Invasión

When "Starship Troopers" came out, one of my friends told me that it bore little relation to the novel on which it was based: the novel had a plot, the movie was an excuse to show naked women. But one of my mom's friends said that although the movie did lapse into a video game, it had sort of an interesting story. When we finally saw the movie a few months later, we found it fairly interesting. You see, more than simply a silly action/sci-fi flick (but make no mistake about it, those two are certainly a factor), the movie pokes fun at 1950s sci-fi flicks, what with all the "Know your enemy! Do your part!" stuff. I'm actually not surprised that Paul Verhoeven made a good movie with this one, given how well he did with "Soldier of Orange" and "Robocop".

So yes, the movie rips at militarism and jingoism (the essential elements of fascism), while also finding time to show the sorts of things that easily appeal to teenage boys: pumped up action and naked babes. Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey and Michael Ironside have plenty to be proud of in this movie. Worth seeing.

I am blown away by how well this movie holds up after all this time. Don't get me wrong this is a solid B movie dressed up to look like a blockbuster. It has got some really cheesy moments but it all works really well. This movie is campy where it needs to be, cheesy and serious all at the same time.

It's clear they used a LOT of practical special effects wherever they could, mostly in human body parts and blood. This is a very gory movie, which I tend to shy away from, but in the way it is used here it works well. I love some of the lines like "they sucked out his brains!" it reminds me of campy 50's sci fi.

Despite this being a B(ish) movie they do a pretty good job at developing the characters. We see them as recent high-school graduates moving onto college or in this universe military training. We see them develop and grow as the story progresses. You end up caring what happens to these characters which for me is a mark of a well told story. Plus most of the human characters are used as cannon fodder against an unending tidal wave of baddies.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes action/sci fi movies with a TON of gore. Think of a cheaper, cheesier version of Aliens but with larger outdoor battle scenes that give the feeling of scale. Don't get me wrong this is not close to being as good as Aliens but it is still worth a watch.

My title is a quote from director Paul Veerhoven who makes no attempt to water down his political views in "Starship Troopers", a merciless, satirical skewering of those superpowers throughout history who believe war solves the world's problems.

That opening sentence is a mouthful, so let me explain a little further. In the director's commentary, Mr. Veerhoven makes no bones about naming the USA as the greatest offender. In an awkwardly funny moment, his co-commenter, screenwriter Edward Neumeier, mutters "Yeah but we did save your ass in World War II." To which Mr. Veerhoven clarifies, "But this is not about World War II, it's about what happened *after* World War II." And thus, the entire philosophy is explained in a way that patriots as well as pinko commies can understand. "Starship Troopers" is a cautionary tale about what happens when war ceases to be a necessary evil and instead becomes an unnecessary thrill. It begins with some hilariously obvious propaganda satires, all about joining the military (including a funny scene of a 12 year old kid in full battle attire). The rest of the movie is peppered with such dark comedic skits, a lot like Veerhoven's "Robocop" a decade earlier.

Where the film is brilliant (or disastrous, see below) is in the way the battle scenes do thrill us, almost to the point that we lose ourselves in the hysteria of warfare, and only upon sober reflection do we realize that Mr. Veerhoven has just proved how easy it is to become a mindless minion of violence. The disastrous part is that I'm afraid many audience members never sobered up and walked out of the theater thinking "Go war!" Such is the pitfall of making a satire; you run the risk of promoting the very thing you seek to ridicule.

Something very interesting that Veerhoven did was to use giant bugs as the enemy. I mean, who doesn't hate bugs?? Certainly no human I know. And that's the point: by presenting an enemy that's so universally hated as a bug, Veerhoven turns the magnifying glass on ourselves and challenges us to answer why we hate bugs, why we like to kill them so violently (crushed until their guts spew out) or gassed so that they die of painful asphyxiation before our eyes. If you caught the message of this film, you'll probably think twice about stomping that little spider who had the misfortune of being sighted in your presence.

Oh a final note that's a very nice touch. There's a scene in this film where a bunch of kids are stomping on cockroaches. You'll be pleased to know that the cockroaches were fake, and literally no animals were harmed in the making of this film. Touché, Mr. Veerhoven.

