OFF: Starship Troopers (was Classic Rock)

[Jean Lansford]

On Wed, 7 Jan 1998, "J. Michael Looney" <mlooney at IONET.NET> wrote:

>I, as you may have noticed am a major fan of RAH.  I went to see ST, knowing
>full well that it was a hack job.  What I tell my friends is this:
>1) As an action adventure movie, it rocks.

My biggest problems with the movie (as itself, not as a comparison
with the book) are military.  Mobile Infantry that cannot be called
mobile in any sense of the word, no artillery and armor support for
the infantry, and some truly stupid tactical blunders that kicked my
suspension of disbelief right out.

>2) It has great computer graphics, better that the silly things with T. Rex
>3) It has nadda to to with one of the best SF books ever written, other than
>the names.
>4) And don't even think about the politics of the movie, it's typical 90's
>hollywood, in that it is trapped in 1968, in that the military must be evil,
>and a government based on voluntary service before you can vote must be Nazi
>like or something.

Funny, I didn't get that at all.  Maybe it's a difference in
generation.  (I may be a VietNam baby, but politically and
emotionally, in respect to the military, I'm more kin to the WWII
babies.)

The strongest Nazi flavor I got was from the uniforms, which Hollywood
uses a lot in SF-type movies for both the good guys and the villians.
I suspect they simply think the Nazi unis look cool.

One thing I've heard cited as an example of the movie's
"anti-military" bias is the multiple amputee who tells Rico "The MI
made me the man I am today."  I saw that scene as showing how
differently people can view the same thing.  Rico, like many my age
and younger, seemed to see the disability more than the man's pride in
his experiences and whatever he may have accomplished while recieving
those wounds.

>5) Diz is hot...

Which is why her fate was sealed....

One Hollywood cliche I saw coming miles away.


Jean Lansford
lansford at vnet.net
http://users.vnet.net/lansford/