Starship Troopers is about as subtle as a movie about screaming bug killers can be.
So why do people keep missing the point?
barks Career Drill Sergeant Zim (Clancy Brown).
Ebert spoke for most critics, suggesting that any satire thatStarship Troopersachieved happened by accident.
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If were being generous, we can understand why so many would make the mistake.
But that reading simplifies Heinleins actual position.
In 1938, Heinlein ran as a left-wing Democrat for California State Assembly.
Its because thats the nature of cinema.
It is not a supplement to the real world, an additional decoration.
It is the heart of the unrealism of the real society.
Its loud, shiny, and beautiful.
Debord sees fascism as a potential outcome of capitalism, when the society it creates falls under siege.
Thus, the spectacular nature of cinema makes it an ideal media for disseminating that myth.
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Johnny Rico slaps down his app on the desk of a recruitment officer (Robert David Hall).
Good for you, barks the officer as he grasps Ricos human hand in his mechanical appendages.
Mobile infantry made me the man I am today.
But thats hardly the only timeStarship Troopersinvokes and satirizes militarism.
Working again withRoboCopco-writer Edward Neumeier, Verhoeven decided against leaning away from the fascist undertones in the book.
Instead the scribes took full advantage of cinemas natural tendencies to exaggerate and, ultimately, belittle those ideas.
While Verhoeven does include some disgusting gore in the scene, he and cinematographer Jost Vacano shoot it straight.
But Verhoeven goes even further to include direct allusions to Nazi cinema.
The first shot is taken fromTriumph of the Will, Verhoeven toldEntertainment Weeklyin 1997.
When the soldiers look at the camera and say, Im doing my part!
Starship Troopersworks as satire precisely because it doesnt wink at the audience.
It uses the tools of cinema to present the ideology of fascism in a spectacular manner.
Which, of course, can and has gone horribly wrong.
The camera pushes close on Jenkins as he puts his hand on the creature, sensing its feelings.
he repeats with a shout, and the soldiers cheer in excitement.
The scene demonstrates the key to understandingStarship Troopers.
Youll be susceptible to the Federations fascist ideologies, much like the pretty, vapid people onscreen.
But if youre watching with empathy, youll mourn the children about to die under Ricos command.
Youll feel for the fearful bug, despite its ugly features.
On one hand, Youngs critique ofStarship Troopersis right.
The bugs are ugly and gross.
Its a lot easier to just stare at the pretty actors and thrill to their exploits.
Only then can cinema be what Roger Ebert saw:a machine for empathy.
Only then will we truly get what the story is actually trying to tell us.
