Starship Troopers (film)
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| Starship Troopers | |
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| Directed by | Paul Verhoeven |
| Produced by | Jon Davison Alan Marshall |
| Written by | Original Novel: Robert A. Heinlein Screenwriter: Edward Neumeier |
| Starring | Casper Van Dien Denise Richards Dina Meyer Jake Busey Neil Patrick Harris Clancy Brown Michael Ironside |
| Music by | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography | Jost Vacano |
| Editing by | Mark Goldblatt Caroline Ross |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | United States: November 7, 1997 United Kingdom: January 2, 1998 |
| Running time | 129 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $105,000,000 |
| Followed by | Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Starship Troopers is a 1997 sci-fi-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Edward Neumeier, and starring Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer and Denise Richards. The movie is loosely based on the controversial novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein.
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[edit] Synopsis
Starship Troopers tells the story of an interplanetary war between Earth and colonies of large insect-like aliens in the twenty-third century. It focuses on the experiences of Juan "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien), one of three friends who sign up to the military one year before Earth declares war on the aliens.
The film opens to a futuristic television viewing sequence. The news is dominated by an ongoing war with the aliens, called Arachnids or "Bugs." A live report from a battleground on the Bugs' home planet Klendathu shows humanity to be taking terrible losses.
A flashback takes the scene to the upper class Buenos Aires high school of Juan "Johnny" Rico (Casper Van Dien). One-armed history teacher Mr. Rasczak (Michael Ironside) forcefully quizzes his students about the efficacy of "naked force" in dispute resolution. When Rico's girlfriend, Carmen (Denise Richards), decides to join the Federal Service (military), Rico also decides to follow her into the Service out of love for her and his desire to achieve "citizen" status, instead of remaining an ordinary "civilian." His parents show immediate revulsion at his choice.
Largely based on their academic test scores, Rico is assigned to Mobile Infantry, while Carmen is assigned to Flight School. His best friend Carl (Neil Patrick Harris) is assigned to the elite Games and Theory division, concerned with military intelligence. A girl from Rico's high school football team, "Dizzy" Flores (Dina Meyer), secretly joins the Mobile Infantry (MI) and successfully requests a transfer to Rico's training unit. Rico soon finds the gruelling boot camp more difficult than anticipated, with terrible injuries being inflicted by the officers and NCOs — particularly his drill sergeant, Zim (Clancy Brown) — in an effort to train the recruits quickly and efficiently. Rico excels at the training and eventually is promoted to squad leader.
Carmen decides to "go career" because of her love of piloting massive starships, which precludes getting back together with Rico after two years of service, so she breaks up with him. A high school football rival of Rico, Zander Barcalow (Patrick Muldoon) has intentionally placed himself as Carmen's instructor, and makes his romantic intentions known. She neither accepts nor rejects, seeming amused and remaining intent on her piloting.
After Rico makes an error as squad leader during a training exercise which results in the death of a fellow squadmate, he is punished by public flogging and states his intention to quit. However, just as he is leaving the camp, a Bug asteroid destroys Buenos Aires, killing his parents and millions of people. He rejoins his unit and the newly-declared war against the perpetrators of the attack: the elephant-sized Arachnids of the distant planet Klendathu.
The initial invasion of Klendathu is a complete disaster, with 100,000 dead in one hour including several of Rico's fellow boot-mates. Rico is one of the few wounded to survive. The Federation's new Sky Marshal, Tehat Meru, initiates altered and more intelligent battle plans. Rico, Dizzy and his friend from training, Ace Levy (Jake Busey), are reassigned to the super-tough MI unit, the "Roughnecks". Its soldiers are extremely loyal, most of whose lives have been saved by their commander, as has Rico's. He turns out to be Rico's old high school history teacher (fitted with an artificial, robot arm), now Lieutenant Rasczak, executing the lessons he formerly taught. After a spectacular and heroic battle on one of the Bug worlds, Tango Urilla, Rico is field-promoted to corporal and assigns Dizzy as squad leader. After a celebration later that night, Rico and Dizzy share an intimate moment in Rico's tent at the MI's makeshift camp.