If "Starship Troopers" isn't the most epic science-fiction movie ever made, then I don't know what is! What is that you say? "2001: A Space Odyssey"? "Star Wars"? Well, perhaps, but they aren't nearly as entertaining as Paul Verhoeven's extravagant, unhinged and excessively violent dystopian saga. This film is probably the most cynical, yet simultaneously the most straight-faced parody in history. Look closely at the FedNet propaganda, the Aryan lead characters and their costumes, the careless sacrificing of the Infantry forces... This futuristic battle set in 2197 is a replay of WWII, but somehow Verhoeven succeeded in making us root for the fascist party! I honestly don't think there is much to write about "Starship Troopers", except that it's nearly perfect and brilliant from every possible angle. After the already amazing "Robocop" and "Total Recall", Verhoeven reached the ultimate in genius Sci-Fi. It's all there: the F/X, the humor, the cast, the bloodshed, the scenery, ... The only things you have to add yourself are beer and popcorn.

"This year we explored the failure of democracy, where the social scientists brought our world to the brink of chaos. We talked about the veterans, how they took control & imposed the stability which has lasted for generations since."

Starship Troopers is a cheeky inversion of Star Trek's post-currency, post-scarcity universe, one where wartime becomes further obsolete and diplomats are valorized over generals, and where social castes are non-existent. Instead, it imagines a post-democratic universe, where war is the only industry, conquest is the only culture, where jingoism is the common language, and where basic human rights, whether it be the right to vote or the right to procreate, are gatekept behind castes defined by one's usefulness to the totalitarian state, where the entire population is divided into civilians and citizens, and the only viable way to gain citizenship is by throwing one's bodily autonomy to the behest of the state:

"Rasczak: why are only citizens allowed to vote.

Rico: It's a reward. Something the federation gives you for doing federal service.

Rasczak: No. Something given has no value. When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force my friends is violence. The supreme authority by which all other authorities are derived."

Another quote pulled from the beginning of the movie: "Dizzy: My mother always told me that violence doesn't solve anything.

Rasczak: Really? I wonder what the city founders of Hiroshima would have to say about that.

Carmen: They wouldn't say anything. Hiroshima was destroyed.

Rasczak: Correct. Naked force has resolved more conflicts throughout history than any other factor. The contrary opinion, that violence doesn't solve anything, is wishful thinking at its worst. People who forget that always die."

I have no idea why I felt the need to add this quote because I'm just now realizing I have no commentary to add to it. It really speaks for itself. Rasczak is the embodiment of every hyper-nationalistic, militaristically cavalier conservative, as I've heard that very argument verbatim about Hiroshima at least half a dozen times. Rasczak is only slightly exaggerated in that he's so brazenly honest in his love of violence and nation state imperialism. It just blows my mind how badly misread this movie was upon release, because it has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face.

Also cheekily inverted is the character development of any movie in the vein of Born on the Fourth of July, in which a character is rapturously taken with blind nationalism through wartime propaganda, only to begin questioning their nationalism when confronted by the reality and horror of war. Rico's questioning phase doesn't come after his first experience in battle, but in the very beginning. He doesn't necessarily buy into the jingoism shoved down his throat through his education:

"Rasczak: Rico. What is the moral difference, if any, between a civilian and a citizen?

Rico: A citizen accepts personal responsibility for the safety and the body politic defending it with his life. A civilian does not.

Rasczak: The exact words of the textbook. But do you understand it? Do you believe it?

Johnny Rico: I don't know.

Jean Rasczak: No, of course you don't. I doubt anyone here would recognize civic virtue even if it reached up and bit you in the a**!"

Rather than beginning the story as an obedient little fascist who comes to question the state, Rico begins questioning the state and is unsure whether he believes in their dichotomy between civilian and citizenship, only to become a hardened, obedient little fascist as soon as he first encounters the horrors of war, a firmer believer in the obviously evil cause he's fighting for, a character arc I can't say I've experienced depicted through a main character very often. The only example that comes to mind is Bill Hader's Barry, which still doesn't fit, because Barry doesn't exactly become a believer in the state so much as he just finds fulfillment in being good at something (killing people). So if anybody has any other solid examples of an inverted character arc quite like this, please let me know, because I genuinely don't know if this has been done with the same intentionality anywhere else before or since.