MovieChat Forums > Battlefield Earth (2000) Discussion > Dissecting the good parts of this film.

Dissecting the good parts of this film.


Seeing as the first time I saw this film was when I was a kid, I didn't take much notice of the HORRIBLE camera work or Barry Pepper's awful 'acting', but the film certainly stuck in my head for several reasons.

1. John Travolta makes a really fantastic villain, reminiscent of Gary Oldman's Zorg from The Fifth Element. A lot of his Terl character got reused as Charlie Wax in From Paris With Love. The "Our friendly bartender!" scene is perfect.
2. Some surprisingly good set design and makeup.
3. The "running while walls get blown up in slow-mo" scene. Not particularly mentally stimulating but EXPLOSION PRON!!!!
4. Fight choreography in the prison brawl is actually half-decent.
5. The scene where Tyler gets his breather confiscated is pretty tense.

On an unrelated note...

"Franchise Pictures was sued in 2004 by its German investors when it was
discovered that it had been inflating film budgets, including that of Battlefield Earth."

Anyone else see the irony that this is basically a plot point from within the film?

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If this "film" had been more widely seen, I'm sure Scientology would be bankrupt by now.....
RE-RELEASE!!!!

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1. John Travolta makes a really fantastic villain, reminiscent of Gary Oldman's Zorg from The Fifth Element. A lot of his Terl character got reused as Charlie Wax in From Paris With Love. The "Our friendly bartender!" scene is perfect.
2. Some surprisingly good set design and makeup.
3. The "running while walls get blown up in slow-mo" scene. Not particularly mentally stimulating but EXPLOSION PRON!!!!
4. Fight choreography in the prison brawl is actually half-decent.
5. The scene where Tyler gets his breather confiscated is pretty tense.
If these are the "good" parts of the movie, then that really says everything about the rest of it!

http://www.spittoon.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Charlie-Hebdo.jpg

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What good parts?


I'll Teach You To Laugh At Something's That's Funny
Homer Simpson

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I think the whole man-animal insult and how they seemed to completely underestimate the humans; to be somewhat of a running-joke the Psychlos have.. take the scene where they are sitting around discussing a satellite image of a lady driving a convertible with a dog sitting in the backseat.. they joke about how, clearly the man-animal is chauffeuring the dog around thus implying that the dog is the superior species.. however Terl says that dogs were not as efficient at manual labour as the man-animals. I believe that this is just some form of hubristic condescending humor they are engaging in, even to the point of remaining composed while speaking in order to feel superior. Also that scene where one of the guards gets killed when Johnny steals his gun and shoots him.. Terl refuses to believe this story, at least, he acts as though he doesn't because he feels like bullying one of the inferior personnel by making him laboriously explain something as ridiculous as a man-animal stealing a weapon and then figuring out how to use it thus culminating in the guard being forced to hand over his gun to Johnny and reach for it and getting shot by Johnny.. Terl finds this all very amusing.

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Yes there were a lot of subtle good things about this movie which actually pushes it slightly above a rating 6 (but for the controversy, haters hate it with a passion to give it ratings of a porn movie).

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