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Starship Troopers: One of the Most Misunderstood Movies Ever
The Atlantic ^ | November 7, 2013 | Calum Marsh

Posted on 12/02/2014 7:02:56 AM PST by C19fan

When Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers hit theaters 16 years ago today, most American critics slammed it. In the New York Times, Janet Maslin panned the “crazed, lurid spectacle,” as featuring “raunchiness tailor-made for teen-age boys.” Jeff Vice, in the Deseret News, called it “a nonstop splatterfest so devoid of taste and logic that it makes even the most brainless summer blockbuster look intelligent.” Roger Ebert, who had praised the “pointed social satire” of Verhoeven’s Robocop, found the film “one-dimensional,” a trivial nothing “pitched at 11-year-old science-fiction fans.”

But those critics had missed the point. Starship Troopers is satire, a ruthlessly funny and keenly self-aware sendup of right-wing militarism. The fact that it was and continues to be taken at face value speaks to the very vapidity the movie skewers.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: fiction; science; starship; troopers
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To: C19fan

I agree, but how can anyone not like a young Denise Richards?


41 posted on 12/02/2014 8:27:25 AM PST by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: F15Eagle

“Uh, we didn’t miss that. And, for the author, it’s “must have” not “must of”.”

Must of = must’ve.

The author must’ve come from the “Hooked on Phonics” era...


42 posted on 12/02/2014 8:31:20 AM PST by moovova
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

Apparently a very awkward scene for the actors. Filmed when weather precluded working on other scenes.


43 posted on 12/02/2014 8:34:37 AM PST by ctdonath2 (You know what, just do it.)
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To: Bidimus1

Starship Troopers: based on the back cover of a novel by R.A.Heinlein.


44 posted on 12/02/2014 8:36:29 AM PST by ctdonath2 (You know what, just do it.)
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To: C19fan

The reason so few saw the parody is that the original novel was what was parodied. Movie reviewers are writers, and regardless of their politics, to so unfairly use someone else’s work is unthinkable to them. They couldn’t conceive that Vorheoven would have so little respect for their craft.


45 posted on 12/02/2014 8:48:15 AM PST by dangus
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Comment #46 Removed by Moderator

To: Chickensoup

Especially since the very last sentence of the book shows us the main hero was not a blond blue eyed Argentinean.


47 posted on 12/02/2014 9:45:37 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (I survived I-35W through Fort Worth in Rush hour!)
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To: Mr. K

If DDT were legal the insect wars could have been over real quick.


48 posted on 12/02/2014 9:47:53 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (I survived I-35W through Fort Worth in Rush hour!)
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To: dead

***Invent something that stops them in one shot. ***

DDT or Chlordane works wonders.


49 posted on 12/02/2014 9:50:41 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (I survived I-35W through Fort Worth in Rush hour!)
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To: dangus

You should see the difference between the James Bond books and the movies. It seems to me the movie makers only bought the name for the books and made their own stories to go with them.


50 posted on 12/02/2014 9:57:50 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (I survived I-35W through Fort Worth in Rush hour!)
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To: C19fan
Even better than the book!

And certainly more fun than the movie. Nothing like dropping a nuke down a bug hole to cause a friend some discomfort.

51 posted on 12/02/2014 10:27:52 AM PST by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
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To: C19fan
Yes, the MOVIE is that, but the book by Heinlein has NONE of that. The movie was the directors own little hissy fit about the military. Heinlein served in the military and if anything pro-Military.
52 posted on 12/02/2014 10:29:07 AM PST by Sam Gamgee (May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't. - Patton)
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To: Bayan

I’ll stick with the song.

Yes - Starship Trooper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQKVqVpoMxw


53 posted on 12/02/2014 10:29:53 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: C19fan
There is a certain irony here. The supposed intellectual content of the movie comes at the cost of ignoring the intellectual content of the book and concentrating on mocking the usual liberal bugaboos of jingoism and machismo. In short, the heavy thinkers of the Atlantic are happier wading in the safe, shallow end of the pool because it's familiar.

Starship Troopers (the book) has not aged quite as happily as certain other of Heinlein's novels because much of its libertarian principles have been better documented and explored since then. That is often the problem with classic literature - once the ground is broken and behind you, it is sometimes difficult to remember why it was so original at the time, and that it was so good because it was so original.

54 posted on 12/02/2014 10:39:37 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: C19fan

“Starship Troopers is satire, a ruthlessly funny and keenly self-aware sendup of right-wing militarism.”

One of Liberalism’s greatest successes is the propaganda that Fascism = Right Wing. They would have you believe that conservatives are Nazis.


55 posted on 12/02/2014 10:41:05 AM PST by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: LS
I agree, but how can anyone not like a young Denise Richards?

Fixed it.

56 posted on 12/02/2014 10:42:38 AM PST by Don W (When blacks riot, neighborhoods burn. When whites riot, nations and CONTINENTS burn))
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To: C19fan

Ahhh.... had to post to this.

My tagline for years was, “Johnny Rico picked the wrong girl.”

Anybody care to post a picture of Dina Myer?


57 posted on 12/02/2014 10:46:28 AM PST by Lee'sGhost ("Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Just look at the flowers.")
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Hey Pluribus, see my post above.


58 posted on 12/02/2014 10:47:05 AM PST by Lee'sGhost ("Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Just look at the flowers.")
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To: Jewbacca

Awesome! Made my request of pix before I saw this.

Sweet...but there are better, I’m sure. :-)


59 posted on 12/02/2014 10:48:11 AM PST by Lee'sGhost ("Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Just look at the flowers.")
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To: ctdonath2
Starship Troopers: based on the back cover of a novel by R.A.Heinlein.

That's exactly how I took it. Using RAH's name was just to get the picture funded.

60 posted on 12/02/2014 10:57:31 AM PST by zeugma (The act of observing disturbs the observed.)
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