(Starship Troopers) Were The Bugs The Good Guys?

I'm re-watching the movie version of ST with RiffTrax and I had forgotten this (relatively) subtle plot point. The Feds are invading their homes based on information given to us by some quasi-1984ish government. Buenos Aires' destruction is attributed to the Bugs but the source is extremely unreliable to say the least. I mean, I guess Rico isn't such a bad guy but he's fighting for a bad country.

Okay, maybe "good guys" was the wrong term. Consider it kinda like Rooting For The Empire but intentional. The Mobile Infantry and the government it fights for is Not A Good Thing. I think we can all agree that the movie had that message. As such, the bugs killing them and defending themselves is Not A Bad Thing.

That's all I was trying to get at.

Furthermore, didn't the whole thing start when humans landed on one of their planets and tried to take it over?

Also I wanna read the book now. But it's apparently so different that I don't think it has any bearing on this.

THE GODDAMN BUGS WHACKED US, JOHNNY

... they sucked his brains out.

Honestly, the movie was a cheap action flick, plot wise. Any story depth was purely accidental.

The novel, however, does go into a lot of depth via the framing device of Rico's "History and Moral Philosophy" classes. It's a decent read but I definitely think you'd enjoy it.

I really don't think it was an accident that the movie was satirizing the book. The book is apparently a lot of nationalist/quasi-fascist stuff while the movie is parodying that to high heaven.

I seriously don't see how anyone can take the 1950s style TV guy for example as anything but blatant satire. "This guy was convicted and will be executed live on TV all in the span of 24 hours. Stay tuned!"

I lost my heart to a Starship Trooper... :blush:

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Originally Posted by Forsaken Lover

I really don't think it was an accident that the movie was satirizing the book. The book is apparently a lot of nationalist/quasi-fascist stuff while the movie is parodying that to high heaven.

I seriously don't see how anyone can take the 1950s style TV guy for example as anything but blatant satire. "This guy was convicted and will be executed live on TV all in the span of 24 hours. Stay tuned!"

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The movie is definitely satire. The marines were stylized after Nazis. The opening of the movie was a visual reference to "Triumph of the Will", a Nazi propaganda movie. There's info about it on wikipedia: Starship Troopers (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Verhoeven didn't like the novel and stated that he didn't finish reading it because it was boring and depressing. The novel has a drastically different tone and message than the movie.

The movie also works on the level of being a dumb action movie, so it can be easy not to see the satire. The same is true of other Paul Verhoeven movies. Robocop for example.

It reminded me of Ender's Game.

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Originally Posted by Dr Unne

The movie also works on the level of being a dumb action movie, so it can be easy not to see the satire. The same is true of other Paul Verhoeven movies. Robocop for example.

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I thought the whole/main point of Robocop was the satire. /shrug

I've heard all sorts of stuff about the commentary of the movie so i decided to go buy the damn DVD so I could hear it for myself what exactly was said.



Verhoeven: But what it says of course in this scene is that the war did not start, was not started by the Bugs. [...] In the beginning of the movie, you think basically the bugs attacked, that the bugs are bad, that the bugs have to be destroyed. This is Klendathu it has to be destroyed! That's what the first item of the movie says. But now later you find out that it's only part of history. Because the real history started with the Mormon extremists setting up a colony in a territory they were not asked to come into. Which is Klendathu, let's say the Arachnid territory. And we, basically after they retaliate, they retaliate by killing the Mormons but also by sending a meteor to Buenos Aires as we see later in the movie. Then we get really pissed off and forget about all that. "Oh look at that meteor! How bad! We have to attack!" And that I think is the politics of the movie.

So the Bugs did send the meteor but it is acknowledged that they were retaliating. They didn't start this war.

I also found the last snippet I included very agreeable - the "you can only presetnt this topic in this way." You find that a lot of the more objective books about controversial topics or figures are panned as supporting said topics/figures. People don't want complexity. They want anything they don't like to be demonized as much as posible. As such, i can see why this movie was attacked for being fascist (even though it is anything but) because they never came outright and said 'these are bad people supporting a bad system" and they didn't portray the society as some sort of hellish Mordor-like place.

Not that Voerhoven is on the side of the bugs. He specifically refers to the Brain Bug as "an evil god." The writer meanwhile was surprised that people felt sorry for the Brain Bug in the end. I know I felt bad for it.

But you know, let's just strip away all the political messages and bulltrout. Just think of the attack on Klendathu and the egotistical, boasting "war! Hell yeah!" Mobile Infantry. Don't you just ge ta huge grin on your face when all their hoorah bulltrout is interrupted by the Arachnids stomping the holy hell out of them? I know I do.

Also if you are in any way sensitive about how much America sucks, don't buy the DVD and listen to the commentary because you will end up really hating Verhoeven.

I loved this movie as a teen and never read anything into more than a scifi movie where we kill some bugs.

What do you get out of the animated series subtextually? It seems it definitely tells a somewhat different story.

I'm honestly amazed that anyone didn't realise Verhoeven's films were satires by this point. Yeah, I knew people read this as just a big dumb action movie in the '90s but I thought the film being satire was common knowledge by now. It's not like he was at all subtle about it.

probably because most of us who watched when it came out just lold at it then forgot about it :p

The only reason I watched ST was in hopes of seeing DR naked. Turns out, I should have just watched Wild Things.

We got to see Dizzy's tits though.