FREE THE EARTH!
A Review of the Screenplay for
Battlefield Earth
by Brad Linaweaver

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[Brad Linaweaver is co-author of the best selling Doom novels which were reviewed in USA Today and Gentlemen's Quarterly. A Nebula finalist and Prometheus award winner for his first major science fiction work, Moon of Ice, he has also written the Sliders books based on the popular television series. In addition to selling over seventy short stories to anthologies and magazines, he is co-editor of Free Space, an original hardcover and trade paper science fiction anthology from Tor Books. He has sold over two hundred articles to publications ranging from National Review to the Atlanta Journal & Constitution.]

Linaweaver recently acquired a copy of the actual version of the Corey Mandell screenplay that was used during the Summer 1999 filming of Battlefield Earth in Montreal, Canada. Following are his comments and thoughts.

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Adapting one of the modern classics of science fiction for the screen might seem a daunting task but Corey Mandell has proven he was equal to the task. Everything L. Ron Hubbard learned as one of the top writers of the Golden Age of Science Fiction is on display in his magnum opus, Battlefield Earth. If ever there was a novel demanding the big screen treatment, this is it!

The screenwriter understands that the strength of a book-to-movie project lies in faithfulness to the original vision. All too often, Hollywood spends a fortune bastardizing the work of gifted authors. That hasn't happened this time. Reading the actual screenplay used for the filming of Battlefield Earth has been a revelation. Imagine Hollywood spending tens of millions of dollars to get it right.

Mandell trusted the novel. This gave him the advantage of using the well-structured plot and the interesting shadings of the characters. The hero, Jonnie (played by Barry Pepper), is adaptable in a manner we rarely see on the screen. We've seen action heroes who do incredibly brave things. We've seen more cerebral heroes who outsmart their opponents and even flatter their vanity. But Jonnie can do both as the situation requires. He can switch back and forth in a second. He knows his opponents have all the advantages—but they also have one potentially fatal flaw, their pride. Jonnie never forgets that at crucial moments his enemies will underestimate him.

In fact, the bad guys—the alien Psychlos—are the literal embodiment of foolish pride. Because it only took them minutes to conquer the Earth with superior technology, they assume that the remnants of human beings who remain will never cause them any trouble. After a thousand years of dominating the Earth, there is little reason for them to think otherwise.

The primary villain of the story is Terl, head of Earth security, portrayed by John Travolta. He is smarter than the other Psychlos. He is the first to realize that Jonnie is smarter than the other man-animals. Even so, Terl can't overcome his prejudices sufficiently to imagine that human beings might be able to take back their planet.

Already we are dealing with a level of sophistication in the writing beyond most film and televised science fiction. The script also retains many nice touches that only show up in real science fiction. A good example is that the aliens find a beautiful blue sky with white clouds to be one of the ugliest things they've ever seen.

The plot is never boring. Terl is so busy plotting against other Psychlos that it distracts him from the human threat to his power. The fundamental weakness of all tyrannies is that they must ultimately devour themselves. When the ruling power becomes decadent, the victims of Empire have their chance if they possess sufficient courage. The script couldn't include all the material about economics and politics found in the novel but it kept what was essential. The result is a surprisingly adult film that will appeal to teenagers with its action and adventure. Maybe some of the kids will even be inspired to read the book.

Already the film version of Battlefield Earth is being compared to other block-buster science fiction films before it even comes out. The obvious and best comparison is to the Star Wars films. There are very few films like these. The comparison is also inspired by Roger Christian in the director's chair when he'd earlier been art director for the original Star Wars and unit director on The Phantom Menace. He was even recommended for Battlefield Earth by no less that George Lucas! And, of course, the design and special effects experts are the same people who worked on the Star Wars films as well as the Alien films, Independence Day, X-Files and Titanic.

But after a close reading of this script, I think Battlefield Earth can be favorably compared to a film that has nothing to do with science fiction - Spartacus. Only a handful of films have dealt with the full implications of slavery and what it takes to resist the most evil of institutions. Cynics won't understand what I'm talking about because they share the psychology of the Psychlos.

A good plot puts characters in conflict and then has clever resolution. Battlefield Earth the novel has this. And so does the script. How ironic that there are snobs who dismiss this kind of story as pulp fiction.

Pulp fiction! The title of a movie that was one of the great moments in John Travolta's career.

Pulp fiction! The kind of high adventure and romances that L. Ron Hubbard wrote back when people read to get their entertainment thrills.

Today's kids are hungry for stories of heroes and villains on an epic scale. The situation with which Battlefield Earth begins seems far more hopeless than any problems the audience might have. There seems no conceivable way for the good guys to defeat the bad guys. To quote the opening line of the novel: "Man," said Terl, "is an endangered species."

For two hours in a darkened movie theatre, a new generation will be shown that sometimes cliches are the truest things in the world: "While there's life, there's hope."

Mandell has done his job well.

© 2000 Brad Linaweaver