1997 Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs".
Casper Van Dien Dina Meyer Denise Richards Jake Busey Neil Patrick Harris Clancy Brown Michael Ironside Patrick Muldoon Seth Gilliam Rue McClanahan Blake Lindsley Steven Ford Ungela Brockman Bruce Gray Denise Dowse Amy Smart Tami-Adrian George Julianna McCarthy Dale Dye Dean Norris Marshall Bell Eric Bruskotter Matt Levin Anthony Ruivivar Brenda Strong Christopher Curry Lenore Kasdorf Teo Curnal Achilles Aulisio Show All…
Phil Tippett Laura Buff Alex Jaeger Trey Stokes Michael Scheffe Andrea D'Amico Gayle Busby George Merkert Jules Roman Peter Kuran Suzanne Pastor Camille Geier Casey Cannon Daniel Radford David M. Jones Van Ling Jim Rygiel Mark Sullivan Scott Squires Scott E. Anderson
Joseph Geisinger Kevin O'Connell Greg P. Russell David Lewis Yewdall Dean Beville Ed Callahan Warren Hamilton Jr. Greg Hedgepath Patricio A. Libenson Charles Maynes Stephen Hunter Flick Harry Cohen Randy Thom John Pospisil Tony Araki Jeff Glueck Dan Sharp
There are two reasons why I dislike James Cameron’s Titanic: The first, and obvious reason is that it isn’t a very good film, but most importantly it was responsible for me missing out on seeing Starship Troopers on the big screen. So popular was Cameron’s behemoth that every other film was sold out thanks to people being unable to get into see Winslet’s breasts and DiCaprio’s bad acting.
The sheer spectacle of Verhoeven’s bug-blasting epic would have blown my mind on the big screen but thankfully it is still an undisputed joy at home too. Even back in ‘97 it surprised me how few people really got the film. Not only was Verhoeven very well known for his playful and…
Awesome set/creature design, partial/digital effects, fun leads, lots of satirical jabs, lots and lots of brutal murder (from giant Alien bugs and humans alike), basically everything you'd want in a movie like this.
My fourth time with Paul Verhoeven as a director (my last time with him didn't go so well ) and he's proven himself to be the master of horrifying violence and hilarious/smart ways of creating unique was to deconstruct our society.
Some of the effects (mostly in the set design) look like a hard R mid/late 90s Disney Channel movie and some of the acting isn't particularly special, but that's part of the charm, I guess.
Worth checking out if you haven't seen it already. That's about it really....
Also more movies should feature giant bugs shooting Star Bombs from their asses, tbh.
"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.."
Verhoeven actually has precious little to say about fascism which we don't already know (at least in the context of 2017) - but even moreso than the advertisements which resemble propaganda of both Republican and Democrat alike, what remains interesting is the dime-store teen angst plot devices, which in their generic qualities reveal to us the propagandistic nature of these devices themselves. More than a film about fascism, it remains relevant because it's a film about the nature of propaganda, media & spectacle.…
Paul Verhoeven is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. He has easily taken the top spot as my favorite Science Fiction Director. Am I ever late to the party. Up until about 48 hours ago the only Verhoeven film I had seen was RoboCop; which is also fantastic.
Starship Troopers is the perfect space opera. It's got a ton of action, plenty of laughs, and cheesy romance. What's not to love?
"Naked force has resolved more conflicts throughout history than any other factor."
Starship Troopers satirizes jingoism and military ideology by dressing itself up as a Nazi and making us laugh at it. From the Federal Network "Would you like to know more?" propaganda ("Join the Mobile Infantry and save the Galaxy!") to the pervasive "us vs. them" fascist mentality ("I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill 'em all!") to the drill instructor who misses the point of his own lessons ("The enemy can't push a button if you disable his hand!"), the film systematically reappropriates military iconography to make it laughable and expose its violent foundation. But the greatest reappropriation of all is the way Verhoeven's film itself takes…
No one will ever sneak a film of this size through the studio system ever again.
Hands down my favorite Verhoeven and I adore Robocop and Total Recall. By far one of my favorite unfaithful book adaptations (given that it outright mocks the novel), still one of the most silly and ridiculous scifi movies all that aside that even without the amazing mocking of jingoistic militarism I would still love this as a dumb bit of scifi action fun.
An anti GoArmy movie in blockbuster form and I love it for it, god bless Verhoeven.
Whenever I come across this movie on a streaming service, I black out and wake up an hour later, halfway through the movie, thinking about getting one of those skull tattoos all the infantry characters have.
Is there any bigger flex than taking someone’s pro military propaganda book and making it into a massive anti military parody?
MasterLundegaard 155 films
-MAXIMUM OF FIVE VOTES-
a community vote in which, hopefully, we can all construct a list of movies for letterboxd…
Darren Carver-Balsiger 312 films
A community vote to find the best films from 1990 to 1999 (using Letterboxd dates)
In the comments below, vote…
Tobias Andersen 6,553 films
Rules: Generate a number (from 1 to x) via: www.random.org
See how many number of films there are in the…
