Starship Troopers — Thoughts on the last gasp of big-screen pulp sci-fi.
Starship Troopers is a film with a convoluted history, even by Hollywood standards. Panned on release and buried under the box-office might of Titanic and some other sci-fi franchise prequel starring Ahmed Best, Starship Troopers was the wrong film at the wrong time. You can see why — it’s easily dismissed as ‘just another action gore-fest’, and the irony laced throughout proved either too subtle or too unconvincing for audiences and critics alike.
Since its initial release however, the license, if not the original film itself, has proven remarkably enduring within the pulp sci-fi cannon. In the decade following it’s release, it would spawn two (straight to DVD) sequels, a cult animated TV show, an anime, a 28mm tabletop modelling game, and a number of attempts at a videogame, one of which (2005’s Starship Troopers for PC) proved to be pretty dam good. Irrespective of the film’s reception, Verhoeven had created a sci-fi universe that was visually as well as intellectually rich and engaging.
With talks of a … *sign* … reboot in the works since 2015, the online commentary machine has just recently begun giving the ongoing reappraisal of Starship Troopers the airtime it deserves, culminating in Red Letter Media — the granddaddies of YouTube film commentary — finally turning to this long-neglected gem. The film has always maintained a staunch cadre of supporters from release, who praise it for its astounding visual effects, thanks to practical SFX work of Amalgamated Dynamics, as well as its nuanced political satire.
Directed by Paul Verhoeven as his 3rd outing since 1990’s Total Recall, he sought to return to the same sci-fi setting, at least contextually, which Arnie had stomped through 7 years prior. Both films shared the same vision of mankind’s near future space-faring age as one dominated by a militaristic and bigoted state, taking aesthetic inspiration from twentieth century fascism’s clean modernism. Verhoeven spent his early childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland, and the imprint on him is clear.
This does not simply mean, however, that Verhoeven became an anti-war, anti-fascist director who crudely copy-pasted the bad guys into their corresponding roles. Instead, he used pulp sci-fi settings as dressing to tackle the ideas head on, whilst maintaining the all important veil of satire and self-awareness which permeates his works. Verhoeven is not alone in contributing to this formula, as writer Ed Neumier’s work with both Robocop and Starship Troopers allows the final iteration to shine as a collaborative effort. Perhaps most importantly, Verhoeven placed entertainment above all other considerations — his movies are pop-culture classics, devoid of pretension.
This is what makes Starship Troopers and its predecessors so interesting — the fact that they operate with the absolute mainstream of pop-culture informs their style of parody. They’re pure entertainment — Total Recall especially — and thanks in no small part to our man Arnie, Verhoeven’s sci-fi action outings stand in the pantheon of 80s action movie greats alongside the likes of Commando and Escape from New York. Paul Verhoeven was one of the most important directors when it came to shaping that 80s sci-fi action feel, with films like Robocop and Total Recall linked, via Arnie, to the likes of Commando and Predator. By 1997 however, the films which would all contribute to the genre parody-mash-up Far Cry: Blood Dragon had been made, and the 80s action movie style — along with its most beloved staples — was about to be overrun by the next generation, spearheaded by the likes of the Matrix, which would change everything in 1999.
Enter Starship Troopers. Paul Verhoeven took the universe he had created in Totall Recall and lifted some key premises which were put in place for his definitive take on the pulp sci-fi genre, presented with a self-parodying running joke shared with the audience (or not so, as it would turn out) seen in Robocop. From Verhoeven came the fascist military aesthetic, and from Edward Neumeier the self-parodying wit.
