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DVD
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Actors: Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris
In the first and finest RoboCop movie, director Paul Verhoeven combined near-future science fiction with a keen sense of social satire--not to mention enough high-velocity violence to satisfy even the most voracious bloodlust. In Starship Troopers, Verhoeven and RoboCop cowriter Ed Neumeier take inspired cues from Robert Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel to create a special-effects extravaganza that functions on multiple levels of entertainment. The film might be called "Melrose Place in Space," with its youthful cast of handsome guys and gorgeous women who look like they've been recruited (and in some cases they were) from the cast of Beverly Hills 90210. Viewers might focus on the incredible, graphically intense action sequences (definitely not for children) in which heavily armed forces from Earth go to off-world battle against vast hordes of alien "bugs" bent on planetary conquest. The attacking bugs are marvels of state-of-the-art special-effects technology, and the space battles are nothing short of spectacular. But Starship Troopers is more than a showcase for high-tech hardware and gigantic, flesh-ripping insects. Recalling his childhood in Holland during the Nazi occupation, Verhoeven turns this epic adventure into a scathingly funny satire of fascist propaganda, emphasizing Heinlein's underlying warning against the hazards of military conformity and the sickening realities of war. It's an action-packed joy ride if that's all you're looking for, but Verhoeven has a provocative agenda that makes Starship Troopers as smart as it is exciting. --Jeff Shannon
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| Verhoeven shows no respect for a great story. |
| Customer Rating: 1 out of 5 |
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It is apparent that the director, Paul Verhoeven, has little respect for Robert Heinlein. He butchered a great and controversial story, and left us with a disaster of a film. Please don't bother watching this film. I do encourage you to read the book by Robert Heinlein. Even if one doesn't agree with Heinlein, he does cause the reader to think deeply about important matters, such as, "What is a just society."
Verhoeven's film doesn't encourage one to think. I wonder if Verhoeven read the book since the story in the film bears little resemblance to Heinlein's novel. For example, Heinlein valued public service. I can't tell what Verhoeven values except for indulgence.
I would give this less than one star if possible.
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| "I'm Doing My Part" ~ Lets Kill Bugs! |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Join Rico (Casper Van Dien), Dizz (Dina Meyer), Carmen (Denise Richards), Zander (Patrick Muldoon) and Carl (Neil Patrick Harris) and the rest of the gung ho Troopers in this futuristic, sci-fi, action/adventure, surreal allegorical tale of intergalactic warfare between mankind and giant bugs. The '97 film `Starship Troopers' excels in every category; special effects, action, originality, dialogue and anything else you can think of. There's nothing else like it, so "Do your part' and get the popcorn ready for the wildest ride through the galaxy one could imagine.
Note: The film contains extreme violence and some nudity so you may not want to include any little ones in on this one.
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| Muddled and Confused Presentation |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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Director Paul Verhoeven has repeatedly stated that the point of this movie is to suggest that "war makes fascists of us all". The presentation of this moral in the film, though, seems to be more factual than cautionary. Verhoeven misses almost every opportunity to suggest to his audience that he is being critical of fascism and, indeed, the movie often seems to support fascist ideology in several different ways. The characters do not seem to be impaired or deprived in any way because of their loyalty to the state. In fact, their lives are enriched by it. Verhoeven goes so far as to make Rico's parents (some of the only opponents of the state's cult of civic unity and citizenship) trite caricatures of liberal elitists who it is easy to dislike and distrust, and then he kills them in the attack which is made a justification for war. Furthermore, far from casting the fascist cult of heroism in an ironic light, the film glorifies heroism and heroic death at every turn.
Another opportunity to attack the fascist mentality is lost in the meteor attacks. Verhoeven, who holds an advanced degree in mathematics and physics, should understand very well the problems with using meteors as weapons on an interstellar scale. This could have been explored in some way. It could have been presented to the audience as utterly impossible that the bugs could be bombarding Earth with the meteors but that they were being implicated by the state as the attackers nonetheless. Other objections to war with the bugs (such as the idea that they were defending themselves from human encroachment) are dismissed, out-of-hand, in the most smugly brash manner possible without any sense of narrative distance or irony. If the war itself is meant to be questioned by the audience, then its presentation failed miserably. If the war was not meant to be questioned then, taken with the director's statement that "war makes fascists of us all", fascism is being endorsed.
This is particularly unfortunate because the setting provided an opportunity to be critical not just of fascism as practiced by the nationalistic movements of the twentieth century, but also as a criticism of the kind of protean ur-fascism which has manifested itself in the twenty-first century not as an inherently racist movement, but one which has made itself much more streamlined by making its domestic scapegoats the adherents of the same ideologies which it reacts against. This kind of fascism is particularly insidious because it is cosmetically egalitarian, easier for fascist apologists to defend, and entirely seductive to civically minded people. Insidious fascism could make itself even more covert by supplanting, in personal affairs, traditional propriety with a kind of warped anti-propriety. A common complaint about this movie is that "the wrong girl died". From this, I take it that most people have some moral rubric which they are willing to apply to personal relationships, one which says that Dizzy was right and Ibanez was wrong. Yet, Verhoeven insists that his intent was to portray Carmen not as cynical, dishonest, manipulative or self-serving , but as "strong". Far from being asked to suspend judgment of Carmen's behavior, he asks us to endorse it. The service anti-propriety does to the state is two-fold: it assists in rendering the fascism more covert in the same way that the superficial egalitarianism does by presenting the illusion of freedom where people are sure to notice it (sex, in this case), causing them to suspend their suspicion of the state's intent elsewhere, and also by creating a sense of virtue. Though our instincts tell us to be jealous and dedicated, we can think ourselves proper and virtuous by suppressing our personal judgment for the sake of social expectation, and this provides a clear way of identifying oneself as a part of proper society. There is no fascism without a sense of "us", and the social expectations of sexual behavior are the most visceral and expidient methods at a communitarian's disposal for creating it.
Taking everything into account, Verhoeven's claim that the movie is a commentary on the dangers of fascism seem as disingenuous as claims that Nazi exploitation films are cautionary or historical, rather than pornographic. Everyone feels a bit of a thrill at the prospect of uniting under one banner and flexing some military muscle. It makes us feel safe, it makes us feel powerful. It's hardly any wonder that we're willing to take the claims that the film is cautionary at face value while, on the inside, we're all thrilled by this fascist pornography. Indeed, accusations of this movie's crypto-fascism are way off the mark. Its fascist ideology could only be made more obvious if the DvD came dressed in jackboots and a brown shirt. It gets two stars from me instead of one because of good casting, good special effects, and a good soundtrack, all of which bring me to suppress my urge to vomit over the film's nasty politics on the rare occasion that I watch it.
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| 4 star film re-release |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I give the film four stars but i give the re-release of it 2 stars. Sure its got a real cool cover but other than that is empty other than the 1997 commentary. I would suggest buying the special edition or waiting for a re-re-release with the second disc provided by the special edition which containes some great making off features.
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| Fun |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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A fun science fiction movie. Gets a little flakey and has a poor ending though. Super violent and amazing special effects.
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