Battlefield
Earth begins in the year 3000, when the human race
is nearly extinct, having been conquered by the planet Psychlo,
where profitability is the main motive. The film is based
on a 1982 novel of the same title by L. Ron Hubbard. Some
humans are slaves of the Psychlos; the rest, including our
hero Jonnie (played by Barry Pepper), live in caves on snowy,
wind-swept mountain tops with barely enough food to survive.
When the film begins, Jonnie decides to find a better life
for his people by descending to lower elevations to overthrow
the Psychlos if they still remain on the planet. Jonnie discovers
some human allies but ultimately is enslaved by the Psychlos,
so he must lead a slave revolt to fulfill his ambition. The
Psychlos, meanwhile, are arrogant, mangy in appearance, and
prone to doublecrossing one another. Terl (played by John
Travolta) is the Psychlo in charge of security of the planet
Earth, assisted by Ker (played by Forest Whitaker). Terl is
disgustingly arrogant, and Ker is often the butt of ridicule.
When Terl's term of duty has concluded on Earth, he is eager
to return to Psychlo, but an emissary from Psychlo informs
him that his term has been extended. Terl then decides to
bargain for his return from Psychlo by amassing gold from
Earth, so he orders human slaves to dig for gold. Jonnie,
however, knows that Fort Knox can provide gold without the
arduous task of digging. Ker, dissatisfied that Terl has no
intention of sharing the gold, makes a pact with Jonnie to
be the new chief of security by overthrowing Terl. The humans
are liberated under the kinder, gentler rule of Ker. The plot
sounds reasonable enough, and indeed John Travolta applied
pressure on studios to get the film produced, but at the box
office and among critics Battlefield Earth is
a total flop despite the Scientological message that a civilization
should not be based solely on commercial profit. Why? Terl
is just too disgusting a character, a sort of spoiled child
never disciplined when he grew up, who is narcissistic and
unreliable, constantly talking too much in what filmviewers
expected to be an action film. Those surprised that John Travolta
invested so much in the film may remember that he got his
start as an irresponsible, sadistic prankster in Carrie
(1976), so in Battlefield Earth he may have
returned to the womb. MH
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