Starship Troopers: One of the Most Misunderstood Movies Ever

The Atlantic ^ | November 7, 2013 | Calum Marsh

[EveningStar]

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.

[Bender2]

Re: Got any beers left Bender?

I don't think... so--

[Vanders9]

And that is the point. The movie WAS a send up/satire of militarism - but the book most certainly wasn't. Now I don't personally agree with everything Robert Heinlein came up with in "starship troopers". I think as a novel its far too preachy and some of the theories he expounds are frankly bizarre. I do however think he has a right to express them, as everyone who loves freedom should think. To have some liberal movie people rewrite the story to mean the opposite of what the author intended is absolutely appalling. Its anti-democratic, its contemptous, its downright unethical. Its also utterly cowardly - if Heinlein had been alive he would certainly have sued them. I mean can you imagine what this movie reviewer would write if someone did a remake of "All quiet on the western front" as a blood and guts, all star, tub-thumping heroic slugfest?

I think "Starship troopers" the movie has got to be just about the worst serious big budget flick I have ever seen.

[trebb]

Some people grok... Some can’t...

Can you Grok a cat who walks through walls?

I grew up with Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, etc...etc...etc...

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Absolutely! And another Kesey book that was far better than the movie is “Sometimes a Great Notion”, which I consider one of the best novels ever.

[Thorliveshere]

Great book!

Did anyone ever read his “Fifth Column?” (I think that’s what it was called). I thought that one was pretty cool and ripe for a movie.

[Bender2]

Re: Can you Grok a cat who walks through walls? I grew up with Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, etc...etc...etc...

I was 10 in 1957 when I read my first Heinlein novel, Citizen of the Galaxy and I couldn't put it down. It had me hunting down and reading every piece of Heinlein writing I could get my hands on for years and years and years. Hungrily awaiting each year as new works came out or did not due to his health issues.

You could say I grew up into maturity with Bob Heinlein and his writings influenced me and gave me a lot of my political thinking. Since it dovetailed nicely with the political beliefs of my father (a Conservative Democrat who had he lived longer than 1971 would have been a hard core Tea Partite long before Obama rebirthed a Tea Party), I found my nitch.

I have to admit some of his work did not always hit the target dead center with me. Stranger in a Strange Land had more religious pro & con and sexuality that I could fully grok even though I was as hormonally induced horny any other 14 year old male in 1961. I was 23 when I Will Fear No Evil came out in 1970 and it sat me back a notch or two. While Time Enough for Love, three years later in 1973, was a time ripping adventure yarn [make that yarns] of the oldest man in the known universe and a favorite character of mine from 1958's Methuselah's Children. Time Enough's Lazarus Long's incest a couple of thousand years in the future was troubling for myself, 26 years old at the time. Even today reaching into the second half of my sixties, I am still not comfortable with it even as a plot point in a work of science-fiction.

Perhaps my upbringing in the 'I Lke Ike' 1950s could be to blame, having today's over sexualized kids calling me an old prude and they would be mostly right even as my irrelevant, off-the-wall humor does not always show it.

Yet even with these above exceptions, Robert A, Heinlein writings made a major impact on me and the way I view this old cock-eyed world we try to survive in-- Like he said so eloquently in his 1940s novelized story Beyond This Horizon: "I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me."

And it continues... to do so!

You took the words... right out of my mouth, Bendy--

[Bender2]

Believe you are speaking of Heinlein's Sixth Column: A top secret research facility hidden in the Colorado mountains is the last remaining outpost of the United States Army after its defeat by the PanAsians. The conquerors had absorbed the Soviets after being attacked by them and had then gone on to absorb India as well. The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel—for example, they crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment. Noting that the invaders have allowed the free practice of religion (the better to pacify their slaves), the Americans set up a church of their own in order to build a resistance movement—the Sixth Column (as opposed to a traitorous fifth column).

Another rip, roaring adventure from... who I consider the All Time Master of Sci-Fi

Still solidly behind you, Bendy, but... wait a few minutes before your follow me--

[Kip Russell]

There is also the Moon is a Harsh Mistress to balance things out.

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is (IMHO) a better novel than Starship Troopers; it's not surprising it won the Hugo for best novel of the year.

(that's not to say that I don't thoroughly enjoy Starship Troopers as well...)

[Kip Russell]

Did anyone ever read his “Fifth Column?” (I think that’s what it was called). I thought that one was pretty cool and ripe for a movie.

"Sixth Column". There isn't the slightest chance that novel will ever be adapted into film. Far too politically incorrect by today's standards.

The only Heinlein novel less likely to be adapted is "Farnham's Freehold". That one would make the Left's heads explode.

[Bender2]

Re:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww yes... The 'Dizzy Flores' that did not come close to being the one in the novel--

However, I forgive Dina Meyer as she was young and ever so... hot in that shower scene that was the true and only highlight of the film.

BTW further version of this HERE for the Dina Meyer Fan Club Members and shower voyeurs of any age--

Really, I find her exceedingly flat... forehead unappealing!

Well, there is no accounting with Romulan Lesbos... bu I can bring her around on the first date--

[Bender2]

Re; The only Heinlein novel less likely to be adapted is "Farnham's Freehold". That one would make the Left's heads explode.

Hey, that is my favorite and blueprint for my Fundamentally Change Policy... yet I wouldn't waste time and help sending Hugh, Barbara and their brats back in time.

[Kip Russell]

It's to Heinlein credit that he was able to make Ponse (the ostensible villain of the novel) an articulate, charming, and likable character. TV tropes even mentions this, assigning the "Affably Evil" trope to the character:

Ponse is a prime example of the trope. Hugh even acknowledges it, lamenting that Ponse is the worst kind of evil there is, simply because he's always incredibly nice, yet constantly reminding you how evil he *could* be if you cross him.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

“I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” ~ Robert A. Heinlein

Hmmm...that format sounds vaguely familiar...

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of sapho that thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."
- - Piter DeVries, Mentat - Dune

[Bender2]

Re: Ponse--an articulate, charming, and likable character--

Well, I got two out of the three going for me... and the mainstream media buys in on me to the hilt!

[SevenofNine]

The book was good the movie sucks

[Kip Russell]

Regarding Ponse & Obama...yeah, the parallels occurred to me as well!

[Bender2]

Re; Hmmm...that format sounds vaguely familiar...

Well, Bloody Sam, since Dune came out six years after Starship Troopers... may we assume Frank Herbert was stealing from Heinlein instead of the other way around you slyly suggest--

[dennisw]

She made my day....yesterday that is. She looks enhanced but her blue outfit keeps them looking more real

[trebb]

I too had issues with Lazarus Long - found it “titillating” all the same, but would have never admitted it due to same sort of upbringing/era - born in ‘52 when there were stigmas that helped keep society a bit more decent than what we sludge through these days. Heinlein and others of the day helped form my mind into a thinking entity and I’m grateful to those visionaries.

[Bender2]

Re: She looks enhanced but her blue outfit... keeps them looking more real

Dina Meyer, as far as I know, has never had a child... to which, shall we say, ripens certain body parts, so--

Even if they are enhanced... she didn't go all Dolly Parton with 'em like a lot of gals in Hollywood do--

And I find... no fault in that.