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Composed and Produced by:
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Elia Cmiral
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Conducted by:
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Conrad Pope
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Release Date:
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May 2nd, 2000
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Availability:
Regular U.S. release.
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you're a sucker for L. Ron Hubbard mentality and want to
hear Elia Cmiral's chaotic interpretation of a human revolt against
aliens.
Avoid it... if you value your time and your money, and you already
accidentally wasted several dollars seeing the film itself.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Battlefield Earth: (Elia Cmiral) If cinematic
science-fiction failures are to be ranked on a list, the 2000 epic turkey
Battlefield Earth would exist someplace high on that list. A
significant level of talent was employed to bring L. Ron Hubbard's
best-selling novel to the big screen, and it's hard to imagine just how so
many people managed to produce such a hideous film. A poor plot, dumb
dialogue, cheesy effects, et al are all so pronounced in the film that even
fans of bad B-realm sci-fi flicks laughed at this one. The plot is a usual
"mankind in turmoil" kind of affair from Hubbard: a race of strangely
dressed, bad mannered alien humanoids called Psychlos conquer Earth sometime
in our future and do some pretty nasty things, including (but not limited
to) the destruction of fast food restaurants, the elimination of the
designated hitter rule, and, of course, the mass enslavement of humankind.
Not only do they manage to keep humans like this for a thousand years, but
they accomplish it while dressed like someone you'd see standing on a
Haight-Ashbury street corner in San Francisco at 4:30 a.m. during a lunar
eclipse and a convention of Hell's Angels' Hairdressers. John Travolta's
costume alone indicates that these Psychlos fellows must have some kind of
considerable sinus problems. What is even more disturbing --or perhaps
comical in a sad sense-- is that Czech/Swedish composer Elia Cmiral decided
to make a whole-hearted attempt at a decent orchestral score for this
spectacle. Coming off of a few impressive works, such as Stigmata and
Ronin, Cmiral approached Battlefield Earth almost as though it
was the opportunity of a lifetime, assembling a score that could very well
have served as the mainstream announcement of his career. But then, as we
know, the film sucked (for lack of a better word), and Battlefield
Earth became an embarrassment to everyone involved in its
production.
It is safe to say that Cmiral's effort is one of the only
few interesting aspects of the Battlefield Earth debacle. His sincere
approach was to create a massive orchestral, choral, and electronic score
that would stand alongside other classic sci-fi works. To a basic extent, he
succeeded, but the problem then arose that his music for the film was too
grandiose in action and performance to match the terrible on-screen
elements. If ever a score sounded too good for its film, it is
Battlefield Earth. Even so, Cmiral's effort is flawed. The title
theme exists far too infrequently, and action cues that begin to muster
power, rhythm, and energy often degenerate into messy orchestral
blunderings. Cues that attempt to establish a personality are blindsided by
an endless supply of crashes and electronic shredding sounds. The
electronics really do a disservice to Cmiral's score, failing to add
creativity and instead pushing at the tolerance level of the listener in
cues such as "Psychlo's Top 40." The latter half of the score suffers
especially from a short-cue phenomenon during which Cmiral just manages to
establish an excellent action motif, sometimes with the chorus, and then a
scene change demands a quick end to it. The performance by the studio
orchestra in Seattle grinds and pounds at different rhythms at each turn, so
the unlistenable portions of the score aren't even consistent. Therein lies
an overarching problem with Cmiral's attempt for Battlefield Earth;
the lack of a personality kills this score. On album, the ills of the music
are blatantly obvious, with several little snippets of music containing
excellent material for compilations (such as "We've Won"), but the rest of
the score containing extremely problematic continuity issues. The album also
suffers from too many pictures of Travola's ridiculous costume, with no
still from the film showing anything other than this one painfully obvious
reason as to why the film failed. Overall, Battlefield Earth is a
frustrating score that should, unfortunately, be swept under the rug along
with the film. **
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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• 1. Battlefield Earth Theme (0:52)
• 2. The Dome (3:32)
• 3. Jonnie Leaves (1:34)
• 4. Meeting Carlos, the Hunter (1:19)
• 5. Terl (1:39)
• 6. Jonnie's Enlightenment (1:56)
• 7. The Plan - Fort Hood (2:42)
• 8. Chrissy (1:04)
• 9. Denver Library (1:19)
• 10. Chrissy Collected (1:40)
• 11. Man Animal Revolt (2:53)
• 12. Mountain Tribe (1:43)
• 13. Psychlo Wrangler (2:28)
• 14. Psychlo's Top 40 (2:07)
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• 15. Commence Revolt (3:10)
• 16. Do You Want Lunch? (1:34)
• 17. Revolt Continues (2:16)
• 18. Options for Renewal (2:00)
• 19. Hope at Last (0:55)
• 20. The Cavalry (0:34)
• 21. Air Battle (1:50)
• 22. Trench Attack (0:53)
• 23. Web Cracking Stops (1:47)
• 24. Dome Explodes (1:55)
• 25. Gas Drone and Fight (1:43)
• 26. Mickey the Hero (0:40)
• 27. We've Won (1:12)
• 28. End Titles (1:33)
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Insert includes short notes about the score.
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