Movie of the Day: BATTLEFIELD EARTH

many laughs with this; loved that "Zardoz" is considered a "soulmate"

I remember being forced to see this because Gladiator had sold out. Decent amount of people in attendance for a matinee screening and this older fat woman was laughing all throughout. Couldn't tell if it was the gags ("bribing" the humans with rats) getting to her or the epic awfulness of the film itself.

Even when I was on a Travolta high during the late 90s, I sat agape in bewilderment when I saw the trailer for this.

I think the movie's pretty hilarious and watchable. But then, I never saw it past the one time on DVD. The constant use of dutch angles had me entranced. Other than that, the only things I remember are the inarticulate/rubbery hands of the Psychols, "Trained... to CONQUER GALAXIIIIIES," crap lousy ceilings, cow legs, and the perpetually sad look on Whitaker's face during the entire movie.

Condolences on your loss of those minutes from your life. I've pretty much blocked out my one screening of that thing.

I remember how giddy Travolte does the "A female, NEGOTIATING?" part...and cavemen flying aircraft.
Didnt the film's producer lied about the budget to ripoff investors?

Nausea mixed with boredom-- I had the exact same response to this movie. The editing is relentless, like something put together for Room 23.

Zardoz actually isn't a bad movie. Once you're past what's obviously funny and ridiculous about the movie, it's watchable and has some interesting ideas, as a great, cheesy B-movie. Battlefield Earth is ineptly filmed, and the characters are grating, and the storyline is eventually too confusing to be funny - whereas Zardoz only boasts a laughable setting. Seriously! Watch it again. Crazy fucking sci-fi movie in a good, 1950s kind of way. I mean, it's a bad movie, but good bad. I was entertained, anyway. The mirrors set...just nuts.

I saw this as a teen back in the 90's on HBO at my Grandma's house while laying on the couch. I'm pretty sure I luckily slept through most of it, but I saw enough to see how retarded it was. Especially the caveman flying the plane at the end hahahaah. Man... this movie just keeps coming up lately.

I wasn't sure exactly what a Dutch angle was, so I looked it up on wikipedia. The first thing you see is a still from Battlefield Earth.

I don't know, I think it's pretty entertaining in that special bizarre and terrible way.. I saw it in the theater opening weekend, even after all the negativity and warnings, and then I bought the DVD. I find that Travolta's performance alone warrants a viewing of it every 6 or 7 years, especially taking into account all the Scientological hubris, weirdness and illogical choices - and it's place in this young century's cinematic history.

Hahaha...

...

Thing is... I saw this piece of shit opening weekend too. I hadn't seen the trailers. I had just flown in from Bolivia... I was pretty oblivious to the whole thing. I saw Gladiator on a Friday and still could catch this one on Saturday or Sunday I think.

I hadn't read the reviews... I really didn't know much about it or what to expect.

So I sat there and it didn't take very long for me to realize that I was watching one of the worst things ever made. I think if you had turned the camera on the audience, I would have resembled one of the audience members in The Producers. And that cartoonish grimace probably stayed frozen on my face for the entire running time of the film.

I don't think there had been a movie quite that bad - or at least bad in this tremendously unpleasant and unimaginable way - in a very long time. And I don't think there has been since.

The Avengers was very bad a year or two before. And, a few years later we had Freddy Got Fingered. Both are bad films. But there is something there, in any case. And other reportedly "bad" films (like the recent work of Shyamalan) are not bad in my opinion.

But Battlefield Earth is one of the few genuinely irredeemably bad films I can think of in our time.

So... Yeah. Spot on assessment Devin.

Except for Barry Pepper. Outside of a great turn in Private Ryan, he was pretty much a non-entity. After this, he actually went on to do some good memorable work. He was particularly great in 25th Hour. So, if anything, he got lucky.

But you'd think it would have destroyed the careers of the more high-profile people involved. And yet it didn't.

One thing that stayed with me... The weekend it opened, VH-1 had some special on the film. Travolta, Pepper, Roger Christian and others were hosting videos for the day and talking about the film. They way they talked about it, you'd think they'd made the best thing since orgasms. They just went on and on about how it was the most amazing sci-fi epic adventure in history.

Travolta referred to Barry Pepper as: The greatest sci-fi hero in, like, ever.

Then you see the movie.

Jesus Christ.

This actually makes me want to watch it again. And I too saw it in the cinema. Never since.

I had no idea that people other than Scientologists actually paid to see this. It never once entered my mind to watch that crap. Sorry, guys. I genuinely feel bad you all went through that.

In 2000 my roommate got his hand on free movie tickets and gave them to me to get me out of the apt so he and his lady could have loud sex. I saw almost every major release that year. The only reason Battlefield Earth wasn't the worst thing I saw that year was because I couldn't remember anything about it the second I left the theater. It's the only time that's happened to me.

I got paid to watch this piece of shit and wanted to leave. How's that for a poster pull quote?

I saw this when it came out on VHS way after the ruckus died down and thought it was just as bad as any other bad sci-fi movie. I didn't find it special in it's badness beyond the fact that it had an A-lister in it. I never got the hate, as it just seemed like your normal run of the mill piece of shit to me.

That was 10 years ago. I watched about 30 minutes of it a few weeks ago and I'll admit I was wrong. It's very special in how bad it is. Very special indeed.

Hey don't feel bad for me. I paid my money and I got what I deserved.

Back then, I was film critic for Bolivian Times. So I'd make an effort to see every major release at least. That's what they expected of me... Even when I was in the US, I'd send them reviews.

The irony is, Battlefield Earth was never even released in Bolivia. So I saw it completely in vain.

I struggle to think of a worse cinematic alien/s.

As did we all.

The Avengers is enough of a scar on my psyche thankfully i have never seen this film.

Zardoz is like Citizen Cain, compared to BATTLEFIELD EARTH, that is how bad BATTLEFIELD EARTH is.

THE AVENGERS is a "guilty pleasure" for me. You'd never survive the atrocity of BATTLEFIELD.