Battlefield Earth Screenwriter Accepts Razzie 295
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Post has a story about J.D. Shapiro, and his gracious acceptance of a Razzie award for writing Battlefield Earth. He first offers an apology to anyone who has seen it, then he offers a funny, outsider's perspective of dealing with Scientologists, and the subsequent mangling of his script for what was once allegedly referred to by John Travolta as 'The Schindler's List of Sci-Fi.'"
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
As far as I know, I am the only non-Scientologist to ever be on their cruise ship, the Freewind. I was a bit of an oddity, walking around in a robe, sandals, smoking Cuban cigars and drinking fine scotch (Scientologists are not allowed to drink while taking courses). I also got one of the best massages ever. My friends asked if I got a "happy ending." I said, "Yes, I got off the ship."
Could anyone have done it better? I've not actually read the novel, but apparently it's pretty good. I actually enjoyed the film - it's at that level of so bad it's hilariously funny, not so bad it's unwatchable. I bought the DVD completely at random, knowing nothing about the story, for £2 in a charity shop a few years back and I've watched it a couple of times. It's great with a few friends and a few beers, although I probably wouldn't recommend watching it sober.
The article makes me want to read the original script. I wonder if it's online anywhere. For those who haven't seen the film, I suggest that you read the abridged script [the-editing-room.com].
Re:The reason why Battlefield Earth Won the Razzie (Score:4, Interesting)
Yup.
I actually read the book after I saw the movie, and the second half was much better than the first. Still, the first half of the book is significantly better than the story they told in the movie - they probably would have made the second half suck too.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The reason why Battlefield Earth Won the Razzie (Score:2, Interesting)
Then I found out who Hubbard really was, and never sought out any of his books again. Of course, I'd already read Dianetics, so it was too late to scrub my brain completely.
Re:The reason why Battlefield Earth Won the Razzie (Score:4, Interesting)
I dunno man. What's up with the fighter jets that sat in a cave like 1,000 years and started up just fine? The ancient walkie-talkie's with working batteries? The stupid aliens accepting pallets of gold bars with official seals stamped on them??
That's about all I can remember from the movie, it HURT MY BWAIN.
So I ask you... was that nonsense from the book or added because of low budgets? It seemed pretty integral to the plot to find the planes so... the book couldn't have made much sense could it? GIGO.
Re:Dunno (Score:3, Interesting)
When ever in causal conversation scientology comes up I simply say;
John Trivolta is to a Scientologist like Charleton Heston to a Christian Fundamentalist,
"Battlefield Earth" is to a Scientologist like "The Ten Commandments" is to a Christian Fundamentalist, then I put "Battlefield Earth" in the DVD player and let them decide for themselves! Gee I wish Tom Cruise was in it too. If "Battlefield Earth" doesn't convince them I put The Profit [imdb.com] in next.
Re:Why? (Score:1, Interesting)
Yes, but then you have to be ready for something like that to happen.
If you are, then you're either weird, an eternal boyscout, or a total pessimist.
He is obviously neither a boy scout nor a total pessimist, but the weird thing is still in the running.
All in all, I like this guy, just not the hijacked and mangled piece of fecal matter that was called Battlefield Earth.
Also, it had way too much john travolta. (non-capitalized intentionally)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate to say it, but I actually enjoyed the original book (I was aboit 15 at the time).
No, I am most definitely not into Scientology, (or any other religion for that matter) but I do think the original book is worth a second look.
Sure, it was before I had ever heard of Scientology, and had no idea that the author was a complete kook who started his own religion and apparently completely lied about everything in the "about the athor" section. It wasn't until years later, while wandering around the city that some guy stopped me and asked me if I'd mind doing a survey. They asked me if I'd ever heard of L. Ron Hubbard & said sure, I'd read one of his books. You should have seen the guy's eyes light up - though that dimmed a bit once I told him which book I had read. The survey was in a nearby office, which was practically wallpapered with copies of the "Dianetics" book - and the survey was a whole bunch of "moral dilemma" questions - a bit like the gypsie's questions in the beginning of Ultima IV (if any of you can remember that far back) After the first page of 30 or so questions, I realised there was still another 4 or 5 pages of questions to answer so decided to bail while I still could - all in all it was a slightly creepy experience.
The original book was basically just pulp Sci fi - a hero that was a hero's hero - morally and physically perfect, fearless, etc. and taking on the big bad aliens at their own game after learning their own technology as a slave.
The book also had a bunch of ( fairly stereotyped) Scots who made the guys in Braveheart look like whimps - those guys ere amongst my favourite characters in the book and completely missing from the movie. The book also had two main parts - beating the aliens (by eventually shipping a whole bunch of nukes vis their teleporter rig back to the home planet) , then dealing with the resulting power vacuum and problems after the galactic bank shows up and declares the Earth bankrupt, and therefore due for repo and resale to the next several bunch of aliens that show up.
All in all, if you can forget that the author actually has anything to do with Scientology and just read the book, it's actually not a bad read. You might want to cover it in brown paper or something though if you intend to read it on the train - just to avoid the embarrasing stares of incredulity that anyone's actually reading the book after such a bad movie. Sure, it's a bit over the top and the characters are a little too comic book like in their goodness and badness, but the technology ideas are interesting, and the story of the much besieged humans eventually overcoming the aliens by leveraging their greed and technology against them, plus overcoming a whole bunch of internal and external problems, both technologically and politically after the main battle is won was quite entertaining.
If you want to make sure you arent funding the Church of Scientology, borrow it from the library or pick it up from a second hand book shop.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, he didn't know how the rewrite would go at the time he would be associated with the movie. He says the first and only time he saw the movie was at the premier.
Personally, I wish the original script would "accidentally leak," so we can see if there is any validity to the assertions. Having been involved in licensed projects before, I know how much clueless meddling hands can screw up an otherwise talented team.
And he's a writer. In Hollywood. Getting paid. For a writer that's better, and rarer, than free sex from religious fundamentalists.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)
The novel's OK -- far from the best sci-fi, but it's certainly not as bad as the movie. Gets kinda stupid after Psychlo blows up, IMO, but before then it's really a basic sci-fi action novel.
And at least it makes some sense within the guidelines set out, unlike the movie. For instance, these three plot points in particular irked me about the movie:
1) The Psychlos are gold hungry -- do you REALLY think they'd have not found as large a deposit as the bars Fort Knox (or any other large bank, for that matter)? Fort Knox (or some other large bank, I can't recall exactly) is in the book, but it was cleaned out. The humans happened to find a few gold bars gold in an abandoned Brinks van, but that's it.
2) The events takes place 1000 years after the Psychlos invaded. How likely is it that Harrier jets would still be fueled and in working order after all that time? The humans use a few of the Phychlo's own transport pads against them in the book.
3) They also KNOW their planet would be susceptible to nuclear attack, due to the composition of the atmosphere. The movie would have you believe they're so dumb that they had no protection against accidentally/intentionally transported nuclear weapons and that a single nuke would work to blow up the planet. In the book, due to the shielding in place, it actually took 7, with the shielding around the transport area actually forcing the combined explosions down into the mined out core of the planet. Granted, by the same logic as #2, it's hard to believe a nuke would work after 1000 years, but at least a nuke isn't as mechanically complicated (to my knowledge) as a harrier.
I'm not trying to defend the book -- if you haven't read it, you're not missing much -- but it actually did have the basis for a half-decent, if quite typical, sci-fi movie, instead of the atrocity that came about.
Mind you, the name of the characters sucked.
Re:Battlefield Earth was so bad... (Score:3, Interesting)
I first saw that on bash.org, with John Denver cassette tapes as the focal point of the joke.