Howdy all you Supercultists out there on the interwebz!
I’m Bad Movie Professor Cameron Coker (BS in “Direct to DVD” with a minor in “Man Ass”) and I’ll be posting my hype-tacular speeches every week along with some long lost speeches from past Supercult Shows!
This week it’s Starship Troopers!
In the not too distant future Earth has become a space faring Federation. Citizenship and voting are privileges earned by serving in the military. John “Johnny Rico”, his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez, his best friend Carl Jenkins, and his fawning classmate Dizzy Flores attend high school in Buenos Aires where they learn about the ‘Failure of Democracy’ and how ‘Violence is the Supreme Authority’. They enlist in Federation service after graduation hoping to serve their time and earn citizenship without mishap, but when Buenos Aires is obliterated by an attack from the Arachnid home world of Klendathu, Rico and the Mobile Infantry are called to war! It’s the bug hunt to end all bug hunts in this sci-fi military satire! Would you like to know more?
Released in 1997, Starship Troopers was originally called “Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine” before eventually licensing the name Starship Troopers from a science fiction novel by acclaimed science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein. The original novel had the same basic premise as the movie but was essentially a vessel for Heinlein to clarify and defend his military and political views at the time. Both political essay and novel, large portions of the book take place in classrooms with Rico and other characters debating with their History and Moral Philosophy teacher who promotes Heinlein’s right-wing ideals of a meritocracy, militarism, and personal responsibility. However, most of the writing team for the movie were unaware of the existence of the novel at the time and according to the DVD commentary director Paul Verhoeven never finished reading the book, claiming he read through the first few chapters and became both “bored and depressed.”
Director Paul Verhoeven and writer Edward Neumeier, who both worked on Robocop together, adapted Heinlein’s novel into a satire. Whereas the novel was accused of promoting militarism, fascism, and military rule, the film satirizes these concepts by featuring news reports that are intensely fascist, xenophobic, and propagandistic, while at the same time the military is extremely gender neutral and non-discriminatory with the co-ed Mobile Infantry showering and bunking together casually.
It’s been far too long since we’ve featured Man-Ass in a Supercult film.
Poor, stupid Mormons…
Varhoeven stated in 1997 that the first scene of the film was adapted shot-for-shot from a scene from Len Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. Other references to Nazism in the film include the Gestapo-like uniforms of the commanding officers, and the Albert Speer style architecture and propagandistic dialogue. Verhoeven said that his satirical use of irony and hyperbole is “playing with fascism or fascist imagery to point out certain aspects of American society…of course, the movie is about “Let’s all go to war and let’s all die.’”
Starring the somewhat forgettable Casper Van Dien as Rico, Dina Meyer as Dizzy, and Jake Busey, the badguy from The Frighterners, as Ace Levy alongside notable stars like Neil Patrick Harris as Carl Jenkins, Michael Ironside as Jean Rasczak, and Bond Girl Denise Richards as Carmen Ibanez, it’s hard to tell if this show lacks star power or benefits from it.
What we DO know, however, is that Starship Troopers is one of five separate movie franchises, along with RoboCop, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, and Hollow Man, in which the first movie (directed by Paul Verhoeven) was successful, but their respected sequels (not directed by Verhoeven) all either bombed at the box office or were released ‘Direct-to-DVD.’ Starship Troopers has spawned 3 sequels: Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, and Starship Troopers: Invasion. All of these were released Direct-to-DVD. The movie also generated a fairly decent first person shooter of the same name.
Starship Troopers polarized audiences and critics alike, which is reflected in it’s 7.1 IMDB rating and 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. Some criticized the film for it’s divergence from the book’s more radical and courageous themes while Roger Ebert called the action scenes “heavily laden with special effects, but curiously joyless.” Nonetheless Starship Troopers made $121 million dollars off of a $105 million budget and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Visual Effects in 1998, losing out to Titanic.
Truth be told, most of the arachnids appearing on film are CGI but a few life-sized, robotic models were built. However, during the battle scenes, the actors wound up looking at director Paul Verhoeven himself who would stand in front of them and jump and scream to elicit their reactions.
That’s not the only way that Verhoeven goes above and beyond the call of duty for his films. Verhoeven and cinematographer Jost Vacano even shot one take of the nude co-ed shower scene in the nude themselves on a dare from actress Dina Meyer. No word, however, on if that particular take was used in the final cut of the film, but I’d like to think that it was…and it’s those kinds of thoughts that make us all Supercultists at heart.
Paul Verhoeven
Not Pictured: Paul Verhoen’s massive ****
Remember Supercultists: “The only good bug is a dead bug!” The Supercult show (and special guest sponsor Orkin Pest Control) is proud to present Starship Troopers!
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