Just as with Total Recall (originally We Can Remember It For You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick), Starship Troopers was a remake of a niche classic from 1956 of the same name by Robert Heinlein. A lot can and has been said about this book, and when it is brought up online forums you will usually find a small but dedicated cadre of enthusiasts who will leap to its defence. I say enthusiasts because the book Starship Troopers is, in Verhoeven’s own words, ‘so boring’, and I say ‘defence’, because Heinlein’s original was denounced by contemporary critics for essentially promoting a fascistic vision of society, just as Verhoeven’s film would be fifty years later. I would at least be inclined to agree with Verhoeven’s point — it can, at times, be a very taxing read. This isn’t to say that its ideas are uninteresting, but just a comment on the writing style — half of the book tries only ever-so-slightly to disguise its polemical nature, as lead character Rico’s highschool teacher Razack lectures the reader in long, uninterrupted passages.
Despite this, Heinlein’s Starship Troopers contributed so much not only to the military sci-fi genre, but to real-world policy and initiative. Heinlein used the sci-fi setting as a platform to explore a particular model of society which he created based almost entirely on his experience in the US Navy, and his belief that mankind must prepare itself for a near-perpetual state of war. Far from lavishing praise on the institution that made him, Heinlein was as frustrated as he was loyal, and argued for institutional reforms by presenting his alternative vision for the future of the US military in the fictitious Mobile Infantry.
In Heinlein’s blueprint were a number of now established ideas and premises which at the time were thought far-fetched enough to land themselves in a sci-fi novel. This included: an end to discrimination based on sex and/or race in all areas of the military; all aspiring officers must come from the non-commissioned enlisted ranks; armies of the future being smaller, more mobile, and better equipped; a merging of infantry and armour into one fully mobile powered exo-suit.
These are but a few of the enduring ideas which were if not pioneered, then popularised in a new way by Heinlein’s book. Many, such as the removal of racial segregation in the US military, would become increasingly normalised in the decades that followed. Casper Van Dien, who himself came from a military family and would go on to portray Johnny Rico in Verhoeven’s film, read the original book as he went through military school (the book remains on prescribed reading lists at military academies in the US). On the other hand, the powered exo-suit is now so ubiquitous within the military sci-fi genre that you must wonder if it could even exist without it…
Despite having what would be considered progressive ideas act as key pillars within Heinlein’s polemic, accusations of fascism came from Heinlein’s notion that citizenship should be a reward for serving the body politik, rather than an automatic right given at birth, inherited from parental lineage. Heinlein’s imagined society was one where all aspiring citizens, upon coming of age, would be assigned a role within the apparatus of the state which best suited their attributes. Unlike Verhoeven’s depiction, Heinlein did not envisage this to be purely military, but equally valid were administrative and logistical roles. The emphasis was nonetheless on military service for the majority, and this is where Heinlein’s ideas, in 1956, came too close for many to the regimes which had been put to bed a mere 16 years prior.
Heinlein subscribed to a popular post-war notion in America, which was that a society in a perpetual state of war was not only inevitable, but desirable. For many, the Soviet Union simply filled the role of Nazi Germany — the two were equal threats to the US hegemony, and a moral equivalency drawn between the two was necessary to ensure the same level of vigilance. This is reflected in Heinlein’s work, where the bugs (who’s depiction is markedly different in the film) are an unsubtle caricature of the Soviet regime. In the era of McCarthyism, it was easy for Heilein to be pigeonholed with the rest of the reactionary right.
Starship Troopers (1997) would find its title as the original script did the rounds of Hollywood exec offices, and was found to bear a close enough resemblance in terms of plot to the 1956 book, and so the name was passed along. Whether Neumier’s satire was present before the name change is unclear, but what can be assumed is that the final version— which is formed as a direct repudiation to Heinlein’s premises — could only exist to skewer 1956 original.