Their next mission plunges them into a trap, as they are assigned to investigate the silence of an outpost on one of the Bug worlds, Planet P. From the only survivor (and now a post-traumatic) General Owen (Marshall Bell), they discover that the bugs possess a high intelligence, and are "sucking" the brains out of humans to learn directly from them. As the troopers realize their situation, a massive swarm of bugs attacks. Rasczak, Dizzy and almost all of the Roughnecks are killed in the battle. The survivors barely evacuate in a ship piloted by Carmen. After a funeral service for Dizzy, Rico's old friend Carl, now a Colonel in intelligence, gives Rico and Carmen his unapologetic reason for the deaths of many of Rico's squad mates, stating that humans are vastly outnumbered. Military intelligence had ascertained that there might be a "brain bug" on Planet P, and the Roughnecks were used as bait. He tells Rico that the Mobile Infantry will return to Planet P and attempt to capture the brain bug for research. Rico accepts the mission and Carl gives him command of the Roughnecks, who are then reinforced by fresh soldiers (barely in their teens) sent directly from boot camp. Carmen's ship, the Rodger Young, is the one from which the Roughnecks operate.
In the offensive, the Rodger Young explodes when hit by Bug plasma, shot from giant Bug abdomens. Carmen and Zander barely survive, while the captain is killed when a door accidentally closes on her while getting to the lifeboat. Their escape pod lands deep underground in a Bug tunnel. They are captured, and Zander's brain is sucked out and ingested by the brain bug. As the brain bug is about to suck Carmen's brain out, Carmen pulls out a knife that Zander had handed her earlier and slices the brain bug's 'sucker'. Rico in the meantime organizes a rescue attempt and manages to save Carmen in the nick of time by threatening the brain bug with a miniature "nuke". A skirmish ensues and Watkins sacrifices himself to nuke the bug hole after being severely injured. Rico, Carmen and Ace escape to the surface safely, where the brain bug has been captured by Rico's former training sergeant Zim, voluntarily demoted to private in order to be allowed to transfer from training to combat. Rico, Carmen, and Carl renew their friendship,The brain bug is seen being studied by Federation scientists on earth. The film ends with an enlistment message, using Rico, Carmen, Lumbresier (a flight school friend of Carmen's), and Ace as examples of heroes of the military.
[edit] Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
|---|---|
| Casper Van Dien | Pvt./Cpl./Sgt./Lt. Johnny Rico |
| Dina Meyer | Pvt. Dizzy Flores |
| Denise Richards | Lt./Capt. Carmen Ibanez |
| Jake Busey | Pvt. Ace Levy |
| Neil Patrick Harris | Col. Carl Jenkins |
| Clancy Brown | Career Sgt./Pvt. Zim |
| Seth Gilliam | Pvt. Sugar Watkins |
| Patrick Muldoon | Lt. Zander Barcalow |
| Michael Ironside | Lt. Jean Rasczak |
| Marshall Bell | Gen. Owen |
| Eric Bruskotter | Sgt. Breckinridge |
| Brenda Strong | Capt. Deladier |
| Christopher Curry | Bill Rico |
| Lenore Kasdorf | Mrs. Rico |
[edit] Reception
This movie polarized both popular audiences and critics, as did the original book. On one level, the movie tells a straightforward action-adventure science fiction story, but with plastic B-movie actors. A prominent theme of the film is the human practice of senseless violence without reflection or empathy, which parallels the senseless aggression of the "Bugs". As such, the movie attracted widely divergent responses. This is reflected by a mixed critical response (the film received a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) [1]. Starship Troopers was nominated for a number of awards in 1998 and won Saturn Awards for Best Costumes and Best Special Effects at the 1998 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA Awards[2].
The film included visual allusions to propaganda films, such as Triumph of the Will and wartime news broadcasts. However, this satire was embedded in slickly produced action sequences with clever special effects.[3][4]. Some wonder whether the satire went unnoticed by an audience who may have treated the movie as a simple gung-ho action movie[5]. Some fans of the novel regard it as a shallow insult to a great work[6].
[edit] Comparison with the original novel
There is a vast divergence between the original book and film. A report in an American Cinematographer article around the same time of film's release states the Heinlein novel was optioned well into the pre-production period of the film, which had a working title of Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine; most of the writing team reportedly were unaware of the novel at the time. According to the DVD commentary, Paul Verhoeven never finished reading the novel, claiming he read through the first few chapters and became both "bored and depressed"[7].
