Now, occam is going to tell u that starship troopers is not the 'silly' movie' u have been told it is. He knows well the book it was based on by Heinlein. Read it twice. and never considered heinlein any great writer but for 1 or 2 of the many books he wrote. Occam dislikes mysogenists. The movie starship troopers litterally has hidden depth. But only if u understand human history and politics. One 'depth' occam sees well is the 'dumbing down' a millitary government will result in after 300 years. And this may well be the point of the movie. For example.. Just one M2 Bradley could take out thousands of ant soldiers. And a simple phalanx system adapted from naval technology could be set up at the base they defend and all those bugs go BYEBYE in seconds. No organic creature can withstand 6 to 12, 20 mm computer directed chain guns Why are they not used?.. that is another depth to the movie. and that takes us just below the surface. Occam
This was one of the first movies I bought for my DVD player. It was so long ago that I have to turn the disk over half way through. I like the way it combines action and humor. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the director was Paul Verhoeven (sp?), the guy who made Robocop and Total Recall. I quite like his style, although I can understand it's not to everyone's taste. He takes the piss out of society, so that's OK in my books. I agree with Occam that the film had a lot of originality and conceptual art. I loved the characters the best, though. I never saw the 2nd movie, but heard it was awful. Anyone seen it?
I agree with Occam, beneath its apparent gung-ho surface, the movie Starship Troopers has an ironic depth that a superficial pseudo-Nietzschean like Heinlein was unable to create in the original book. Indeed, there's almost nothing from the book in the movie other than the title. But to me, the mediocre weapons systems is the least of this film's ironic depths. The movie's back-handed parody of our contemporary American National Security State mentality,,, the back-handed parody of Fox News and Conservative Talking Heads Media,,, and the back-handed parody of contemporary military indoctrination,,, all come across to me as a hilarious back-handed parody of Robert Heinlein's original intent.
m6m Agree, the book handled well and modfied in a screenplay to get rid of the 'heinlein'ess of it could have been a first rate hard SF type flic like aliens2 Yet the Movie is virtually another story It should have been called "Dr Radchek. Or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bug." Such concepts as one is only responsible to society after 'service' gives one 'citizenship'. The stupidity of the tv 'tame scientists' The constant disbelief that the bugs have any brains yet they can pop an asteroid out of klendathu space and somehow get it 100 thousand lightyears across the gallaxy [faster than light] and have it land on earthactually means they are VASTLY smarter than we are. The hillarious news report of the 'mormon colony destroyed' on planet 'joe smith'. occam did a true LMAO at that one. That the guy 'who stole his girl' got his brains sucked out..man we all knew he was a jerk. The underlaying impression tha the war is staged to progess as it does. But u never see who is staging it.. probably shadowy figures in ' games and theory' [the illuminati? lol] All these things and more make it a movie occam will watch again just to see how much more hidden humour and comment there is. White Scorpion Dont bother with SST 2. it is such an obvious money graber with a 5 dollar budget u will be tempted to melt the dvd just to save othes from the pain of watching it. Occam RICO'S ROUGHNECKS HOOHA
ive seen starship 2, is was the worse possable thing made, so any ways i loved the 1st its one of thouse movies you would take if you had to live out the rest of your life in exile.
I loved Starship Troopers. In regard to Starship Troopers II, while the movie didn't really meet expectations, the nude scene with that hot naked blonde gave it at least one thumbs up - way up. Hotwater
there is reference in the film by the teacher of the class about "when the veterans took over", this infers someother previous great conflict. it shouldn't be forgotten that hitler came to power on the back of war veterans of the first world war. this is probably why the troops especially psyche corp wear wermacht/ gestapo/ ss style uniforms. the book itself is a little dry. with the takeover of society by the veterans war was the only thing they knew. the bugs living millions of light years away didn't have the same technology to reach earth despite the provided reasoning, this is why all battles were fought on the bugs territory in vietcong defensive tunnels.
Guy True, well caught The ''dress' uniforms and even some combat types are 'pure 40's german' And the vietnam refference is also pertinant. Someone had a lot of fun with the details in this flic. Occam has now watched maybe 5 times... ANd finds some new thing every tme..love it Occam
yes, the film has many layers. i particularly enjoy the snippets of tv (also used in robocop), which give us a look at the propaganda taking place in this society. occam: i highly reccomend that you check out the special edition dvd, which features commentary by verhoeven and the writer, ed numier. they talk a lot about the military/political ideology, and recount some fascinating stories from childhood and the making of the film. i love how this film has the surface appeal of being a gung-ho action story where the good guys win and everyone is a hero, yet it is actually a scathing satire of society militarised, where the only option is to go to war. mr. verhoeven is my favourite director, and his classic robocop is my favourite film. the special edition robocop dvd is superb, featuring commentary, an excellent documentary, and the original X-rated-super-violent-director's-cut! any serious sci-fi/satire fan ought to have this. methinks a robocop thread is inevitable... ...verhoeven!
Verhoeven Actually i pulled robocop from shelf and watched it again only last week.. Noticed the similarity in 'news broardcasts' that i had not connected before. ['want to know more'] Anyone intersted in speculative fiction in movies should watch both closely.. some insighfull concepts on human society and our motives. I still think 'the day the earth stood still' says a lot more about human reason in our modern age than any other movie. [ie: we have very little] That movie portrays humanity in general as morons. It is accurate. [how many do you know can give you a half accurate description of our solar system?. Planets and distances. size and makup of planets?] None?...why is occma not suprised. Thus when the BUGS launch an asteriod from klendathu half way across the gallaxy, to earth. No-one asks. NOT EVEN SUPER COMPUTERS COULD DO THAT>.. and we say.. are the bugs smart? [let alone it would take 30 thousand years to get here] Occam
yep.. who would have thought [well someone who has read more sf than u? soz , just being a smart ass]
a number of "old school" SF writers from the postwar era leaned (and sometimes fell facedown) toward fascism, Heinlein being the most blatant. I watched the movie as an obvious parody of the gung ho Heinlein book. I grew up reading the guy but his early stuff is so politically right wing and his latter stuff seems way too obsessed with sex.
Lost Agree on that to an extent. The movie however is not a parody this soul thinks.. But a true [tongue in cheek] representation of the dumbing down of society under a 2 hundred year millitary dictatorship. This is where Eisenhowers millitary/industrial complex is heading for us right now. We are being bred as perfect consumers. 6+ billion is just too much. We have turned ourselves into sheep.. And it is rare to see sheep 'look up' Occam
