But, even if the movie was named something other then "Starship Troopers", and claimed no relationship with the novel, I still wouldn't like it. The military training, weapons, and tactics portrayed in the movie are just so unbelievable to me that I can't stand it. Some examples:
1. Training: Twice, the drill sergeant deliberately injures a trainee; I just don't think it would happen in reality. The government spends too much money training recruits to allow them to be deliberately injured in training!
2. Weapons: The humans seem to have no weapons other than rifles, hand-thrown grenades, and mini-nukes. No tanks, or armored vehicles of any kind are shown. Close air support is non-existent; in fact, the only aircraft shown are the shuttles that ferry troops from the spaceships to the surface, and back. In terms of firepower and weaponry, our troops in Iraq right now would outclass what was shown in the movie!
3. Tactics: Several times, the humans are shown confronting bug warriors, standing in line in the open and firing with their automatic rifles; that sort of tactic went out with the introduction of the machine gun in World War I. At one point, a squad of soldiers is making their way down a valley when they're attacked by flying bugs; no one thought to send some scouts up to the top of the valley walls. Later, the same squad makes it to an open-air fortress, just four walls in the middle of nowhere. The mounted guns are ignored in favor of the troopers standing on top of the walls and firing their rifles at the hordes of advancing bugs; despite the evidence of flying bugs, the fortress doesn't even have a roof!
I won't go into the stupid decisions made by the squadron leader, such as shooting and killing a trooper picked up by a flying bug ("It's what I would want if it happened to me!" he yells). Oops, I just did go into it... oh well, there is much more to hate in the movie, what I've listed is just a start.
I hear Rose typing away behind me; I suspect you're about to get another earful of things to hate about the movie....
Heh-heh--I figured there'd be a dissertation coming if I opened up that can of worms :)
Okay, I see the point of your criticisms there. I suspect part of the issue there is that Heinlein had a much keener military/technology mind than Verhooven. Also from Verhooven's movies I've gathered that politically he leans to the left, so he may have been satirizing Heinlein's take on the military rather than doing it straight. Heinlein wasn't anti-military, was he?--I haven't gotten that impression from what I've read of/on him.