Wow, The Atlantic sure is on a streak of foul smelling turds lately.
Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
61–70 of 140 posts
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#62I don't get why people wouldn't see it.
At the beginning it has a speech about the failure of democracy, how violence is the only legitimate force in the universe. Government by an elite, with restricted rights for civilians (want children? become a citizen), a propaganda network, a perpetual state of war; including belittling the enemy ("I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive") and belittling anyone who wants to live differently (mormon extremists).
What it doesn't have is any major character questioning the state that they are living under - but then looking around today, sometimes that seems pretty accurate as well.
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#63As someone who saw a lot of satire in flicks Robocop and Red Dawn in the 80's, it bugged me when people took Troopers at face value years later.
I mean, did Neil Patrick Harris have to do a German accent or what? Did the Gestapo coat not make it obvious?
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#64I'd like to like Starship Troopers more but I can't. Starship Troopers had a couple smart things to say but said it through a shit movie. Turgid dialog, horrible acting, repugnant characters and general cheesiness. I know the writers wanted to say all these people are idiots but society doesn't go astray because everyone is an idiot – you have to show how smart characters are caught in situations that constrain them…
I don't understand this comment. What's "bad" about the movie? I think it works very well. Of course the characters say cheesy things sometimes, they're brainwashed kids acting macho. I always found the action compelling and the acting is good - it's a very well made movie, as you'd expect.
I think you're missing some sort of point here. None of the points in your comment hit home for me at all. Galaxy Quest is a baffling comparison to make and is not in the same league at all.
Edit: You do realise there's a difference between parody and satire, right? GQ is the former, ST is the latter.
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#65This movie isn't misunderstood or clever at all. It was originally exactly as dumb as people think it is (working title: "Bug Hunt On Outpost Nine), but the studio realized they could get the license to Starship Troopers for free. Verhoeven didn't even read Starship Troopers-- he skimmed a few chapters, decided it was depressing and that Heinlein was a fascist, and made the movie a parody of the book, and a lazy paro…
I never read Starship Troopers (actually, never knew it existed) but always enjoyed it as a fun movie. I know, fun and dumb do overlap at certain points, and maybe that's why I liked it. I like one of the comments here describing it as "Ken and Barbie go to outer space" or something like that - sums it up well for me.
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#66I'm surprised the author never even mentions the book by Robert Heinlein. Granted the movie tells a different story than the book but they share the similarity in that on the surface they both preach of the virtues and nobility of war but upon closer inspection, we see that they're telling a different story entirely.
I don't know about that. Heinlein seems pretty keen on his notion of citizenship through military service, albeit perhaps as a means of preventing "unnecessary" wars rather than enabling them. Either way, it's a pretty terrible political philosophy. That aspect of serious advocacy is completely absent from the movie.
What's wrong with that?
Universal suffrage for free seems an obviously bad idea.
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#67Wow, The Atlantic sure is on a streak of foul smelling turds lately.
Going on a couple of years now.
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#68Okay, so a movie about all-out war for survival against genocidal aliens is supposed to be a good setting for an anti-war story?
No wonder so many missed the satire.
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#69I'd like to like Starship Troopers more but I can't. Starship Troopers had a couple smart things to say but said it through a shit movie. Turgid dialog, horrible acting, repugnant characters and general cheesiness. I know the writers wanted to say all these people are idiots but society doesn't go astray because everyone is an idiot – you have to show how smart characters are caught in situations that constrain them…
I think they purposely show the protagonists serving in forces and promotional videos as too cheesy. That's the whole idea. We are over-glorifying violence. In the movies, they dumb down the bugs. In real life we dumb down human beings. There is a scene where kids are squashing roaches commenting 'everyone is doing their bit'. Ah hate hate everywhere?
Re: Starship Troopers: one of the most misunderstood movies ever
#70I don't get why people wouldn't see it. At the beginning it has a speech about the failure of democracy, how violence is the only legitimate force in the universe. Government by an elite, with restricted rights for civilians (want children? become a citizen), a propaganda network, a perpetual state of war; including belittling the enemy ("I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive") and belittling anyone who want…
> What it doesn't have is any major character questioning the state that they are living under - but then looking around today, sometimes that seems pretty accurate as well.
That's the "problem" - the film assumed the viewer had enough brain to see the satire instead of spelling it out. Apparently that wasn't true of most reviewers at the time. (I saw it when it came out and loved it. Much more than the book which was depressingly fascist apologetic.)