot that makes even smart humans look stupid.

The decrepit look of a dreary future is convincingly established (the ruins of Washington D.C. recall Logan's Run on a grander scale), but in the wake of its ludicrous climax, the best that Battlefield Earth can hope for is a Dune-like fate: it might improve in a longer director's cut--but that's wishful thinking. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

In the year 3000, mankind will be a depleted species-scavenging among the mountains, eating live rats, or toiling as slaves under the evil Psychlos. This is bad news, although it could be worse; mankind of the year 2000, for instance, is urged to sit in dark halls and watch a movie so worthless that even a rat, alive or dead, would come as welcome relief. John Travolta, with a bunch of old gray ropes where his hair should be, plays the Psychlo chief of security, who hates his job and has to contend with a band of rebellious earthlings. The director is Roger Christian, who, if early audience response is anything to go by, would do well to flee the country under an assumed name. The co-star is Forest Whitaker, a fine actor who must be praying that audiences will fail to penetrate his heavy disguise. And the script is adapted from the novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the father of Scientology; it would have taken all his fabled powers of spirit and intellect to weather this catastrophe. Meanwhile, for those who have wondered whether a philosophical message is embedded deep inside this film, good news. There is such a message, and it reads: "You are free to leave." -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A completely ludicrous film, August 6, 2002

By 

"qmlhcb" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battlefield Earth (DVD)

When you sit down to see a movie, you know suspension of disbelief is a must. Especially when the film is a science fiction. You know a lot of things in the movie can't really happen, but you can let yourself believe you can for those two hours you're immersed in another world. Unless, of course, the movie is too ludicrous and everything that happens screams disbelief. Battlefield Earth has enough unbelievable situations for three terrible movies. (Warning, minor spoilers ahead).

The premise of the film asks you to accept that a supreme alien race conquered Earth in 9 minutes, and then for 1,000 years have reaped the land for natural resources, namely gold. So a civilization so advanced it can take control of a planet so quickly, hasn't found all the gold on Earth yet? And hasn't even found Fort Knox yet? And they don't have a clue that humans are intelligent enough to operate mining equipment (They laugh at the thought of humans being able to do any work), yet they live in the ruins of Denver, surrounded by obvious signs of an intelligent race which they enslaved. At one point in the film, even, these humans, who have been forced to live in caves or cages, find an army base filled with still working planes and weapons, and learn how to operate everything as good as any experienced pilot or soldier, in only a few days. I could go on; these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Besides the ridiculous leaps of belief the movie asks you to make, there is more to despise here. For example, the pacing is atrocious. In the first 5 minutes of the movie, you meet Jonnie (Barry Pepper) as he returns to his home tribe, says a few words to the woman we're told he's romantically involved with, gets in a fight with the head of the tribe about how they should venture out of their caves, and leaves. The film doesn't show us how they live, explore their culture, examine the relationship Jonnie has neither with the head of the tribe nor with his girlfriend, or even give Jonnie any in depth characterization. Instead, the whole movie moves so fast, we don't know these characters any better then the extras without any speaking lines.

However, there are a few things to admire in this film. Primarily, there are some beautiful scenery shots of mountains, fields, and cities overgrown and taken back by the wilds. There are even a few good ideas peppered throughout the film. Just don't blink, you might miss them.

If you're not at all fussy about intelligent (or even somewhat believable) science fiction, or character development, or even acting (a can of worms I didn't open, John Travolta is terrible as the bad alien Terl), then Battlefield Earth might be worth a quick glance. Otherwise stay away. Stay far, far away.

63 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Big Budget 'Plan 9' Remake!!!, October 24, 2003

By 

Roule Duke (the Green Inferno) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battlefield Earth (DVD)

For starters, every single terrible thing you have heard about this film is 100% true! And while that may be bad for Scientology cult disciples and any other half wit who invested money in the films production, it's brilliant for lovers of so bad they're good flicks.

The plot/plot holes: It's 1000 years into the future and earth is over run by an invading 9-foot tall alien race called 'Psychlos' (umm? 'psychos' and don't expect the difference in height to be as well filmed as in the LOTR trilogy, psychlos are created by having 'actors' stumble around in shoulder pads on obvious platform shoes), man-animalkind is made up of slaves and other living like cavemen in tattered clothes (not bad wear considering their clothing should be 1000 years old plotwise), man-animal Barry Pepper ventures out to be captured and enslaved. Cut to scenes of ridiculous alien banter about 'leverage' and of them double crossing each other (how did such an unorganized race take over the world in 9 minutes?!), scheming psychlo Travolta wants to secretly mine gold (aliens value gold too?) in a zone aliens can't go (alien air reacts badly to radiation?) so he expands Pepper's mind by a laser light show and teaches him to fly?! (it's not enough that they leave the slaves working unsupervised and not under guard around control panels but they have to teach one to read psychlo and fill his head with useful info). Born again scientologist Pepper (after his education he starts spouting Hubbard's mantras like "maths in the universal language") doesn't really mine but merely picks up gold from fort Knox (after 1000 years of alien occupation they still haven't found the gold at Fort Knox?) of course psychlo Travolta not only believes that half a dozen man animals mined a few cubic meters of gold in 14 days but they also melted in down to perfect bars in their spare time? Given 7 more days to mine Pepper and fellow man-animals hatch a plan to liberate the planet using guns and planes (which are of course in perfect working order after 1000 years), man-animals learn to fly the jets (in 7 days flat using 1000 year old flight simulators which still have electricity). Of course the alien aircraft which took over the world in 9 minutes are no match for cavemen in jump-jets (but then again these cgi jump-jets are capable of hovering in hollow building and making hairpin turns!?). They then destroy planet psychlo by beaming up a nuclear bomb. Many scientology activists will plead with you to believe that the book isn't as bad as the movie, but my little bro read it and yes it contains all of the basic plot holes and stupidity of the film and them some.

