Starship Troopers The Movie

Movie based on the RobertHeinlein novel StarshipTroopers. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, who also brought us such envelope-pushing cinematic fare such as Showgirls, Basic Instinct, Total Recall (based on a PhilDick novel), and RoboCop?.

Many fans of the book despise the movie, and there is much to despise. The script is laughable, the book is thoroughly bowdlerized; the first 45 minutes or so reminds one of Beverly Hills 90210, the acting is terrible throughout, and the (excellent) special effects are largely wasted. (This describe many Hollywood blockbusters of recent years, so Verhoeven is hardly alone in this).

On the other hand ... Verhoeven was attempting satire here. The low-brow production underscores this. The intent was to mock the quasi-fascist ideology satirized-or-espoused by Heinlein in the novel, as discussed at the StarshipTroopers page, an ideology that Verhoeven is known to despise. Hence the frequent Nazi motifs on the part of the "good guys" - up to and including Doogie Howser in full gestapo rig at the end.

We say satirized-or-espoused because a large number of people disagree on the matter, and have made intelligent arguments both ways. This is an old and long-running debate in science fiction fandom, with no interpretation universally agreed upon.

Come to think of it - and this is the scary part - this film was made seven years ago, four years before GeorgeBush took office. But the movie is a spot-on satire of UnitedStates foreign policy in the past two and a half years. When I think of SaddamHussein being plucked from the "spider hole", I can help but picture the image of the "brain bug" hog-tied at the end of the movie, bound for who-knows-what in some military facility somewhere... and the closing tagline of "They Will Fight and They Will Win'' could easily be a Bush campaign slogan.

But enough ranting - anyone like this movie?

My ex and I laughed our arses off when we saw it in the cinema. What made it even funnier was that most of the rest of the audience didn't get the joke - sat there appalled and confused. So we got to be those horrid people who laugh when they're not supposed to. Except we were supposed to. Anyone who can watch the scene where the betsy-wetsy actress (can't remember her name, fortunately) scrapes the side of the huge definite-kill-cannon spaceship getting it out of the garage, and still takes the movie seriously, needs to seek out a mental health professional pronto.

I love the book as a satire too. And likewise think anyone who takes it seriously needs help. Or maybe they need to just go read StrangerInaStrangeLand and understand that the same author cheerfully wrote both. Main thing missing in the movie that would have made it better still was powered armor - but Verhoeven probably felt he'd done that to death in Robocop, and it would have distracted. -- PeterMerel

I loved it - on the proviso that I turn off my brain and just enjoy the action sequences (and the shower scene of course).

I also liked it, I'll even sign my name to liking it. Of course, I didn't go in to the cinema expecting a faithful adaptation of Heinlein's book, so I avoided disappointment on that score. I think that what Verhoeven did with ST was to continue the really very vicious critique of a certain trend in western culture that he worked on in RoboCop?. The general story arc of the novel provided the hanger form which he could suspend his tale. He probably couldn't have got the story he actually tells on the screen otherwise. Something similar happened with the StarTrek flick that's actually about the collapse of the Soviet Union...

Anyway, the message came across loud and clear to me: a comfortable, safe, smooth, good-looking world might be available, but at a price that many of us may well object to. The resemblance to 90210 is not accidental, soap actors were cast in the film to give a purposefully sinister air of uniformity, superficiality and blandness to that Earth society. Notice how everyone there has blue eyes? -- KeithBraithwaite

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, perhaps more than I enjoyed the book. It is satire. Verhoeven says as much on the DVD commentary. -- EricHodges

Ah yes, the DVD commentary. This one is the first (and so far only) one I've heardthat's preceeded by a disclaimer, suggesting very strongly that the studio are very, very unhappy with what's said. --KB

I'll have to sign on to liking it. StarshipTroopers was one of Heinlein's "juvenile" novels.. aimed at teenagers. The movie was juvenile too. Although it wasn't really true to the book, it was true to the spirit that RobertHeinlein wrote his "juvenile" novels in. Campy and entertaining. -- RonJandrasi

A long time ago, I came to the conclusion that all Heinlein novels are juveniles - but that's ok.

In the trade, the term "juveniles" meant that it was aimed at a certain age group, and that age group certainly was not targeted with anything salacious due to the mores of the time. So this is punning on the term "juveniles" (as humor or by accident I couldn't say).

StarshipTroopers is a transitional novel for Heinlein. It was either one of the last juveniles (you can argue that Podykane of Mars was the last) or the first novel of his middle period, depending on how you squint at it. He submitted it to Scribners (which is where the Juvies were published up until then) and they rejected it, so he sold it to Putnam and never went back to Scribners and their censorship.

I'm going to sign up for having liked the movie. No where near as much as I enjoyed the book, but it was still very funny. Being in the Military myself, I found many parts of the movie hilarious, and found myself in the shoes of PeterMerel having many people looking at me funny when I laughed out loud with the rest of the theatre in silence.

You mean like in the "Polish firing squad" section? (Soldiers in a circle shooting toward the bug in the center...a touch hazardous)

It took a few viewings before I was able to get over the radical DifferencesBetweenTheBookAndMovie?. I can actually like it now, but I find myself reminding myself that the movie is a different story that has the same name and many of the same characters and settings as the book.

I have often wondered if anyone would have the sand to do a movie version of the actual book. But then I've wondered that about a number of books whose titles and characters have found their way into MoviesByTheSameName? that were either greatly distorted or just different stories trading on the name.

Oh, well, I guess I'm Doomed! (doomed!) to lament these infractions in much the same way that I complain about the atrocious English used by people who should know better. -- GarryHamilton

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