Battlefield Earth Screenwriter Apologizes for Battlefield Earth

Posted by on March 29th, 2010   Filed under: Books/Comics, Comedy, Sci-fi
Source: New York Post

bfearthapology

There are very few people in the movie industry who have a spotless track record. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, the movie you’re working on ends up being a real piece of crap, and as long as you can own up to that fact and learn from it, you’re a better man for it. Recently, Battlefield Earth was awarded the Razzie for Worst Picture of the Decade, and the movie’s original screenwriter J.D. Shapiro was there to accept the award in person. Now, this week, he has also issued a public apology for the movie in the New York Post, and it’s definitely worth a read:

“Let me start by apologizing to anyone who went to see Battlefield Earth. It wasn’t as I intended — promise. No one sets out to make a train wreck. Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn’t really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those. It started, as so many of my choices do, with my Willy Wonker. It was 1994, and I had read an article in Premiere magazine saying that the Celebrity Center, the Scientology epicenter in Los Angeles, was a great place to meet women.”

He goes on to explain how he got pulled into the world of Scientology and somehow landed the job of writing the screenplay, even though he was not a card-carrying member. He also defends his work to an extent:

“My script was very, VERY different than what ended up on the screen. My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn’t have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.”

Sure, sure. Well, I suppose he can’t take all the blame for this one. Personally I don’t remember much about Battlefield Earth since I fell asleep during part of it, but for some reason I don’t remember it being as bad as I expected. What do you think, is it truly deserving of Worst Picture of the Decade, or was it unfairly slammed because of the association with Scientology?



  • “Unfairly slammed because of the association with Scientology?”

    No. The film is quite terrible. When I watched it I noticed none of the Scientology elements in the film, but I did notice Travolta’s awful acting and Barry Pepper’s career almost going bye bye. The effects are crap and the plot nonsensical. I’m sure there’s truly worse movies than BE but it comfortably sets the bar quite low.

  • xego

    i was surprised that this was a 2000 film for some reason I was thinking it was earlier. I saw this once when it came out on video and forgot it as much as I was able. Looking at Travolta’s filmography I would say that the whole of the decade is crap except for “The love song for Bobby Long” which I like, but it may be Scarlett that I like in that.

  • Jackson

    I remember liking Battlefield Earth a lot more than Dude Where’s My car if that counts for anything. However that’s like preferring a root canal to a spinal tap.

  • kefo

    I actually liked the movie. I dont get why everyone hates the movie so much. it wasn’t meant to be some serious aard wining film. Sometimes its just fun to watch an action movie with dumb comments.

  • AJ

    Battlefield Earth was brutally bad. How a studio can put out such a complete turd on a budget of $73 million is beyond me.

  • Steve

    I saw this movie purely on the terms of a dumb action movie and even I left disappointed. Hell it’s one of the only movies I ever walked out on (others are Kung Pow and Ang Lee’s Hulk)

    The movie is bad, not just ‘bad’ in an arthouse sense, but bad in any language and that includes all the non-human aliens out there who have yet to witness Battlefield Earth (Heil Xenu!). The dialogue atrocious, the aesthetics revolting. Whose idea was it to light every set up like a gay bar. Or have every camera be at some weird angle. Forrest Whitaker cries himself to sleep knowing he participated in this.

  • Jeaux

    Forrest Whitaker cries himself to sleep every night for being Forrest Whitaker. Secondly the entire film being in slightly off camera angles is the reason I like the movie.

  • Richard

    It was a B movie on a blockbuster budget. While it didn’t make me vomit or cry ‘foul’ it certainly doesn’t invoke the kind of fond memories one would expect from something with better actors and a the aforementioned budget.

    The worst part is just how far off from the book this movie was. Aside from the main characters and a few locations’ names there was very little that even moderately resembled the book.

    It’s a shame something couldn’t have been done like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Ring series. A 2 hour movie would not be able to provide more than a short story version of the overall work.