Folks who like Battlefield Earth are to be avoided and ignored, is what, and I should know, since, to be honest, I'm kinda one of them.
For The Duke, this most derided, mocked and utterly nonsensical of flicks is one of those guilty pleasure type affairs, although to be honest, I'd feel about 123% more filthy if I enjoyed, say, a Joel Schumacher film other than The Lost Boys.
It'd be Hail Mary's from now till Doomsday if I caught myself getting giddy at thought of a late-night screening of Phone Booth.
Battlefield Earth is the kinda flick you just can't believe exists in a world where folks in "the business" like nothing more than to sit around and maybe draw up a diagram and then consult an expert or two for to see if a proposed production is "economically viable". Who, excepting the most thoroughly deranged of individuals, would suggest that a picture regarding John Travolta is a Klingon garbling a load of nonsense and chasing folks round the place in slow motion, would be the way to go for to make a load of the green? If anyone tried to convince you of such an undertaking, you'd most likely run away and then tell your kids never to go near that crazy old bastard in the trenchcoat, since he obviously desires nothing more than freshly roasted guts.
Oddly enough, some folks will try to tell you this is a religious flick, of all things. To be honest, it does resemble one at times, especially the ones the Jehovah's Witnesses pop through the letter-box now and again starring the fella from the petrol station down the road as John The Baptist.
Ideologically, though, I can't find a damn hint of any religious thinking going on anywhere between the opening and closing credits.
What Battlefield Earth, or Battlefield Part Of America, concerns itself with, so far as the narrative goes, is that it's the future time and folks are all running around in slow-motion and at weird angles on account of a bunch a no-good aliens have invaded. These aliens are some mean sons a bitches, a fact evidenced by the big heads they have, and also the weird hands that look a bit like those ones you buy at the "sports games" and wave around, the ones that say "Such-And-Such Is #1", except those ones maybe look a bit more realistic.
Some nonsense occurred back in the past, although to us it's the future, and as a result human beings are forced to live in the woods, terrified of the "Gods" who live beyond the trees. It's like The Village, then, except set in the future-time, and also more believable.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
A big portion of this crap-fest was filmed at Montreal's McGill University (which likes to style itself the "Harvard of the North", and no, I didn't go there) and they were upset when they found out they were playing the equivalent of the Statue of Liberty in "Planet of the Apes" but without the style or sense. And they had to put up with getting all the Scientologists all over the place, when they'd only gotten rid of the home-grown Raelians (who at least offer lots of sex with good looking people).