Battlefield Earth

[Operating Wog]

Never could make it through BE. Tried a couple of times. Read all of Mission Earth. Everyone was reading them on staff so there were all kinds of in jokes and references to the story that you would miss if you weren't reading it. Really easy reading though, more like a kids book than serious fiction.

I remember when the BE movie came out and a bunch of staff went to see it. They came back and of course everyone asked how it was. It was hilarious how carefully they chose their words. "Um.. it was... action packed. um... yeah. lots of action."

I decided it would be safest to just not watch it. I've been tempted a couple of times since I've been out, but always wind up having better things to spend 2 hours doing.

 

[Mick Wenlock]

I think Pts was including Ron's 'Tech' in with His 'fiction'

Zinj

Hmm. Well he would certainly score on the "amount of forests leveled to print out this dreck" -o-meter.

Interesting point - I guess it could be argued that he wrote a sci-fi soap opera that went on for 35 years.

What could we call it? "As the Stomach Turns"?

 

[Type4_PTS]

What could we call it? "As the Stomach Turns"?

How about "Revenge of the Body Thetans" ?

 

[Mick Wenlock]

How about "Revenge of the Body Thetans" ?

I think that probably would have several sequels!! LOL

 

[Zinjifar]

I think that probably would have several sequels!! LOL

they're called 'relapses'

Zinj

 

[Mick Wenlock]

not sure if any of you remember when BE was about to be released and the CofS just tried to flood the newsgroups about how good the movie was going to be? They even trotted out Jack Dirman trying to act like he knew what he was talking about. It was hilarious. I think the newsgroup was alt.fan.battlefieldearth If you want to look through some great examples of "Glutz PR" - its all there in glowing detail. Follow the adventures of zman200 as he tries to make a silk purse out of a sows ear...

 

[Gadfly]

not sure if any of you remember when BE was about to be released and the CofS just tried to flood the newsgroups about how good the movie was going to be? They even trotted out Jack Dirman trying to act like he knew what he was talking about. It was hilarious. I think the newsgroup was alt.fan.battlefieldearth If you want to look through some great examples of "Glutz PR" - its all there in glowing detail. Follow the adventures of zman200 as he tries to make a silk purse out of a sows ear...

The C of S REEKS of "PR"! On every channel it acts along.

I remember having been involved for about a year (public, staff and now Sea Org staff), and had very much already adopted the viewpoint that these guys use (incorrectly) SO MUCH PR. The orders would come down from up high, through the various SO org executives, like the Flag Rep, LRH Comm, and to the ED from the CLO, via direct phone contact (daily), and programs.

EVERY DAMNED EVENT was promoted as the "biggest yet", "the most amazing", "like nothing you have ever seen before", "a NEW HUGE Breakthrough", and on and on. The push every time, on every line, for every upcoming event, was that it "beat out everything before and HAD to be attended and seen". After 5 or 6 events, and seeing that each one WAS NOT the "biggest" or "best", well it became clear (to me) that there was more than a little wrong in OZ!

The PR aspect in Scientology is just so glaringly disingenuous, phony, contrived and manipulative (to the members and staff who fall for it all). It is so "plastic" - to use an old "70s" term. For me, the awarenesss of THAT sorry aspect of Scientology came early. Of course, other awarenesses of other BS, by and in the Church of Scientology, took varying degrees of time (for me).

 

[Hatshepsut]

I read some of the Ron the Artist magazines which had his 1940s sci fi in them. They were OK for the genre. I read Battlefield Earth but did not get into the Mission Earth series even though I had the 11 or so volumes. The "black nemesis", the black this or that. yuck.
I never held back in the mid 70s and early 80s about how BAD I thought the tech films or dissemination films were. We were to invite public non scios to the showings at the missions on LRHs birthdays etc. TOO embarrassing.

 

[Lohan2008]

What did the Church tell you?

My question is, did the 'Church' tell you that you HAD to see the film ??
or
Told that it contained OT 3 material ??

 

[Gadfly]

My question is, did the 'Church' tell you that you HAD to see the film ?? NO.
or
Told that it contained OT 3 material ?? NO!

"No" to both.

 

[Dulloldfart]

My question is, did the 'Church' tell you that you HAD to see the film ??
or
Told that it contained OT 3 material ??

But it doesn't contain OT3 material. Where did you get that idea from? "Revolt in the Stars" does though.

