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 Van Ling Peter Kuran Adam Valdez Trey Stokes Gayle Busby Laura Buff Blair Clark Alex Jaeger Andrea D'Amico Casey Cannon Jim Rygiel Scott E. Anderson Michael Scheffe Jules Roman Peter Konig Camille Geier Scott Squires George Merkert Suzanne Pastor Mark Sullivan Daniel Radford David M. Jones Grant Niesner
Harry Cohen Dean Beville Greg P. Russell Randy Thom Stephen Hunter Flick Charles Maynes Warren Hamilton Jr. Patricio A. Libenson David Lewis Yewdall Kevin O’Connell Susan Dudeck Greg Hedgepath Ed Callahan Michael J. Benavente John Pospisil Jeff Glueck Joseph Geisinger Dan Sharp Tony Araki
Starship Troopers 1, Tropas Estelares 1 Las Brigadas del Espacio, Invasión (Starship Troopers), Svemirski marinci, Infanteria stelara, Svemirski vojnici, Vesoljski bojevniki, Hviezdna pechota, Żołnierze Kosmosu
War and historical adventure Monsters, aliens, sci-fi and the apocalypse earth, sci-fi, space, spaceship or mankind war, soldiers, combat, fought or military war, wwii, combat, military or duty sci-fi, aliens, space, spaceship or earth political, documentary, president, democracy or propaganda Show All…
No one will ever sneak a film of this size through the studio system ever again.
"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.…
Goes so far out of its way to identify itself that it's almost impossible to understand how badly misread it was on release. Possibly the Verhoeven Rosetta Stone, not least because the Mad Dutchman was never afraid to show you how spectacular and seductive violence can be.
1997: What the hell is this overly glossy, idiotic, militaristic apologia for fascism?
2007: Oops it was all for lols.
2017: Realism.
87
Service guarantees citizenship.
Brilliant as a satire and a bug-gore slaughter fest, yes, but how it balances the fascist conventions of the source material and the necessities of the audiences' bloodlust still knocks me flat.
François Truffaut once said, “It is impossible to make a true anti-war film, because the act of looking at violence is inherently exciting”. Robert A. Heinlein wrote, “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor”. Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers would have had them both rolling in their graves. Verhoeven’s 1997 adaptation throws good taste — and Heinlein’s original novel — out the window. The rare film that indulges the horrors of war and the joys of watching it vicariously, Starship Troopers makes the wrong feel so appealing because, quite simply, it is.
Starship Troopers opens with what might well be 90210 in space. As the sensitive jock, doe-eyed love interest and the brainy joker,…
Denise Richards’s breakup video ... the editing, the costume change ..... To die for. I’m glad we have this movie, a monument to how fascinatingly pop-poised and interesting she is, and in on it. Verhoeven gets it. She needed other good directors. God I wish we had a De Palma with her. I’d even settle for a Canyons.
In the future, young recruit Johnny Rico (Caspar Van Dien) joins the Mobile Infantry to fight insect-like alien creatures that threaten Earth, in Paul Verhoeven’s military science fiction action (inspired by Robert A. Heinlein’s novel) with Denise Richards, Dina Meyer and Michael Ironside.
Verhoeven teams up with Robocop co-writer Ed Neumeier once again for another gleefully satirical take on the sci-fi genre, using Heinlein’s borderline fascist original work as a jumping-off point that, instead of using open parody, actively leans into the source material’s excessiveness to highlight how ridiculous it really is.
Other filmmakers might try to alter the core themes to make their point, but Verhoeven amps them all up to 11, in the process sending up the extreme…
"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…
Oh, Starship Troopers, let me count the ways I love you:
* That poor cow.
* The greatest Space opera in the last 15 years
* The [CENSORED] brain probe moment.
* Doogie Howser, Space Nazi
* "They sucked out his BRAINS!"
5. It's 5 ways. Do you want to know more?
