[Film] Starship Troopers

[Reichu]

Odds are if you clicked here you already know, but, in brief, this is a 1997 sci-fi action directed by the wonderful Paul Verhoeven. I'd only seen Total Recall and Robocop before this, but after this I kind of want to marathon his filmography. I pretty much ignored Troopers when it came out because the trailers made it look like a straight-up jingoistic, militaristic popcorn flick with nothing interesting to say. Eventually, though, I caught wind of there being more to the film than that -- it's actually a vicious, riotous satire --, so it graduated to one of those things to watch someday, and once it appeared on Netflix I knew what I had to do.

There's a lot going on in here, so I'll have to watch it again sometime, but my first impressions are very strong. The first half hour sucked me easily. There's the clever propaganda segments (kind of remind me of the news segments from Robocop, come to think of it; I need to rewatch that one, too) which economically built up the universe of the movie while also establishing the underlying tone and themes. And there's the use of the prosaic "group of young, beautiful friends in their last year of school, getting ready to head their separate ways" set-up. Anywhere else, it might be really BTDT, but here it works incredibly well to ease us into the film and highlight everything about its world that's different from ours -- the good and the bad. I've heard this film called "anvilicious" -- that is, Verhoeven is incredibly unsubtle about his talking points -- but I'm not sure I agree completely. There is a lot in the setting (not to mention those propaganda segments) letting you know that not all is right, sure, but not all is wrong, either.

What do I mean? Well, for one thing, despite an apparently fascistic (I can't say if it is or not, since I don't do politics well) government being in charge of everything, the world isn't presented as a dystopia nor its citizens a bunch of miserable fuck-ups. It would have been incredibly easy to paint a black and white picture -- but, no, even with the society being something the director is rampantly against, almost everyone we meet is pretty with-it. The young adults are happy and healthy. Gender relations have never been better: men and women are painted here as true equals. (The progressiveness of this film absolutely shocked me in the best possible way. More on that later.) While serving in the military is required to become a "citizen" (which means you have the right to vote, I think?), those who don't, the "civilians" aren't depicted as an oppressed lower class (at least, if Mom and Pop Rico and their very nice house is any indication). While the military is one of the main targets of the film's commentary, nearly all of the individuals within it are portrayed as people and not cartoons. The recruits are all individuals who are there for different reasons; boot camp is grueling but also a place where lots of bonding happens (the total lack of genuine cruelty between recruits is borderline unrealistic, even); the military personnel are sensible individuals and not trigger-happy lunatics. All of this is smart film-making, providing layers and preventing Troopers from being boiled down to the director's talking points.

Now, the gender stuff. Wow. I was not expecting this. For a picture made almost twenty years ago, it would be considered extremely progressive NOW (aside from having no LGBTQ representation, anyway). Woman are depicted as equals to men, period. They are in the military and seats of global power. Not once in the film is their competence questioned (on account of their sex) or a misogynistic slur uttered. Sexism just isn't part of the Zeitgeist anymore, and it's beautiful. This is perfectly encompassed by the glorious co-ed shower scene: adult women and men standing around in the nude together in perfect harmony, their exposed flesh entirely unremarkable. None of the guys give a single shit that they are surrounded by bare breasts, nor do the gals do any ogling, nor does the camera have the slightest interest in eroticizing anyone -- both sexes simply are.

Men and women still date and fuck, of course, and what we see there is encouraging as well. The male protagonist is an incredibly positive depiction of masculine sexuality. He loves one girl and is in no rush to get naked with her; while he was given the opportunity to get it on with a hot female friend, he easily friend-zoned her. His sexual encounters involve very positive consent from his partners, and the one we get to see is incredibly playful, mutual, and respectful. He isn't shown as infallible, and does get angry and jealous when his girlfriend acts flirty with another guy -- but this is quickly dissolved by her addressing his feelings and providing reassurance (which, refreshingly, isn't subject to doubt and questioning). And, while there is eventually a fight between Rico and the "romantic rival" character, it happens after his girlfriend has politely dumped him and when Rico is in a terrible place psychologically (after he learns his hometown has been destroyed and his parents are probably dead), which provides subtle yet important differences with most brawl scenes of this type. (I'd have preferred it not be in the film at all, but I'm not averse to giving it credit for doing the usual thing in a different way.) Aside from that, we gleefully avoid the tropes associated with "dick for brains" (wherein a man's romantic and/or sexual feelings needlessly get himself and others into trouble). After Rico sleeps with Diz, nothing changes in the predictable sorts of ways; we don't have his feelings causing complications on the battlefield, and she remains a dear friend to him first and foremost. And when Carmen gets attacked in the bugs' nest, one soldier cockily suggests a rescue mission while Rico immediately vetoes the idea, rationally pointing out that she is almost certainly dead. How often do you see this sort of stuff in an big, boisterous action flick, seriously?

While this is far from the hard side of sci-fi, all of these casual explorations of gender issues take advantage of the genre in the best way. With sci-fi, it's possible to depict a world different from our own, simply for the sake of showing what might be possible. With something set in the present, it's difficult to address civil issues without delving into the troubles we're currently facing, and sci-fi doesn't have to do that. It can, but it's perfectly valid to just the world exist on its own terms and leave how it got that way to the imagination. Gender egalitarian worlds like we see or in Star Trek or countless other works intend to prompt the audience to wonder, "Why can't it be that way for us?" And once enough people ask themselves that, change can happen.

This movie is full of things to discuss. I haven't really touched on the main satirical elements, since I need to wrap this post up and I don't think I'd be able to do them justice besides. I'd love to know what the rest of you think, though.

Assuming this thread doesn't promptly fizzle out, more from me later.

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Let me just pop in here real quick to say Dizzy>Carmen

[Reichu]

Let me just pop in here real quick to say Dizzy>Carmen

At first I wasn't sure about Dizzy, as she seemed like she was slated for the Shallow, Jealous Hussy type. Man, was that a bait and switch! She turned out to be a really likable character and -- a real rarity nowadays -- I cried when she bought the farm. I felt like she should've lived into the last half hour, but I'm saying that less because it would have necessarily worked better and more because I wanted more of her.

I've heard that Carmen has a reputation in the fandom for being a "slut" and "bitch" and such. Talk about a bunch of vile, misogynistic garbage that doesn't belong anywhere near this film. While Carmen's actress was a little weak, there was nothing wrong with the character. You could tell early on that she wasn't quite as ready for the committed relationship thing as Johnny was. She does the responsible thing and straight-up lets Johnny go when she knows that it won't work. Her break-up message is about as gentle as it could possibly be while still communicating what's needed. You can see that she's upset about it and there isn't a hint of malice. Bitch, indeed.

[NemZ]

It's a great film in it's own right for sure, but a pretty lousy rendition of the book. loose interpretation at best.

I mean they don't even use power armor, and inventing that concept is one of the book's claims to SciFi fame!

[BrikHaus]

Awesome movie with so much great satire going on. They actually did a RiffTrax Live event of this film a few years back. I went with my friends, but I kept wondering how can they make it funny when it's already a satire film? Well, most of the jokes were pretty shallow. It was funny, but I think they all kind of missed the point.