The events of StarShip Troopers (1997), loosely based on the novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein, take place in the 23rd century, as humankind has mastered interstellar travel and is pushing outward into the galaxy to colonize other worlds. We learn early on that history has judged democracy and found it wanting as Earth, and presumably the rest of the human inhabited planets, are united in a Federation ruled by a military junta. Only citizens may vote and citizenship may only be obtained by serving in the Federation armed forces for a "term of not less than two years and as long as may required by the needs of the Federation.". It's a future version of the "stop-loss" policy.

Much of this information is relayed by Mr.Rasczak (Michael Ironside), who is our hero Johnny Rico's ( Casper Van Dien) high school civics teacher. He also expounds on the virtues of violence,to wit: that violence has solved more problems than any other method throughout history. I've heard that one before and all too recently. I thought I had accidentally switched on the FAUX NEWS CHANNEL during Bill O'Hannitys All Spin Zone. Turns out director Paul Verhoeven is just eerily prescient, in more ways than one.

Johnny Rico is the BMOC at his high school in Buenos Aries. He's the star player on the football team and he dates the hottest girl in school, Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) but in keeping with the jock stereotype, he's not the brightest bulb on the tree. Carmen on the other hand is a brilliant and ambitious young woman who wants to attend the Fleet Academy and become a starship pilot. Johnny's circle is completed by best friend and mind-reader Carl (Neil Patrick Harris) and Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), the quarterback of the football team who is also carrying a brightly burning torch for one Johnny Rico. Dizzy is a girl, by the way. Although the Federation government has many fascistic elements, the future seems to be race and gender neutral. Men and women even shower together. Non-citizens also seem to be treated well, as Johnny's parents are very wealthy. It is a bit odd that, although the move is set in Buenos Aries initially, almost everyone is white. However I believe that was deliberate on the filmmakers part, something I'll elaborate on further later on.

Johnny is deeply in love with Carmen and so he decides to follow her into the military, against the wishes of his parents. Not being to bright, he draws duty in Mobile Infantry, while Carmen gets her wish to go to flight school. Carl has also joined up, and at least in part because of his psychic abilities, is fast-tracked into Military Intelligence. Johnny heads off to boot camp where,surprise surprise, we discover Dizzy Flores has also joined the Mobile Infantry. At first Johnny is angry with her believing that she had joined up just to be with him. (Seems like projection to me.) They make peace after Dizzy helps him win a capture-the-flag competition and he is made squad leader.

Boot camp in the future isn't for sissies. Medical science has advanced to the point where almost any injury can be treated and the drill instructors show no mercy to their recruits, breaking arms and knifing people at the drop of a hat.

Johnny views the training in general as a competition that he wants to win, but he isn't taking it as seriously as he should be. This comes back to haunt him when member of his squad buys it during a live fire exercise due to Johnny's competitiveness. He is stripped of his squad leadership and given ten lashes publicly as a disciplinary action. After taking his punishment Johnny makes the decision to return to civilian life, to "take a walk down washout lane." as they say in the movie. He realizes that he joined for the wrong reasons: to be with Carmen. Sadly, prior to this Carmen had dumped him because she wanted to "go career" and viewed dumb ole Johnny as a drag on that ambition. The dumping was telegraphed from the beginning of the film, so it was no surprise.

Johnny calls home to tell his parents the news and of course they are overjoyed. The signal gets washed out while they are talking,supposedly due to severe weather. Turns out that Buenos Aries had gotten wiped off the map by a meteor, coincidentally just as our hero was making the call home.

The government claims, without providing any evidence, that this "weapon of mass destruction" was an attack by an alien race of arachnids, supposedly in response to human incursion into their planetary system. Johnny quickly reconsiders quitting and rejoins his squad, because we all know that revenge is a much better reason to join the military than love. Oh, the drama.

A plan is mounted to attack the bug home planet, known as Klendathu. Cocky and confident of a cakewalk victory, the humans surround the planet with their huge spaceships and begin to drop troops to the surface in a scene strangely reminiscent of Aliens. Military Intelligence has told the troops that they can expect light resistance. Sadly it appears that there was an, uh, "intelligence failure" and the human forces sustain devastating losses, 100,000 in the first hour and 80% of their troop capability overall.

