Battlefield Earth

Battlefield Earth is the title of a science fiction novel written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. It was first published in 1980 by St. Martin's Press, though all subsequent reprintings have been by Scientology's own publishing company, Bridge Publications. Hubbard's first science fiction novel since his pulp magazine days of the 1940s, it was promoted as Hubbard's "return" to science fiction after a long hiatus (see Scientology for details).

Written in the style of the pulp era (during which Hubbard had cut his teeth as a writer), the novel is a massive work (over 750 pages in hardcover, 1000+ in paperback) telling a fictional story set approximately 1,000 years in our future. Before the story begins, the reader learns, an evil alien race called the "Psychlos" invaded Earth near the end of the 20th Century, destroying human civilization in a matter of days and reducing humankind to little more than cave dwellers. A thousand years later, a series of events is put into action that finally gives humanity a chance to rebel against their alien overlords and free Earth from the control of a massive galactic empire.

Reaction to the book from literary critics and science fiction fans has been decidedly mixed since its publication. While generally acknowledged to be one of Hubbard's better books (if not his best), reviews and comments on it have ranged from being thrilling and action-packed to plodding, overlong, and even "unreadable."

Critics of Scientology claim that, along with many of Hubbard's books, the organization of Scientology engaged in a massive public relations campaign to buy enormous quantities of the book, in order to place it onto best-seller lists and foster the illusion of Hubbard as a best-selling author. Various bookstore chains (including Waldenbooks) have cited examples of Scientologists repeatedly coming into stores and buying armfuls of the book at a time. Several bookstores reported that shipments of the book arrived with the store's own price tags already affixed to them, even before they were unpacked from the shipping boxes.

After his success in the movie Pulp Fiction, Hollywood star John Travolta pushed hard to make a movie adaptation of Battlefield Earth a reality. Travolta, a devoted Scientologist and one of the organization's most vocal supporters, described the book in interviews as "like Star Wars, only better." The movie Battlefield Earth came out in 2000.

It was directed by Roger Christian[?] and starred John Travolta, Barry Pepper[?], Forest Whitaker[?], Kim Coates[?], Richard Tyson[?], Sabine Karsenti[?], Michael Byrne[?], and Kelly Preston[?].

In this futuristic epic adapted from the novel by sci-fi author and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, a greedy security chief (played by John Travolta, sporting what appears to be either dreadlocks or long twined nose hairs) enslaves prisoners to mine gold for him. When it was released, Battlefield Earth became an instant camp classic -- think Showgirls in outer space. The New York Times said, "Battlefield Earth is the worst movie of this century. Sitting through it is like watching the most expensively mounted high school play of all time. It is beyond conventional criticism and belongs in the elect pantheon that includes such delights as Showgirls and Revolution: the Moe Howard School of Melodrama."

Film critic Roger Ebert was equally unkind to the film, starting his review "Battlefield Earth is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time" and continuing that the film is "unpleasant in a hostile way."

Users of the Internet Movie Database have voted the film a prominent place on the site's list of the 100 worst films ever made (http://us.imdb.com/bottom_100_films).

External Link

• Internet Movie Database entry on Battlefield Earth (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0185183)