Battlefield Earth was bad, and I mean wretched. Trying to find anyone that really, genuinely liked this movie would be harder than trying to find someone that liked Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace. Oh yeah, I went there because it’s the truth. People genuinely did not like this movie since it pretty much butchered the novel, which was in many ways pretty entertaining and had a much more meaningful ending. John Travolta and Barry Pepper might have played two of the most noted roles but that doesn’t mean much with this stinker. In fact I think people tried to actively forget this movie.
Yes, it was that bad.
10. Forest Whitaker actually stated that he regretted his role in this film.
Thankfully it didn’t tank his career and he would go on to star in several other big budget movies that put him in the spotlight.
9. Apparently the film had a very low lighting budget.
It was plagued by low budget concerns and production issues that made for a terrible time and a lackluster movie.
8. John Travolta actually praised the film during its publicity.
I don’t think he was praising it all that loudly when the final reviews came in and fans had pretty much turned their back on the film.
7. Barry Pepper earned a Razzie for his performance.
He was heard to state that if he’d known he was going to win it he would have shown up for it. That seems like an odd thing to say about an award that no one wants.
6. Quentin Tarantino was offered the director.
He was offered the job by John Travolta, but he declined it. That’s probably the best decision he’s ever made.
5. The original plans had a sequel that would have focused on the second half of the book.
The problem was that the fallout from the first film was so horrible that no one wanted to touch a sequel or even think about it.
4. John Travolta had his personal chef come up to prepare meals for the cast and crew.
Apparently the food they were getting wasn’t that great so Travolta thankfully dug into his pockets and proved to be very generous.
3. Travolta had to take a pay cut for this movie.
He was paid $10 million and had an option to make more if the film did well. You can just guess how that went. The film flopped and he likely didn’t see all the much more from it.
2. The screenwriter even apologized for the film.
He accepted the Razzie for this personally and was heard to say that he was genuinely sorry for the very poorly developed script. It could have been better, as the book was pretty good.
1. Whitaker’s character sides with the humans because he’s grown tired of being insulted and abused.
His character is basically pushed around, bullied, and threatened continually by Travolta’s character. So it’s kind of natural that he would switch sides.
This movie was just all kinds of bad and up until several years after it’s release was tied with Showgirls for the most Razzies.
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