If you like war movies that also function as works of science fiction, and are especially pleased when such films also prove thrilling, action-packed, and satirical, then you probably don’t find too many movies that are right up your alley. But at least you’ve got Starship Troopers. That’s one that miraculously feels like all those things all at once, and it’s also a pretty great film at the same time. So, if you’ve already got Netflix, and haven’t seen it yet for whatever reason, watching it should probably be made a priority.
However, if you’re not sold yet, there are some further things that can be said about it, which could help convince you, since this is also a great adaptation, and one of many movies that show how Paul Verhoeven is up there among the boldest and most interesting filmmakers of all time. Few directors had a run of movies throughout the 1990s that proved as wild, bonkers, and exciting as Verhoeven’s, as he went from Total Recall to Basic Instinct to Showgirls and then to Starship Troopers. And it’s Starship Troopers that might well be the best of those ’90s movies he made, since time has been kind to it, and it’s now understood quite a bit better than it was upon release.
What Happens in ‘Starship Troopers’
Look, if you wanted to say that Starship Troopers was about a war being fought in the future that pitted humans against giant aliens that look like bugs, you wouldn’t technically be wrong. Those are the basics, and it’s not a satirical war movie the way Jarhead is, because that war film specifically has no action, and is all about the tedium of war, and a kind of psychological impact/cost of warfare that doesn’t usually get depicted in cinema. Starship Troopers does indeed give you quite a bit of over-the-top action, because Verhoeven is good at helming set pieces. See also RoboCop, which is brutally satirical, cynical, and subversive, but still quite exciting if you want bombastic action in a dystopian setting.
You can enjoy the action and spectacle offered in Starship Troopers, but then also appreciate what it’s going for as far as the message is concerned.
When Verhoeven’s at his best, he’s doing the whole having a cake and eating it at the same time thing. There should be nothing but crumbs on the plate, the way he keeps going to town on that cake, but the cake remains there. He keeps having it. If you can get on the same wavelength, you can enjoy the action and spectacle offered in Starship Troopers, but then also appreciate what it’s going for as far as the message is concerned. Sorry, science fiction movies do have messages, be they political, social, or more personal. Starship Troopers would be a fun blockbuster with B-movie sensibilities if it were just about killing bug aliens, but it’s thankfully quite a bit more than just that.
How ‘Starship Troopers’ Combines the Sci-Fi and War Genres
The main characters in Starship Troopers feel a bit like walking clichés, and the protagonist is even named “Johnny Rico.” He’s played by Casper Van Dien, and is one of a handful of young characters who look like they belong in a teen show set somewhere in California, while the older characters all tend to look like gruff military men, possibly graduates from wherever R. Lee Ermey‘s Gunnery Sergeant L. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket was from. The young enter into a military machine that’s not so different from the ones that churned up and spat out young people in the 20th century, with there being dark humor and horror in the fact that it’s still happening sometime in the 23rd century.
Robert A. Heinlein, who wrote the 1959 book Starship Troopers (1997) adapted, served in the United States Navy (albeit between the two World Wars, from 1929 to 1934), so that might explain why writing science fiction with a military spin was appealing to him. As for Verhoeven, plenty of his movies have been socially or politically conscious (RoboCop being maybe the best known), and he’s also tackled World War II in an unapologetic and very Verhoeven-y way in 1977’s Soldier of Orange, one of his best – and certainly one of his most underrated – movies, so he was a good fit for Starship Troopers… though he did kind of do his own thing with it, to some extent.
‘Starship Troopers’ the Book Versus ‘Starship Troopers’ the Movie
See, Starship Troopers, the book, wasn’t really satirical. And Starship Troopers (the movie) isn’t just satire, but it leans into that a lot more, and probably improves upon the book in that regard. The book can be recognized as a compelling work of mid-20th century science fiction, even if not all will love the message. The movie… okay, sure, the movie’s got some decades to go before it can be said to have truly aged better than the book. But at the moment, the idea of that happening looks promising.
The movie is the one that’s had the most influence on Helldivers, for example, which is a video game that has a similar premise to the book and film, with a good deal of satire about militarism and how propaganda can be used to motivate people to do violent things. Starship Troopers (1997) has it both ways, to some extent, but does spell out its message and intentions by the film’s end. You might still get two hours of bombastic action and entertainment, but then if you engage properly with the ultimate message, you’re left with a lot to grapple with and think about. That does make Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers great science fiction, and more than worthy of the cult classic status it’s attained in more recent years.
