Translated material
"Battlefield - Earth"
Yuri Gladilshchikov
Archive "Movies"
USA *
Directed by Roger Christian
Stars: John Travolta, Forest Whitaker
Rental — "Pyramid"
(Photo: "Pyramid" )
About what . Again about the fact that in the future we (that is, humanity speaking American English) will face severe trials. By the year 3000, we have been ruled for a thousand years by cruel aliens three meters tall (among whom deceit is considered an honor), and people have fallen into a primitive state. But there will be one of ours who will discover the ruins of a human city, and in it - the ruins of the Library of Congress, read the Declaration of Independence, in a matter of days (namely, in a week) teach his dense tribesmen how to handle computers, weapons (including thermonuclear ones), how control alien ships and US Air Force fighters (they, by the way, stood for a millennium with full tanks and in full combat readiness). And - death to the fascists.
The inspiration and one of the producers of the film was John Travolta, thus fulfilling a lifelong dream. The film is based on the science fiction epic of the same name, written by Ron Hubbard, the father of Dianetics and Scientology promoted in Russia. Travolta, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and some other stars are adherents of the Church of Scientology, but Travolta denies that the film was made to popularize Hubbard's ideas. This, he claims, is just an entertainment film. Travolta is lying. “Battlefield” (as well as almost every work made in the “fantasy” genre) is an attempt to put together a new Bible of the “new era”.
Pros . None. The explosions are kind of tedious, the battles are moronic. The film was invented by people (from the director to the special effects specialists) who participated in the creation of the latest Star Wars and Alien 4, but alas...
(Photo: "Pyramid" )
Minuses . It’s a rare case when I agree with the unanimous opinion of the Western press: I haven’t seen a worse film in a long time. The amount of insanity cannot be recounted. The brazenly fraudulent “Independence Day” against the backdrop of “Battlefield” seems truthful and logical and is good because it is filmed with irony. The “field” of the “battle” is stupid and serious. And how much boorishly stolen: from “Planet of the Apes”, “Blade Runner”, “Dune”, “The Fifth Element”, “Star Trek”, from the same “Star Wars” and “Independence Day”, from “Total Recall” etc.!
It’s interesting to analyze the film as a “social slip” (like a “Freudian slip”), but it doesn’t reveal anything fundamentally new either. It has long been known that with science fiction films, Americans compensate for the lack of their country’s long history, like that of Europeans, full of trials and threats to democracy from totalitarianism. Americans invent such a story for themselves and throw it into the future. Therefore, the future in “Battlefield” again turns out to be totalitarian, and the characters are transferred to it from ancient times: “ours” resemble Vikings, while their uprising is clearly the uprising of Spartacus, and highly developed aliens have rotten teeth, like the ancient Romans from Pasolini’s films .
Next : Americans apparently now see the main totalitarian threat in monopolies. The vile aliens in “Battlefield”, pumping out the bowels of the earth, are representatives not only of an invented race, but also of a certain Corporation, which is led by the Board.
Finally, about racism. Hollywood directors - therefore, even the most democratically inclined humanity - seem to still harbor xenophobia. They are not able to make a nasty film about any real race/nation, but they exude hidden xenophobia from themselves, happily inventing racist films about fictional races.
Keywords . 3000, disgusting aliens, enslaved primitive earthlings, “you can’t live like that!” (based on the works of Ron Hubbard and Stanislav Govorukhin).
PS The renovated cinema "Prague" opened with the premiere of "Battlefield". The chairs and sound are just right, the interiors (silhouettes of “old Prague” - like in the Tale after Tale books) resemble a puppet theater, but young audiences will probably like it.
June 30, 2000