John Travolta is a legend in additional methods than one. The “Saturday Night time Fever” veteran has starred in a number of unimpeachable classics, however he may additionally educate a masterclass on calamitous profession decisions. The person has been within the trade now for nearly half a century and never as soon as has he discovered find out how to not make a nasty choice. Because the mid-Seventies, when he performed a supporting function in “Carrie,” Travolta has appeared in initiatives which have received him acclaim, however he is additionally appeared in much more which have garnered derision — to the extent that Travolta now has a full seven films with straight 0% Rotten Tomatoes scores.
How does he do it? Nicely, the phrase “ardour mission” appears to be a harbinger of doom for the “Pulp Fiction” star. Travolta has, at numerous factors, gotten it into his head that as a result of he likes a factor, it would make a unbelievable film (with him within the lead function, after all). My private favourite instance is 2018’s “Gotti,” a “ardour mission” that Travolta had been making an attempt to get made for seven years previous to its debut. The John Gotti biopic appeared to ignite one thing in Travolta, who promoted the ever-loving hell out of the movie, becoming a member of social media for the primary time ever with a view to sing its praises. In response to insiders who spoke to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor actually believed his efficiency because the mafia don would convey untold awards success. As an alternative, “Gotti” stands as one of many greatest blunders in his filmography and one of many seven 0-percenters on RT.
However “Gotti” wasn’t the primary time Travolta had seen a ardour mission blow up in his face. Like I mentioned, the person simply by no means appeared to be taught sure classes, even after the calamity that was 2000’s “Battlefield Earth.” This earlier Travolta “ardour mission” grew to become such an Earth-shattering failure that even the “Battlefield Earth” screenwriter apologized for the film after the very fact.
Battlefield Earth was an ill-fated adaptation of an L. Ron Hubbard e book
As if films like “Buying and selling Paint” and “Life on the Line” weren’t sufficient to sully John Travolta’s title, he is additionally a Scientologist — and a reasonably enthusiastic one, too. At one level, Travolta determined he needed to pay cinematic homage to the founding father of this seedy little cult, L. Ron Hubbard, and did so with an adaptation of his 1982 novel “Battlefield Earth.” The Scientology head honcho was additionally a prolific author of science-fiction (in case you can consider that), and his e book about humanity rebelling in opposition to a race of tyrannical aliens often called Psychlos evidently enraptured Travolta, to the extent he mainly pressured by way of a giant display screen adaptation.
Now, we have already established that, for all his successes, John Travolta has had some actually abject lows in his profession. In some way, he even managed to entrance a sequel to “Saturday Night time Fever” — one of the crucial celebrated movies of the ’70s — that was so dangerous that The Boston Globe’s Owen Gleiberman dubbed it “a shame.” In that case, nevertheless, director Sylvester Stallone has taken a lot of the blame for producing such a flop. In fact, nevertheless, you may choose just about any decade and discover a Travolta stinker. So, to say “Battlefield Earth” is one in all his worst films, then, is to say that it is among the worst films within the historical past of Hollywood.
The film was made on a $73 million funds and directed by Roger Christian, a person revered for shaping the aesthetic of science-fiction films ever since he helped create the lightsaber for “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope” and crafted the look of Ridley Scott’s house horror basic “Alien.” But, “Battlefield Earth” stays one of the crucial disastrous science-fiction films ever made.
Not that you just want any extra clarification past the movie being an obsequious ode to the person who gave the world Scientology from the star of “Gotti.” Nonetheless, in case you had been questioning what went mistaken, here is a short explainer.
John Travolta actually believed in Battlefield Earth
Even in pre-production, just about everybody however John Travolta thought “Battlefield Earth” was a nasty concept. However, the actor was desirous to make it, a lot so he not solely invested his personal cash into the mission but in addition mainly pressured the film into manufacturing with assist from a then newly-created firm by the title of Franchise Footage. The top of the corporate, Elie Samaha, was significantly forceful. The e book “Visions of the Apocalypse: Spectacles of Destruction in American Cinema” quotes Samaha as saying, “I might yell at everybody, ‘This can be a science-fiction movie starring John Travolta!’ many times.” Such an method supposedly distracted from the negativity led to by the Scientology connection, and after Samaha managed to get the movie financed and into manufacturing, he apparently simply stepped again and let Travolta and co. make regardless of the heck they needed.
What they made wasn’t good. Director Roger Christian as soon as instructed Vice that Travolta bought him on the movie by referring to it as “‘Pulp Fiction’ for the yr 3000” and “the ‘Schindler’s Checklist’ of science-fiction.” He additionally alleged the actor considered the film “like ‘Star Wars,’ solely higher.” In actuality, “Battlefield Earth” was a $73 million catastrophe, and its $29.7 million world field workplace take was the least disastrous factor about it. The film noticed Travolta play Terl, the chief of the Psychlos, who rule Earth within the yr 3000. The planet itself has grow to be a hollowed out hellscape, and Barry Pepper’s Jonnie “Goodboy” Tyler has had sufficient. Therefore, he leads humankind right into a battle in opposition to the Psychlos to reclaim the planet. Additionally, Forest Whitaker is there. Add all of it up, and you’ve got a film that left critics somewhat greater than unimpressed.
Removed from being satisfied the film was “like ‘Star Wars,’ solely higher,” Roger Ebert likened the expertise of watching the movie to “taking a bus journey with somebody who has wanted a shower for a very long time,” and claimed the film was “not merely dangerous” however “disagreeable in a hostile means.” Hostile is just about the tenor of critiques normally, with Elvis Mitchell of the New York Occasions summarizing, “After about 20 minutes of this amateurish image, extinction does not look like such a nasty concept.”
Surprisingly, regardless of the terrible critiques and the very fact Travolta by no means actually recovered after this field workplace flop, “Battlefield Earth” will not be one of many actor’s 0%-rated films on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that the positioning which might have you ever consider there are solely two good struggle films ought to be taken too significantly, however in case you’re , “Battlefield Earth” has a 3% ranking and a 2% ranking amongst high critics. Which means solely one in all 44 high critics appreciated the film and that critic was Bob Graham of the San Francisco Chronicle, whose “recent” overview amounted to this: “Is it value seeing as soon as? Positive.”
