Starship Troopers (1997)

Starship Troopers: Directed by Paul Verhoeven. With Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey. Humans in a fascist, militaristic future wage war with giant alien bugs.

“My title is a quote from director Paul Veerhoven who makes no attempt to water down his political views in u0026quot;Starship Troopersu0026quot;, a merciless, satirical skewering of those superpowers throughout history who believe war solves the worldu0026#39;s problems.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThat opening sentence is a mouthful, so let me explain a little further. In the directoru0026#39;s commentary, Mr. Veerhoven makes no bones about naming the USA as the greatest offender. In an awkwardly funny moment, his co-commenter, screenwriter Edward Neumeier, mutters u0026quot;Yeah but we did save your ass in World War II.u0026quot; To which Mr. Veerhoven clarifies, u0026quot;But this is not about World War II, itu0026#39;s about what happened *after* World War II.u0026quot; And thus, the entire philosophy is explained in a way that patriots as well as pinko commies can understand. u0026quot;Starship Troopersu0026quot; is a cautionary tale about what happens when war ceases to be a necessary evil and instead becomes an unnecessary thrill. It begins with some hilariously obvious propaganda satires, all about joining the military (including a funny scene of a 12 year old kid in full battle attire). The rest of the movie is peppered with such dark comedic skits, a lot like Veerhovenu0026#39;s u0026quot;Robocopu0026quot; a decade earlier.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhere the film is brilliant (or disastrous, see below) is in the way the battle scenes do thrill us, almost to the point that we lose ourselves in the hysteria of warfare, and only upon sober reflection do we realize that Mr. Veerhoven has just proved how easy it is to become a mindless minion of violence. The disastrous part is that Iu0026#39;m afraid many audience members never sobered up and walked out of the theater thinking u0026quot;Go war!u0026quot; Such is the pitfall of making a satire; you run the risk of promoting the very thing you seek to ridicule.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSomething very interesting that Veerhoven did was to use giant bugs as the enemy. I mean, who doesnu0026#39;t hate bugs?? Certainly no human I know. And thatu0026#39;s the point: by presenting an enemy thatu0026#39;s so universally hated as a bug, Veerhoven turns the magnifying glass on ourselves and challenges us to answer why we hate bugs, why we like to kill them so violently (crushed until their guts spew out) or gassed so that they die of painful asphyxiation before our eyes. If you caught the message of this film, youu0026#39;ll probably think twice about stomping that little spider who had the misfortune of being sighted in your presence.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOh a final note thatu0026#39;s a very nice touch. Thereu0026#39;s a scene in this film where a bunch of kids are stomping on cockroaches. Youu0026#39;ll be pleased to know that the cockroaches were fake, and literally no animals were harmed in the making of this film. Touché, Mr. Veerhoven.”