Battlefield at the flicks: Travolta vs The Master

Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology-a-clef The Master broke arthouse box-office records this weekend in the US. But how does it compare with the last film to be irrevocably linked with L Ron Hubbard, Battlefield Earth?

Battlefield Earth

In a line The story of a rebellion by surviving humans against Earth's alien rulers, the Psychlos.

iMDB rating 2/10

Memorable lines "You are out of your skull bone if you think that I am going to write on the report "shot by man-animal" as the cause of the death!"

Awards nine Razzies, "worst picture of the decade" in 2010.

The critical view "After about 20 minutes of this… [human] extinction doesn't seem like such a bad idea" – The New York Times.

The Master

In a line The story of a charismatic 1950s intellectual whose movement, The Cause, grows in the 1950s.

iMDB rating 8.4/10

Awards nominated for the Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival (it's currently at odds of 6-1 and is the second favourite for the Best Picture Academy Award).

Memorable lines "Good science, by definition, allows for more than one opinion, otherwise you merely have the will of one man. Which is the basis of a cult."

The critical view "It gives us so much to revere" – The New Yorker