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The Movie:
It's almost hard to know where to begin with "Battlefield Earth". A movie that has generally become an embarassment to those who were involved in the production, the movie actually combines fairly good (and some very bad) special effects and some interesting sets with a screenplay that's downright awful and presentation that borders on incompetent. For those out there not already familiar with the story of "Battlefield", John Travolta plays Terl, the leader of the Psychlos, an alien race that has taken over Earth in an attempt to mine Gold. The battle where the aliens took over only took 9 minutes. I often wished this movie took that long.
The opening of the film is terrible, although it's a kind of terrible that looks like it might be going somewhere. Don't let it fool you - it's not. In fact, it actually gets much worse. Barry Pepper, excellent in "Saving Private Ryan" as the sniper, stars as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a human (more commonly now called "man-animal") who gets captured to become a slave in the mines. It's up to him to lead the remaining humans in a battle against the aliens to take back the planet. That's the basic tale; the movie itself involves the humans learning more from a special machine and the Psychlo's home office and all sorts of fun nonsense.
Nothing we haven't seen before, but ah - we haven't seen it done this badly. Travolta badly plays Terl; laughing every few minutes in a bad attempt to be threatening. He should have chosen to play it in the way that he played Deakins in "Broken Arrow"; funny, edgy, and ominously crazy. I suppose though, that few could act under this much make-up - Travolta and the rest of the psychlos are buried under tons of muddy make-up and dreadlocked hair. An additional unfortunate choice was made by Forest Whitaker, a great actor stuck being Terl's second in command in a nothing role.
The less said about the screenplay, the better. I really don't understand how anyone in their right mind could find this worthy of being filmed. I've never read the novel, but I've heard that it's quite a lengthy read at something like 800 pages. In the attempt to fit this into a two hour period, they seem to have chosen the worst possible parts of the novel. None of these characters are particularly bright or engaging in the least, so why should we care?
To top it off, they have filmed it in the worst possible way. Scenes are often completely blue tinted or a different color; it's irritating after a while. Speaking of presentation, the movie also seems to think that it's really neat to shoot everything on an angle. The editing is completely choppy; scenes become tiring to watch as they seem badly pieced together. The score is not only poor, but it pounds away at nearly every opportunity.
"Battlefield Earth" is almost entertaining in the way that everything that could possibly go wrong with this film does at one point or another during the running time. A few mild laughs can be found from the fact that the movie takes itself and the weak material so seriously. Although "Mystery Science Theater 3000" is no longer on television, they would have had loads of fun commenting on every last detail of "Battlefield Earth". Travolta is actually planning on making a sequel to this mess, but after this one (which, amazingly cost 73 million dollars), I think the sequel is certainly going to have a lot of empty theaters - and that's if it doesn't go straight-to-video.
The DVD
VIDEO: One thing I certainly won't fault is the image quality in this presentation from Warner Brothers. "Battlefield Earth" is presented here in it's original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and it is anamorphic. Although it's not quite as stunning as some of the studio's other recent releases, it's still of excellent quality overall. Sharpness and detail are very good; some of the more dimly lit or dark sequences are slightly less well-defined, but still show good visual information.
Colors are strong, as well. Colors look more natural during the outdoor sequences, where the greens of the fields and trees (I guess some trees survived the battle between Earth and the aliens) are crisp and bold. There are other sequences where the screen is tinted - the main color being blue. And these scenes look very, well...blue.
Flaws are minimal; aside from a little bit of softness on a couple of occasions, there are a handful of print flaws visible. A couple of minor speckles here and there, nothing major or even mild. A couple of instances show a slight trace of pixelation, but also, certainly nothing that proves distracting - or even is that noticable. Again, Warner Brothers does fine work - even putting effort into a film like this one. The layer change is at 56:21.
SOUND: "Battlefield Earth" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and it actually presents a decently entertaining audio experience. The score is completely terrible and unfortunately gets a little bit too much presence. Otherwise, this is a loud, agressive presentation that is generally what you would expect from a film of this genre.
Surrounds are used quite heavily throughout, with various sound effects and the score. There's rarely a moment it seems when the soundtrack isn't going at full-force. Bass is also a factor - a major one at times - with bass occasionally being almost overly strong. Dialogue is clear, but slightly edgy at times.
MENUS:: There is a rather lengthy animated introduction to the main menu, which also provides film-themed animation. Sub-menus are not animated, but the transitions between main and sub-menus are animated.
EXTRAS:
Commentary: This is a commentary track from director Roger Christian and effects Patrick Tatopoulos. And no, it actually doesn't start off with the director saying "I'm sorry" again and again. Even though I certainly disliked the movie, the commentary track is actually mildly interesting at times, with both participants chatting about bringing the movie to the screen in terms of the effects or the sets, as well as what inspired the look of the movie and the story.
I would certainly have liked the two to be a little more open about what actually happened with the film and the reaction once it was released. There's a few too many times during the commentary where the two begin to heap a little too much praise on their picture. If you want to hear more about the effects and production, you'll find this track interesting, but I don't think most will want to watch this film more than once. Strangely, this is the first DVD from Warner Brothers I've seen where the viewer can switch between film audio tracks with the remote, but must go to the menu to select the commentary track.
Evolution and Creation: This is a documentary on the making of "Battlefield", and it actually is a somewhat informative promotional documentary, talking about how the cast and crew came together, a discussion of the story and obstacles that had to be overcome to get the movie to the screen. I suppose that this could be looked at as "how to make a bad movie". Anyways, Travolta even appears with some interview footage, discussing what was going through his mind when he came up with the idea to make the film. It's a little amusing at times to see how excited some of the crew people are in the interviews when talking about the picture. The documentary runs a little under 16 minutes.
Storyboard Montage: In this 8 minute featurette, scenes from the movie and their storyboards are played.
Travolta Make-Up Test: This featurette is a discussion of the design of the make-up for the Travolta character, Terl. We see the various make-up tests and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as discussion from Travolta about the character and the performance.
Visual Effects: An additional featurette, this takes the viewer on a tour of how the film's visual effects were achieved, going on set to watch the production and also, seeing how effects were added into shots. Mildly interesting stuff; although I didn't think some of the effects were very good, a couple were moderately well-done. Some interview footage of Travolta is taken from the other featurette.
Hidden Features: There are some features hidden in the menus, such as a place to highlight on an image in the special features menu that takes us to a quick look at make-up being applied.
Ads: Teaser and theatrical trailer, 2 TV ads.
Also: Text notes on the novel, along with cast & crew bios.
Final Thoughts: If you're looking for a real bad movie that you can have a few laughs with, "Battlefield Earth" might be worth a rental, but even at the low price of $19.99 retail, I don't think many are going to be buying this DVD - even if Warner Brothers has provided very good audio/video quality along with some pretty interesting extras.
Film Grade
The Film F
DVD Grades
Video 92/A = (368/400 possible points)
Audio: 94/A = (376/400 possible points)
Extras: 83/B = (249/300 possible points)
Menus: 82/B = (146/200 possible points)
Value: 82/B = (246/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1385/1600
DVD GRADE:B/86%
FILM GRADE: F
DVD GRADE: B
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