The film was also characterized by a conspicuous absence of anything resembling Heinlein's mechanized Mobile Infantry; troopers wore an unpowered ensemble which seemed to differ only slightly from modern-day army gear, possibly because the original suits of the novel would have obscured the view of the actors.[citation needed] Their weaponry was not far advanced considering that humans were depicted as having fleets of starships, but the MI fought as unsupported light infantry for most of the movie being unable to call on armor, artillery, air, or space support, all while moving mainly under their own motive power and using projectile ammunition fired using an explosive charge [8]. A substantial portion of the soldiers' anatomy was left unprotected, and what little armor was present seemed to be of little use. Critics and fans of the film often comment on how tanks and cars are never used, in such a high-tech force[9], and why infantry is sent towards the bugs, when the human race obviously presided over aircraft capable of taking out the same bugs with far fewer casualties.
Some dialogue is straight out of the book, or some variation of it, while much of the dialogue and many of the themes are not from Heinlein's story. Additionally, most of the characters have been significantly altered. In the novel, Juan Rico speaks Tagalog at home and does not originate from Buenos Aires. Flores is female in the movie in order to add a love interest sub-plot. In the book, Dizzy Flores is male, has no relation to Rico save the fact they were soldiers in the same platoon, and is only mentioned in the first chapter, due to the fact that he dies at its conclusion. Additionally, Carl Jenkins serves an even lesser role in the book, with a one sentence mention about his death far away from the narrator halfway through the novel, while he survives the movie; Carl Jenkins is also not a psychic in the original story. In fact, the possible existence of psychic abilities was left vague in the novel; one minor character described as a "sensitive" who can map the Bug tunnels from aboveground, with Rico as narrator speculating on whether his abilities are nothing more than "good hearing". In the film, these abilities are expanded to full-blown telepathic communication between species.
Further, the movie was criticized in that many of the characters are described as just graduating high school, despite the fact that the actors who played them were in their late 20s/early 30s at the time the movie was filmed. The professor and leader of the "Roughnecks" in the novel are combined into one role played by Michael Ironside.
[edit] Militarism vs. satire on militarism
Heinlein's original novel depicted a strong, orderly, nationalistic traditionalist Earth in which conservative family values are touted as nearly universal, crime is rare and punished harshly, and serving a term of civil service is a prerequisite for full citizenship rights. Heinlein paints his version of the Earth government as a "Father Knows Best" state (benevolent dictatorship), which punishes/restricts its "children" harshly when deemed necessary, but only to ostensibly ensure the survival of the species and to make everyone better or happier in the long run. The values of this form of militaristic government are debated throughout the novel, but are consistently portrayed as being widely accepted as necessary by the (massively larger) future world population. The arachnids are presented as the prototypical monsters, mindlessly violent and hideous creatures inspiring nothing but fear and loathing in humans. It is deliberately not stated whether the bugs or the humans initiated the war, with the unspoken suggestion being that it is utterly unimportant from Juan Rico's point of view; he and his fellow soldiers are neither politicians nor sadists, merely honor-bound and dedicated professionals whose duty is to kill bugs. While the greater socio-political aims of the war are discussed to some extent, no effort is made to attempt to humanize the bugs or even detail their appearances beyond fragmentary descriptions (generally delivered shortly before they are killed by the protagonist).
The film, by contrast, depicts a future state that is much less glorious in its tone; Verhoeven's Earth is dystopic and militaristic in nature, as well as uncompromisingly aggressive in its actions toward a race of arachnids that inhabits a distant planetary system. The military training is cruel: officers purposely wound recruits, and flogging is a mode of punishment, which (however) is mitigated by the fact that existing technology can heal such wounds immediately. The movie highlights this further by using weaponry (and tactics) that, considering it is the 23rd century, can only be seen as totally inadequate even by current standards — the assault rifles of the Mobile Infantry force them into man-to-man fights with the bugs, the latter using their animalistic weapons like teeth and claws, as well as simple head-en-masse infantry charges, which are reminiscent of World War I, stressing the point that Earth society has considerably devalued their soldiers' lives in the pursuit of their goals. Aside from their "nuke" launchers, the MI appear to possess no heavy weaponry, and are also shown to operate unreliable communications equipment. Combined arms tactics seem to be a lost art. And, as both forces are slaughtered in high numbers, they are being photographed by embedded television crews for the benefit of viewers at home (further illustrating the theatrical nature of the war). Also, as Verhoeven mentions in the DVD commentary, the humans are the aggressors and the bugs the victims: when the bugs bomb Buenos Aires, they are not attacking the human race but reacting to human colonists encroaching on bug planets.
