I distinctly remember leaving the theater back in the 90s when this movie first came out and being utterly confused as to what I had just seen, but also feeling invigorated. It had been a baffling mess, but damn had it been fun to watch! Later I read the novel, and it's one of the best things I've read, and as you say, completely different from the movie.
So basically everything you say about the movie is correct, and yes, the book merits devotion and not mockery, but I still enjoyed them both for completely different reasons. And I kinda think the fact I LIKED the movie, but unironically, would piss off Verhoeven more than the reverse
Yeah. It was a movie a young mind could enjoy - one that hadn't read the book and had no grasp of nuance or any of the flaws. I've never enjoyed it once reading the book though; there's just nothing there to compare it to.
It's like.... As a child you can enjoy those flavored dyed icicles in plastic. Now, you look at them, and are like.... why would I buy or eat that? Why not just have a real, proper desert?
That's how a lot of the junk movies you watch as a child are. This being a prime example.
What likely broke Verhoeven was that people didn't "get it". They didn't see his vision.
He desperately needed a priest or a therapist after living through Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Instead, his therapy appears to have been putting his pain and anger into films.
Neill Blomkamp left South Africa for Canada before the end of Apartheid.
Based on Alive in Joburg/District 9 and Elysium, I suspect that you are correct in that he will turn-out another anti-fascist rant that doesn't resemble Heinlein's intent in his book.
If so, may Blomkamp join in Verhoeven's psychic pain.
Excellent review, Herald. I used to know a guy who read Starship Troopers in high school. After graduation, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and later graduated from the Naval Academy. He told me that Starship Troopers is what inspired him to enter military service. I suspect there are a lot of other guys like him out there.
As an aside, my attitude towards James Cameron’s treatment of the military in Aliens and Avatar is similar to your attitude towards Verhoeven’s treatment of the military in Starship Troopers.
It was a shallow movie aimed mostly at socially aloof teen boys. What stands out really is the ideas of globalism, a single global ecomony and global culture, and the sheer vapidity of media culture in the film.
Years later, what really disturbed me was the showering scene where you realize that the social engineers had accomplished their dystopian vision of eliminating real sex/gender differences.
So I see you deleted another post from the original Arkhaven blog after reposting it here. I'm not quite sure why you feel the need to do that, since you didn't do it with posts on the original Dark Herald site after you reposted them, but I suppose it's none of my business - except that, in this case, you seem to have robbed yourself of the pingback that led me to discover you in the first place. (See <a href:"http://scifiwright.com/2023/09/verhoeven-reviewed-by-the-dark-herald/">here</a>.) So it seems to me that you may want to rethink that policy.
(Also, while I'm here, I can't resist noting with amusement how perfectly the response you made the Arachnids give to a hypothetical peace offer matches the one that the alien in Fredric Brown's original "Arena" gave to an actual one. Was that deliberate, by any chance?)
"To the everlasting glory of the infantry, shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young!"
I distinctly remember leaving the theater back in the 90s when this movie first came out and being utterly confused as to what I had just seen, but also feeling invigorated. It had been a baffling mess, but damn had it been fun to watch! Later I read the novel, and it's one of the best things I've read, and as you say, completely different from the movie.
So basically everything you say about the movie is correct, and yes, the book merits devotion and not mockery, but I still enjoyed them both for completely different reasons. And I kinda think the fact I LIKED the movie, but unironically, would piss off Verhoeven more than the reverse
Yeah. It was a movie a young mind could enjoy - one that hadn't read the book and had no grasp of nuance or any of the flaws. I've never enjoyed it once reading the book though; there's just nothing there to compare it to.
It's like.... As a child you can enjoy those flavored dyed icicles in plastic. Now, you look at them, and are like.... why would I buy or eat that? Why not just have a real, proper desert?
That's how a lot of the junk movies you watch as a child are. This being a prime example.
Excellent essay. Thanks.
It’s a stupider movie, but it checks out.
What likely broke Verhoeven was that people didn't "get it". They didn't see his vision.
He desperately needed a priest or a therapist after living through Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Instead, his therapy appears to have been putting his pain and anger into films.
Neill Blomkamp left South Africa for Canada before the end of Apartheid.
Based on Alive in Joburg/District 9 and Elysium, I suspect that you are correct in that he will turn-out another anti-fascist rant that doesn't resemble Heinlein's intent in his book.
If so, may Blomkamp join in Verhoeven's psychic pain.
Excellent review, Herald. I used to know a guy who read Starship Troopers in high school. After graduation, he enlisted in the Marine Corps and later graduated from the Naval Academy. He told me that Starship Troopers is what inspired him to enter military service. I suspect there are a lot of other guys like him out there.
As an aside, my attitude towards James Cameron’s treatment of the military in Aliens and Avatar is similar to your attitude towards Verhoeven’s treatment of the military in Starship Troopers.
It was a shallow movie aimed mostly at socially aloof teen boys. What stands out really is the ideas of globalism, a single global ecomony and global culture, and the sheer vapidity of media culture in the film.
Years later, what really disturbed me was the showering scene where you realize that the social engineers had accomplished their dystopian vision of eliminating real sex/gender differences.
>One thing that Mike came up with is that Starship Troopers is the mirror darkly version of the Star Trek episode titled: Arena
By Mike, are you referring to Mike Stloklasa from Red Letter Media?
So I see you deleted another post from the original Arkhaven blog after reposting it here. I'm not quite sure why you feel the need to do that, since you didn't do it with posts on the original Dark Herald site after you reposted them, but I suppose it's none of my business - except that, in this case, you seem to have robbed yourself of the pingback that led me to discover you in the first place. (See <a href:"http://scifiwright.com/2023/09/verhoeven-reviewed-by-the-dark-herald/">here</a>.) So it seems to me that you may want to rethink that policy.
(Also, while I'm here, I can't resist noting with amusement how perfectly the response you made the Arachnids give to a hypothetical peace offer matches the one that the alien in Fredric Brown's original "Arena" gave to an actual one. Was that deliberate, by any chance?)
Well, that link didn't work. Okay, forget trying to be fancy, let's just do it this way: http://scifiwright.com/2023/09/verhoeven-reviewed-by-the-dark-herald/
Neil Blomkamp is awful. Even District 9 was terrible and that's his"good" movie. Elysium was among the worst films I've ever seen