AusRich Reviews

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Satirical and entertaining

[8/10 · 5 January 2001]

This movie is true to L Ron Hubbard's novel. It not only conveys the book's atmosphere, but also its satire. John Travolta is brilliant as Terl, with his fixation on "leverage", status and rats. It's a study in the fantastic and yes, it IS meant to be funny in many places. You just have to look closely to see parallels between the Psychlos, and some of the sadder specimens in modern human society...

The special effects are also convincing: Travolta and Whitaker really do manage to be eight foot aliens for a couple of hours!

Battlefield Earth is a very fast-paced film, and even though it only reached the halfway mark in the book (wait for the sequel), there's a great deal of action and data to assimilate: keep up or be left behind. An extra half hour would have left us less breathless - particularly if we haven't read the book - and we could have savoured Terl's plottings for just a little longer.

Battlefield Earth may be in a similar SF genre to Soylent Green, the Planet of the Apes series, or THX 1138 -and probably more of a classic. It illustrates a pretty dystopian future for Earth and the galaxy, so despite Johnny Goodboy's heroism it may best lie alongside that 'blacker' class of film, rather than the good clean-shaven futuristic swashbuckling of Star Wars or Independence Day. Watch out for the satire, follow the outrageous intrigues, and be entertained.

Contact (1997)

Religion, hard science and human nature

[10/10 · 4 June 1999]

I read the book 'Contact' when it was first published. Both the book and the movie get a 10/10 from me!

The opening sequence, where one is carried away from the Earth on the back of radio waves, is stunning. Within minutes we have left the solar system and traversed the entire universe; then we find ourselves emerging from Ellie's eyes and realize that we are still right back at home after all.

I think that is one of the basic themes of this movie: the cosmos may be vast and strange, but ultimately everything important is 'in our own backyard.'(Unlikely as it may seem, and in no way detracting from either movie, I can see parallels to the 'Wizard of Oz' here!)

There are basically three sets of characters in this movie: (1) Ellie, who together with her science team and a mysterious benefactor, overcomes huge obstacles to achieve her goal of answering the scientific question, "Are We Alone?"; (2) Palmer Joss, who is searching for his own answers through God ("No, We Are Not Alone"); and (3)Everyone Else. While Everyone Else is fairly well-intentioned towards Ellie and SETI, many of them lack her vision and a few are downright hostile!

What the movie does make clear is that most of us are looking for much the same thing: Truth. By the end of the movie, however, the 'objective' Truth of science and the 'subjective' truth of God and spirituality have been irrevocably merged. Very thought-provoking!

As an aside, I found it intriguing that one of 'Contact's most productive radio astronomers was blind. Astronomy is traditionally seen as a visual science: if so, this film removes that bias admirably.

Whether you love this movie (as I do) may depend on whether you most identify with Ellie, Rev Joss, or Everyone Else. But I can't believe anybody still breathing would be totally unmoved by it.

Great vision Carl.

And Soon the Darkness (1970)

A Haunting Suspense Movie!

[10/10 · 24 May 1999]

This movie leaves a deep impression.

It is a suspense thriller with a deceptively simple plot. There are only four or five characters. Two young English nurses are cycling in France, and become separated at the roadside after an argument. Nurse Pamela Franklin returns to find her friend - but she has unaccountably vanished...

The film is set against an eerily quiet backdrop of French countryside. As the worried girl moves (from village to police station to cafe to farmlands) in search of her lost friend, the tension mounts. Any of the few strangers she meets might help her - but is one of them the killer?

Little by little,her hope and certainty fade. An uncaring and hostile environment closes in almost palpably around her.

The suspense only breaks at the very end, when all is known. Finally, the upbeat, flippant closing theme music brings us back to reality.

This is one of the most 'atmospheric' films I have ever seen.

I give it a 'ten.'