"Starship Troopers" - Verhoeven is a mad genius!

i was flipping channels the other day and came across what seemed to be some kind of made-for-cable sequel to this film. i didn't bother watching it.

i have really mixed feelings about this film. it's already a certified "classic" amongst a growing number of cinephiles, with one of the few voices raised in protest being noel carroll's. it is definitely wonderfully made, and VERY scary (some will no doubt disagree with me on that point, but i was scared shitless). as for it's political pertinence, hm, i'm not as sure...

the parts with the giant bugs! especially the dien bien phu-like part.

i don't remember the details well enough to recall if the film lends any ambiguity to the buenos aires thing in particular (part of the intentional cartoonishness of the film: despite being from buenos aires, the characters are hardly latin, not to say barely differentiated). but certainly there are a few mentions that if we had just left the bugs alone, they wouldn't be bothering us. it's a critique of hawkishness that's pretty broad; one can see it in "troy," too.

i think a LOT of the credit (and i suppose blame) for this film should go to its screenwriter--Ed Neumeier (sp?). he wrote the scrip to "RoboCop" as well, and both films exhibit a similarly pungent satire and a similarly elegant plot design (and a similar black humor).

my film prof. thought "showgirls" was v's masterpiece, and he had to do a lot of rhetoric contortions (read: rationalizations) to express this feeling. i think part of it was that he wanted to exalt verhoeven as "auteur," and since joe esterhasz (sp?) can be fairly easily dispatched, "showgirls" is prob. a better object for doing so.

yes i think the lack of ethnic signifiers can be read as a joke about macdonalization.

well there is a play of voices in the film.

you have the overt "propaganda" shorts (like with the kids stomping on the bugs), most of which--like those in robocop--are both hilarious and too over-the-top to be mistaken for anything but satire. IIRC, the film concludes with one of these propaganda pieces, celebrating the heroes of the film in a too-cheery-for-comfort way. i really have a hard time imagining anyone taking it at "face value"--which is almost a misnomer, for it is satirical on its face.

the film ITSELF, as opposed to these little segments which are overtly eminating from the future reality of the film, is organized like a lot of war movies, both jingoistic and not. the focus on the home lives of the characters--with the various interpersonal problems being carried over into and sometimes resolved by the war--is in keeping with, say, "the big parade" and a zillion others since.

yeah, exactly. the world in the film is run by a one-world government.

"if anything i think VERHOEVEN"

this was meant to answer the comment about the producers. but i typed "like" instead. sorry.

verhooeven has always been, imo, a heavyhanded director who has gotten way more positive press than he deserves - imo, the films that 'made' his reputation do not hold up on later viewing - feel its like early Tony Scott in Hunger era, something looks cool, stylish, feels smart but when you look back with the unfortunate hindsight of later works makes you wonder why you bothered in the first place.

What, Top Gun wasn't a masterpiece? Surely you jest!

Starship Troopers is incredibly entertaining, but all the "classic" talk could kill its enjoyability by implying we should respect the film.

Jake Busey on neon violin! Huzzah!

well, maybe or maybe not, but interviews with the filmmakers from before and after the movie was released make it clear that they intended on satirizing fascism with the movie.

robocop and starship troopers---hit! showgirls and hollow man---steeerike!

i'm sure not i know what you mean. the only film i can even imagine conforming to this notion is "showgirls."

what do you mean by a "bad" movie? most of his movies are--if nothing else (and never nothing else)--very well put-together. "showgirls" included.

-- Theorry Henry (miltonpinsk...), December 2nd, 2005.

;-)

http://www.bdt.com/david/images/rs003.jpg

I'd watch it.

http://ourworld.cs.com/WeezelX/rs/maybegood.jpg

HOW IS THE MAGIC BUTTON IN REN AND STIMPY EPISODE "SPACE MADNESS" A METAPHOR FOR THE COLD WAR? WHO DOES REN REPRESENT? DISCUS.

http://renandstimpy.org/img/106_4.jpg

Starship Troopers
Big Lebowski
Fargo
Royal Tenenbaums
Suicide Kings
Rushmore
How High
Something About Mary
Zoolander
Dogma
Good Will Hunting

fuck xpost with a nairn nevermind.
Rush Hour
The Fifth Element

-- TOMBOT (brucewillisandbenstillercontroltheunivers...) (webmail), May 14th, 2004 12:10 PM. (link)

2004 SUMMER SESSION COURSES
POOP 514 USG OF "IMPRTNT" + "MNSTRM" FR MGMT MTWRF 0900-1700 INSTR: TOMBOT LOC: URANUS

recognizing bludgeon-you-over-the-head satire and liking it or respecting it are vastly different things but let's not get into that again.

RUSH HOUR?

moley is right, though! that's what it is!

Why is it the US military? The US military is actually extremely diverse. Why would the US military be any more or less fascist than the military of any other country. Why is it Western foreign policy? What about what we were doing in 1997 bore any resemblance to the action in Starship Troopers? I certainly didn't hear about any boots-on-the-ground scorched-earth invasion operations in the Balkans.

At any rate, read one thread before you post self-congratulatory bullshit repeating what 90 other posters have already said better, then you don't get called a nincompoop. It's pretty simple.

Is it worth it?

http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/6392/giantrobottattoo7dt.th.gif

Can anybody recommend any of Verhoeven's pre-Robocop work that's actually worth tracking down? (assuming it's available)

Flesh and Blood is pretty brilliant.

Can anybody recommend any of Verhoeven's pre-Robocop work that's actually worth tracking down? (assuming it's available)

Just about all of his early Dutch films are worthwhile. Spetters, Soldier Of Orange, and The 4th Man are essential

Verhoeven is directing the sequel to Thomas Crown Affair

Met Het Oog Op Morgen

good lord, they now have dutch morning zoos

hollow man is more interesting when you look at it strictly as a take on what horrible things a pretty typical asshole might do if given a chance to do them without consequence, and less as a "mad psycho scientist run amok" thing. but it's still a bad flick.

Jake Busey on neon violin! Huzzah!

-- Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 May 2004 15:22 (3 years ago) Link

starship troopers 3: marauder

There was a Starship Troopers 2?

lol "This movie sucks. Would you like to know more?"

still having neumeier writing + directing is a good look

i heard there's a musical sequence in this one! wtf is up that

ledge otm, i accidentally caught the beginning of ST2 on telly recently and was all WTF? It was shit, much like this one will be prob

what about tom of finland, reclaiming fascist aesthetics, when he was actually under the threat of death by fascists?

can you start a thread about this?

-----always tackling the big issues

http://io9.com/5550437/heinlein-slammed-fans-who-didnt-help-with-the-war-effort

what shocking news

just throwing it up there