20 Years Ago, Starship Troopers Showed Us What Happens When Fascism Wins

[SecularMotion]

There’s been quite a bit of revisionist history surrounding Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 film Starship Troopers, a movie largely savaged by critics of the time but currently sitting at 63 percent on Rotten Tomatoes due to a conspicuous number of reviews from about a decade after it came out that recognize it as a pointed satire.

Verhoeven himself has vocally affirmed this reading of his misunderstood work. And, for no particular reason in light of our current political climate here in the United States—in which Neo-Nazis and openly racist conspiracy theorists support a president who has no interest in rebuking or denouncing them, and in which Jewish community centers and cemeteries are enduring a wave of terrorism—it’s worth taking a look back at the film as it turns 20 this year.

All fascism is about Us vs. Them at base. The most insidious regimes encourage this enmity not just toward other states, but toward other citizens. It’s in the film’s second reel, when the young cadets all head off to boot camp, that we get a few more details about who is the Us and who is the Them. Some of Johnny’s fellow recruits want to do things like have children or start businesses—but the government regulates all those things and only citizens are allowed, or at least fast-tracked to permission. If you aren’t out there sacrificing your limbs for the military’s dumb wars, you don’t deserve any of society’s other benefits. One of the cadets gives a little shrug—perhaps the same one you did when they imposed the indoor smoking ban in your state. That’s just the way it is now.

This is the world that’s raised Johnny and his friends. The government isn’t around to do things like grant newborns the safety of belonging to a state. It’s not there to encourage free thought or to support the endeavors of the individual. It’s there to fill the ranks of its military and make war. Better get the youth ready for it while they’re young.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/03/20-years-ago-starship-troopers-showed-us-what-happ.html

[rzemanfl]

1. Yeah, but the guys and girls got to shower together. That's the silver lining.

[Warpy]

2. I loved that movie because it was such a fantastic bait and switch

that showed us those attractive, idealistic young folks wanting to do the right thing and had us cheering for them until...

At some point it dawned on us what kind of world they lived in.

I guess conservatives in the audience just never got it.

As for the indoor smoking ban, that's a good thing even though it inconveniences the author. Set fire to that thing outdoors, buster, and we'll get along just fine.

[Dallasdem1988]

3. Conservatives got it

Conservatives got it and loved it. They tour the book as the true and beautiful interpretation of what they want.

[JayhawkSD]

4. Did you actually see the movie and/or read Heinlein's book?

"Some of Johnny’s fellow recruits want to do things like have children or start businesses—but the government regulates all those things and only citizens are allowed, or at least fast-tracked to permission. If you aren’t out there sacrificing your limbs for the military’s dumb wars, you don’t deserve any of society’s other benefits."

That is not what the book or the movie depicts. The only benefit mentioned as being conferred by government service is the right to vote. And, the government service does not need to be military, it can be administrative or scientific research, as some of "Johnny's" friends do.

In fact, the Johnny's father is a successful and wealthy businessman, unable to vote himself as he has no government service, raising his son as a rather spoiled brat, and is shocked by his son's decision to volunteer for government service.

There is a lengthy dissertation in the kid's school about voting being limited to persons who have served, and why it is done that way; namely that no other system, including the one we use in this nation today, resulted in lasting and stable societies.

[NickB79]

5. In the movie, it is implied that military service gets you fast-tracked

For example, the shower scene where they're discussing why they joined up. One of the women says "I want to have babies." Either she's discussing a benefit (like a permit to have children) or financial compensation to raise a family beyond nonmilitary wages.

[JayhawkSD]

7. Okay.

Did anyone explain how Johnny's parents became wealthy and had children without having first served as "cannon fodder" for the government?

[Paladin]

6. There's always a Heinlein Purist in one of these "Starship Troopers" threads.

I never read the book, but Verhoeven's movie was first-rate. And it created a fair amount of controversy when it came out, for good reason.

Still, you can't fault a flick too much, where Neal Patrick Harris is depicted as a torturer of giant bugs, and enrobed in an SS uniform.....

[JayhawkSD]

8. Otherwise known as "someone who reads."

And if you read the excellent book, one of Heinlein's best, Verhoeven's movie was utter garbage.

[Paladin]

9. How about you back off a little?

If you want an indication of my reading habits, take a look at my contributions to the Fiction group, here at DU. And thanks for so vividly proving my point about Heinlein Purists.

[JayhawkSD]

11. Well, your post says you never read the book. nt

[Paladin]

13. And in your reply, you saw fit to characterize me as an ignorant non-reader.

I suggest we drop the whole matter and move on.

[Paladin]

10. Oh, and FYI:

My favorite Heinlein book is "Have Space Suit-Will Travel." Read it in elementary school, damn near 60 years ago; enjoyed it, if memory serves.

[Orrex]

12. Until the book includes the Kurgan playing Mr. Krabs as a drill instructor...

the film is better.

[Fast Walker 52]

14. hmmm, need to rewatch that

I barely remember it. I know the reviews weren't very favorable at the time.