Battlefield Earth: The book vs the movie

[Chaotic42]

I just got done reading Battlefield Earth. All 1050 pages of it.

I must say it's completely different from the movie. I saw the movie twice when it came out. I now know that it's a horrible abomination of the book.

They absolutely screwed the movie up. Aside from the names and the location, it's totally different. The movie, which only sort of followed the plot, left out about 3/5 of the book.

This is the first work of fiction I've read in several years, and I have to say that it's my favorite. It's long, but it's really interesting.

Has anyone read the book?

 

[bradruth]

No, I'm not a Scientologist.

 

[wfbberzerker]

GREAT movie.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: wfbberzerker
GREAT movie.

You should read the book. It's a whole lot better.

 

[wfbberzerker]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: wfbberzerker
GREAT movie.

You should read the book. It's a whole lot better.

haha im sure thats not too difficult, but ill think about givin it a look-see

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: wfbberzerker
haha im sure thats not too difficult, but ill think about givin it a look-see

I'm tempted to go back and watch the movie now. I want to see just how off-base it really was.

For one thing, the Johnnie actor sucked. He didn't look like the guy in the book, and he didn't really act like him either.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

This is the first work of fiction I've read in several years, and I have to say that it's my favorite. It's long, but it's really interesting.

How can you be a good judge if you rarely read fiction? I've read it about 10 years ago... so i can't remember much of it, only to know that it was one of the more awful sci-fi books i've read... and i'm not a big sci-fi fan either. But try Dune, Ender's Game, Snowcrash/Cryptonomicon, Permutation City, and i'm sure there are others that are better... these are just the ones that i can recall at the top of my head at 5am in the morning.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Hardcore
How can you be a good judge if you rarely read fiction?

I said that it was my favorite work of fiction. So out of the eight or so non-fiction books I've read, I like this one the best. I also said it was interesting, which is really completely devoid of true analytical meaning. I guess anyone could find anything interesting.

Since I have an intimate knowledge of the fiction that I've read, I think I'm an excellent judge on how this book rates compared to the other works of fiction that I've read.

Having both read the book and seen the movie, I'm also qualified to judge how the book rates compared to the movie.

So there.

 

[Whitecloak]

The book was awesome. Rates among the best in sci-fi.

 

[thedarkwolf]

I read it about 8 years ago and thought it was pretty good. I read the first 2 Dune books and just don't get what everybody loves about them. I am not a big Sci-Fi guy though.

 

[SpunkyJones]

I thought it was a great book, I've read it a couple of times over the years. I could only watch about 10 minutes of the movie before I had to pull out, it was utter crap compared to the book.

 

[Squisher]

Read it. Thought it was great.

The begining of the book seemed kinda confusing, but then it took off.

 

[psiu]

Good book, never saw the movie.

 

[wyvrn]

I liked the book, although it was a bit long. The movie was one of the worst I have ever seen.

 

[mavs55]

Originally posted by: bradruth
No, I'm not a Scientologist.

 

[kami333]

Overall I think the book is pretty good, there are a lot of long boring stretches where it seems the author is more interested in seeing how much he can write rather than move the story along.

And the movie? I usually assume that the book and movie have nothing in common, they just happen to have the same name out of coincidence. The movie was ok, much more fitting for a low budget sci-fi channel movie though.

 

[cquark]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: Hardcore
How can you be a good judge if you rarely read fiction?

I said that it was my favorite work of fiction. So out of the eight or so non-fiction books I've read, I like this one the best. I also said it was interesting, which is really completely devoid of true analytical meaning. I guess anyone could find anything interesting.

I presume you meant fiction instead of non-fiction above.

Under that presumption, are you serious that you've only read 8 works of fiction? If you've graduated from high school, we seriously need to increase the amount of reading our students do these days. I thought the amount of required reading was ridiculously low when I was in high school, but we read at least 8 works a fiction a year.

Returning to topic, I agree that the book is pretty fun, unlike the movie which sucked, though Hubbard needed an editor as he didn't have 1000+ pages of stuff to say.

 

[NuclearNed]

I hated the movie. I think I actually liked 'The Postman' more.

Never read the book, and probably won't.

 

[Brutuskend]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: wfbberzerker
GREAT movie.

You should read the book. It's a whole lot better.

yup

 

[Vic]

The book is one of the all-time science fiction greats, up there with Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Foundation. There is no scientology in the book.
The movie OTOH is like one of those B-movie train wrecks that are fun to watch only because of how bad they are.

 

[gururu]

got through about half the book, then just lost interest. characters just seemed so superficial.

 

[ViperXX]

I read the book and it's one of my all time favorites. I've read it twice I liked it so much. The movie was a complete joke. Thanks to the movie alot of people were turned off to this story. It's an excellent read, pick up sometime.

 

[Azraele]

Has anyone read the book?

Yup. Twice.

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: bradruth
No, I'm not a Scientologist.

seriously i refuse to support that quack with any of my money, besides ther are tons of awesome SF authors out there that poop more interesting things then hubbard writes.

 

[raanemaan]

Read the book at least twice. Rented the movie and watched it all because I paid for it. I'm cheap. Book 10/10 Movie 1/10. Movie is so different from book.