The 'director' of this film (about now he's probably flipping burgers or cleaning toilets) tried to make the film stylish with countless jump cuts and other slick editing but that just deepens the cheesyness. Its pure hilarity too when they try to steal from other flicks: planet psychlo looks like the opening of 'Blade Runner' and also the running through glass scene from BR is repeated here too (Barry Bob Pepper however emerges from this feat without any lacerations!?), a speech reminiscent of 'BraveHeart' about "freedom" is given at one point by Pepper too (made even funnier by the fact that a man-animal in blue facepaint is in the background). And the idiotic screen wipes which are used! Obviously an attempt to emulate the good 'StarWars' movies (the original ones) they use doubledoor opening screens wipes in EVERY single scene transition! When the last scene cuts to the credits and they use a double door closing screen wipe, I was laughing so hard it hurt!

The fact that this is a big budget film means that you get to see a-list actors making fools of themselves on screen. Real life scientology cult member John Travolta, who you may remember from the period-costume drama 'Saturday Night Fever', puts in the single greatest comedy performance in film history! He reads ever single inept line of dialogue like it was pure Shakespeare in a dead serious manner that comes across as pure camp genius. Genuinely good actor Pepper is shamed too but not so much by his performance but by a script that had him making ape noises in a standoff! If only they had of cast true scientology fanatic and non-actor Tom Cruise in Pepper's role and spared Barry the embarrassment, I'm sure the film would have got even worse (if thats possible?).

While I only gave this film 1 star for pure comedy viewing this film definitely earns 5 stars! During the entire 2 hour running time you will be in a state of constant laughter, more so than can be generated by any comedy movie put out in the last 10 years. In fact there is something almost surreal about viewing 'Battlefield Earth' in that unlike any other so bad its good movies this one was made on an enormous Hollywood budget. While all big budget flicks made in Hollywood are bad by default, none come close to the virtuoso ludicrous insanity that is 'Battlefield Earth'!

While it is good for a hearty laugh and satisfying to see what should be a triumph for scientologists go down in history as one of the most absurd film blunders of all time (LOL not mention the substantial fanatical losses inflicted on all parties involved), I can't help feel bad that the money that went into production of this trainwreck of a film could have gone a long way in fighting cancer or world hunger or any other worthy cause.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Battlefield Earth" drinking games!, January 5, 2005

By 

Richard Goddard (Hillsborough, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Battlefield Earth (DVD)

Finally, a "Plan 9 from outer space" for our own generation. One simply cannot derive greater campy fun from this film, which has spawned a thousand drinking games! Here are some of my favorites:

***** LEVERAGED DOUBLE-WORD DRINKY-DRINK *****
Take a swig whenever someone says one of those silly hyphenated nouns (e.g. man-animal, crap-lousy), Double-swig whenever you hear the word "Leverage"

***** LOGIC-LAPSE QUAFF-FEST *****
Take a drink whenever confronted with a point in the plot that makes no sense whatsoever - e.g.

- that this group of savage men can learn to fly fighter jets in a day or two; well, OK, I can suspend disbelief for that, but...

- that the aforementioned jets can operate after 1000+ years of sitting idle

- the part where Johnny Goodboy (LOL) is running around without air for, say, 15 minutes

- that the Psychlos call themselves "Psychlos" but call these humans from Earth "man-animals"

- when the "man-animals" are sent to go mine gold, none of these super-smart Psychlos notice that they've apparently mined perfectly smelted gold bars

- when Johnny goes into the library, he peruses 1000+ year old books with fully intact covers and pages; they simply just need a bit of dusting

- that these super-intelligent and strong Psychlos, who conquered Earth in 9 (Yes, 9!) minutes, can barely walk in their silly "Kiss" hand-me down boots and can hardly grasp anything with their big floppy rubber gloves

- while observing the stranded man-animals catching rats to eat, the Psychlos assume rats must be their favorite food, even though there were no other edibles to catch

***** SILLY-QUOTE CHUG-A-LUG *****

Take a sip whenever confronted with nuggets of wisdom such as these:

"I am going to make you as happy as a baby Psychlo on a straight diet of kerbango."

"It will go straight to the home office!"


*For the hardcore kerbango-fan, while drinking, tilt your body at a 30-degree angle for no apparent reason, just like the cinematographer did with the camera!