[edit] Stylistic features
These include:
- Verhoeven's trademark use of simulated media coverage of the film's events [10].
- The symbols of the Federation and some of the clothing styles are greatly modeled on the Nazis' clothing styles (e.g., windbreaker, suits, cap, the military intelligence officer's uniforms bear a striking similarity to SS uniforms).
[edit] Spinoffs
[edit] Games
In 1997, Avalon Hill released Starship Troopers: Prepare For Battle!, a boardgame based on the film version rather than Heinlein's book. Its beer and pretzel gameplay focused on limited skirmishes rather than larger battles. The "Skinnies" do not appear, nor is there a political element.[1]
Avalon Hill released a game called Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers in 1976.
In 2000, a real-time tactics video game titled Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy was released. This game also incorporated the powered suits in Heinlein's novel into the Verhoeven version of the Mobile Infantry. It was developed by Australian software company Blue Tongue Entertainment. The game is currently considered abandonware and as such can be found at numerous abandonware sites.
A first-person shooter game also titled Starship Troopers was released 15 November 2005. This version was developed by Strangelite Studios and published by Empire Interactive. Set five years after the events of the movie, the game also featured Casper van Dien voicing the in-game version of Johnny Rico.
In addition, Sega Pinball released a pinball machine based on this movie. [2]
[edit] Comic books
The movie was released simultaneously with a graphic novelization, which retold events from the movie. There were also additional series that were released based in the Verhoeven universe, though not directly related to the movie. Further series were published by Dark Horse Comics and Markosia.
[edit] Sequels
The film was followed by the CGI animated television series Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, which is loosely set inside the events of the movie just after Rico and Diz join the Roughnecks but before Rico gets promoted (though the events and tone of the show differ from those of the film), along with a direct-to-video sequel Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation in 2004. The sequel was not as popular as the first, mostly due to its low budget and the fact it was more in the horror genre than the sci-fi/action original.
In May 2006, MovieHole.net reported that Ed Neumeier returned to write the script for a second sequel, Starship Troopers 3, and also stated that original cast members would be returning, including Casper Van Dien.[3] Van Dien had this to say on the script: "The script is along the same line as the first. "[4]
It had been announced that Starship Troopers 3: Marauder was going to start filming in South Africa in March 2007 before being pushed back to May 2007.[citation needed]
In February 2008, the trailer appeared online on YouTube, StarshipTroopers3.com and on the official website.
[edit] Costumes
- The weapons and combat uniforms of the Troopers are heavily influenced by another Paul Verhoeven film, Total Recall, in which both Michael Ironside and Marshall Bell starred.[citation needed]
- Much of the non-combat military dress seen in the film appears to be adapted from the designs of World War II German Army uniforms and East German uniforms, most prominently amongst the fleet personnel (like the character Ibanez) and the intelligence officers (like the character Carl). The use of the same grey color scheme, seen in almost all the uniforms, is also prominent.
- The Troopers' combat uniforms (shown in the movie poster above) were later reused on the Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy series for military personnel aboard the colony ship Terra Venture. The uniforms were also repainted and reused in episodes of the TV series Firefly as Alliance soldiers' uniforms. The helmets were repainted again and used by the SWAT team at the end of the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. The uniforms, along with footage from numerous sci-fi films including Starship Troopers itself, were used in the sci-fi movie Impostor, starring Gary Sinise, and the live action Gundam film G-Saviour.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Starship Troopers: Prepare For Battle!. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/. Retrieved on December 3, 2006.
- ^ Internet Pinball Machine Database: Sega 'Starship Troopers'. Internet Pinball Machine Database. Retrieved on August 30, 2007.
- ^ Morris, Clint. Sony Debugs Starship Troopers. http://www.moviehole.net/. Retrieved on February 19, 2007.
- ^ http://caspervandien.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=248&highlight=starship+troopers
[edit] External links
- Whiskey Outpost - Starship Troopers Fangroup homepage
- Starship Troopers at the Internet Movie Database
- Starship Troopers at Rotten Tomatoes
- Starship Troopers Audio Soundboard
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