The humans are puzzled by the insects seemingly intelligent actions. Eventually they figure out that there are "brain bugs" that think and direct the other bugs as a collective. After yet more heinous loss of life a brain bug is captured and the movie ends with the war raging on while humans try to figure out how the brain bug thinks.

Starship Troopers is a bit misunderstood, I think. Beneath its slick shiny candy-coated surface there lies a pretty wicked political satire. In essence it is an indictment of fascism and militarism. The uniforms of the officers in the Federation deliberately resemble Nazi SS uniforms. The population appears to be mostly white, and all exceptionally attractive. Advertisements on television glorify military service, showing large groups of soldiers lined up with weapons ala the Third Reich. After the war against the bugs is begun, we see a commercial that shows young kids "doing their part" for the war. How? By gleefully smushing cockroaches underfoot while their over-medicated mother cheers them on and laughs hysterically. Other advertisements in the film take a similar vein. The population is easily riled up to go to war, although as I mentioned earlier, no evidence was produced to support the claim that the meteor was sent by the bugs. The idea that it might have been sent in retaliation for human incursion into bug territory is dismissed. The Ira-,er I mean, the bugs are viewed as inferior, so they don't deserve their planets. Nope. Gotta be wiped out.

People have misinterpreted the imagery and tone in this movie as pro-fascist. Director Paul Verhoeven is Dutch and lived through German occupation of his country, albeit at very young age. I think it is safe to say that the film does not in any way endorse fascism. It satirizes it most effectively and in this regard resembles Verhoevens other films Robocop and Total Recall, which were also indictments of militarism and fascism wrapped in a action-spectacular covering. The use of fake future advertisements is also a Verhoeven trademark, appearing in all three movies.

As a straight action flick, Starship Troopers is pretty good. It moves along at a fast pace, quick enough for you to not have that much time to puzzle over its flaws. But I'll point out some of them,just for fun. For one thing, the Mobile Infantry, despite all their training, just seem to run around willy-nilly firing at anything that moves. There is no attempt to use any kind of group strategy or tactics. Their armor is also nearly non-existent and despite being able to travel across galaxies, humans still use conventional weapons. As long as we're on things that don't make any sense, how about that George Bush?

No really, what I can't figure out is why these guys don't seem to have tanks or some kind of fighting vehicle.I mean, what kind of leader would send their troops into battle without proper armor? Only once in the movie is an air-strike called in, which would seem like a much easier way of killing the bugs than throwing wave after human wave at them. But I guess you go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had.

As political satire, it's pretty spot-on. There are a lot of parallels to the situation we currently find ourselves in, entangled abroad in a situation that we were lied into and that we cannot extract ourselves from, while on the home front the fascists that seized power in 2000 are merrily gutting the Constitution, stacking the courts with pro-business religious zealots and loading up their pockets with as much taxpayer loot as they can. Hey, we've even got the propaganda, thanks to the Bush administration paying off journalists to write favorable stories about their sh*tty ideas. Then again, if the Republican Party were ever truly honest about its intentions when in power, they would never win another election and they know it, which is why they cheat. Goebbels we hardly knew ye...but ya ain't had nothing on Karl Rove.

I really like Starship Troopers. It is a fun movie, and you don't have to think too hard if you don't want too, just sit back and enjoy the ride. The action is fast-paced and the CGI holds up well a decade later, for the most part. The plot is scanty but serves its purpose. The script is no great shakes, but it isn't outright awful. The characters are intended to be caricatures anyway, and the script works on that level. The acting is okay. Van Dien has limited range as an actor, but he sure looks pretty. Same with Denise Richards, who is supposed to be the uber-babe in the movie. Dina Meyers is the only one who really seems to have any acting chops, and man is she fit! I mean, dam, where do I get my tickets to the gun show,ya know what I'm saying? She is much more attractive to me than the very plastic looking Denise Richards. Sorry Barbie, I like REAL women.

Three and a half stars, rounded up to four.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older