Verhoeven’s film sought to recreate Heinlein’s vision as a simplified caricature to poke fun at — it builds this sleek, utopian-looking society which stands at the polar opposite to the likes of Alien’s ‘used sci-fi’ style, and lets it act out its power fantasy. By the end of the film, the troopers find themselves victorious atop a huge enemy body-count, cheering. Leading up to this point, our characters have been unknowingly ridiculed throughout. A now well established bit of trivia is how during the co-ed shower scene (incorporating Heinlein’s gender-neutral vision of the military, as well as an excuse for Verhoeven to get some nudity in there), each character, when asked why they joined up, makes a reference to how they will later die. One says how his plan to attend Harvard would cost ‘an arm and a leg’, and is later dismembered; another is laughed at for being a stupid farmer’s boy, and gets his brains blown out. The point is perhaps best made by this snippet from an interview with Michael Ironside where, having read the book before filming, asked Verhoeven: “why are you doing a right-wing fascist movie?”, to which Verhoeven replied: “if I tell the world that a right-wing fascist way of doing things doesn’t work then no one will listen to me, so I’m going to make a perfect fascist world where everyone is beautiful, everyone is shiny, everything has big guns and fancy ships - but it’s only good for killing fucking bugs!”
This helps to explain why the film had such a troubled reception — critics and audiences alike mistook Verhoeven’s parody as a sincere attempt to create a sci-fi fascist utopia on screen. The confusion no doubt stems from the two layers of irony operating at once: There are the obvious references to fascism through the propaganda reels, the uniforms, and the militarised society. The propaganda reels in particular are obvious over-the-top parodies of fascism — but audiences believed that this is where the parody ended. Instead, the whole film is designed as one giant propaganda reel, with characters so handsome they could be taken from any teen high-school drama performing individual feats of heroism, often with a smile. This is played out on a background of ultra-violence, with an intentional disconnect between the characters and the reality they’re in to highlight Heilein’s vision as fantastical, unobtainable, and ultimately undesirable to the sane mind.
This also show’s Verhoeven’s major contention with Heinlein’s notion that society needs war to be great. It is, incidentally, unsurprising that Heinlein would have held this view — he had, after all, witnessed the greatest rise in material prosperity as well as self belief in the United State’s victory in both the Pacific and Europe. Starship Troopers (1997) argues that whilst war may bring great technological leaps forward, if the only end is to find and defeat another enemy, whatever it may be, than this will the means will always produce the same result.
One idea which hasn’t gotten enough airtime amongst the recent reappraisals of Starship Troopers (1997) is the fact that the premise for the Federation going to war with the bugs a second time is in all likelihood manufactured. Rico and his friends are drawn into the live war by a giant asteroid which hits Buenos Aires, wiping out the city and its inhabitants. It is claimed by Federal authorities that the asteroid was dislodged from orbit and aimed at earth by the arachnid’s plasma bugs.
This is far fetched to say the least — firing an asteroid at a planet across the galaxy is like trying to shoot a needle in a pile of needles without hitting any other needles. Assuming that the premise for the war is manufactured from this, it further ties into the futility of the society which Heinlein envisioned, and Verhoeven demonstrates this aptly by dropping subtle references to how it is in fact the Federation which is the invading galactic force, feeding off of manufactured conflicts to sustain itself.
No doubt Gulf of Tonkin reference (the phoney premise for US military intervention in Vietnam), this ties into the enduring belief that the American Military Industrial Complex mandated a continued state of military engagement in order that United States keep up the legacy of innovation-through-warfare begun in 1940. Further evidence for this is Ed Neumier’s reference to Khe Sahn when he returned to write Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, as the third film in the franchise opens with a besieged military base carrying the same name of the one held by the US Marines near the 38th parallel in 1968 under a year-long siege.
The final note on this collection of thoughts is somewhat of a downer — Starship Troopers is a film that could not exist today. It was the culmination of over a decade of pulp-sci-fi being brought to life on the big screen, and as a genre it has become superseded by the serious, the dour, the… ‘gritty’. This is evidenced by the attempted remakes of Verhoeven’s classics; Total Recall (2012) and Robocop (2014) where both by and large humourless affairs, devoid of the personality, charm and imagination of the originals. If they set the precedent for the ongoing pillaging of Verhoeven’s back catalogue, then the upcoming reboot of Starship Troopers will probably be just as stale. In the mean time, there is so much left to be said on this film and the universe it created — and I can only hope that its ever-growing cult status will one day net it the recognition it deserves.