Paul

 

[myrklix]

Just putting my 2-cents in that I really liked Battlefield Earth. Never did get to Mission Earth. I couldn't imagine how a ten-book series could be that good. I was going to wait for the rave "public" reviews first before buying, which never came.

Though B.E. was good and kept my interest throughout, Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is among the best and a true classic and the turn of events at the end (as mentioned in an earlier post) is ingenious. If this were an Amazon review, B.E gets 4 stars, Foundation Trilogy 5+.

 

[Mystic]

I found Batshit Earth to be boring and tedious, nicely paralleling most of the spewings of Lips Hubbard. And Travolta did a most excellent job of movie making with it. Worst Sci-fi movie ever. Standard scifaggOT procedure.

 

[myrklix]

Well, to each his/her own. Glad we can disagree here w/o some ethics action or whatever.

 

[SchwimmelPuckel]

Well, I thought BE was entertaining. When did it get published? - I think I read that while being (somewhat) in awe of the Hubturd..

I read the ME dekalogy too.. And I read that after I'd become very suspicious of Hubbard and his intentions. But I considered that he wrote some fiction, and as such it wouldn't be a load of philosophical mindboggling.. And I'd say it isn't.. It's a satire, and quite humorous in places.

Heh.. I rather liked it actually. I posted about it on OCMB: Thread / Who was Soltan Gris Modeled On? Post # 42

I re-read ME in 2008 to look for PR and Black OP's capers that OSA might have used in real life.. There's the already known Miss Bloodybutt incident:

And just how nutty are OSA then? - They are as nutty as Hubbards scripture. Space Opera and all! - And that's pretty goddamned nutty!

The unlikely story about Miss Bloodybutt!
This is my all time favorite tale of an OSA fuckup. The entertainment value is unparalelled! - It was an attempt in 1995 by CofS at framing Tom Klemensrud, the owner of a BBS, (Bulletin Board Service). This was before the internet, but BBS's had the same functionality. Tom Klemensrud's crime was to be the internet provider for the cults enemy no.1 at the time, Dennis Erlich. - The GO (OSA) Operation involved a young woman (Linda Woolard, dutch?) smuggeling blood between her legs (somehow?) on a 'romantic' meeting with Tom. The blood was intended to frame him for rape or something. The mission went south, so it's unclear what was intended. Ms. Woolard was preoccupied with smearing blood decoratively on the walls in Klemensrud's bathroom. She didn't notice that Klemensrud called the cops.

Here's the whole story: Holysmoke / Miss Bloodybutt
Interestingly the OSA's mission plan apparently follows a sequence of events that is part of Hubbard's SF story Mission Earth #9 - Villainy Victorious. So you see that L. Rum Hubturd's 'tech' is followed to the letter. Even when Hubturd himself admits it really is science fiction!

 

[La La Lou Lou]

I love the Battlefield Earth film, I can only remember the beggining, but it was so crap that I had one of those little thaughts...."The guy was not a genius writer, not even a good one, what else was he lying about?"

I think it should be aired on TV at peak times. It would keep people away in droves!

 

[Voltaire's Child]

Space opera tropes are common in Scientology doctrine. Scientology works describe intergalactic battles between alien races and a powerful galactic ruler known as Xenu. Hubbard went as far as to claim that the sub-genre of space opera was merely an unconscious recollection of real events from millions of years ago. He described Earth to Scientologists as being a "prison planet" known as Teegeeack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Earth_(film)


I wondered when "Battlefield Earth" came out in 2000, were you told by the 'Church' to stay away because it contained OT 3 material ? (Wall of Fire) ??


One of the BIGGEST commercial flops in movie history; appauling plot, weak effects and even worst acting.

No, because it isn't about Incident II.

 

[Xenu's Boyfriend]

Mike and Marty dish Battlefield Earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrpMb51joJA

 

[Commander Birdsong]

I also LOVED Battlefield Earth (the book) as well, couldn't put it down once I started. One of my favorite Sci-Fi books I've read ever.

I don't believe the movie could have been made any worse than it was had that been their intention. That had to have been pretty embarrassing to Travolta and the others associated with it.
Having read the reviews prior to seeing the movie, my expectations were already very low, but it was much worse than I could have imagined.
DM must have been directly involved in order to f**k up the movie as bad as it was.

yup

i was surprised to find the book to be a pageturner.

yeeewkk, it does have some wretched flaws...

 

[rich]

At 2:08:14 is a positive review of battlefield earth and he makes some good points. There are some other movie reviews and this is a kind of interesting video about? truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCnrn6LkUo