I nominated Starship Troopers in a Sci Fi Hof years ago here at MoFo. This is what I wrote for my HoF review, make of it what you will...
Starship Troopers works on 3 levels, at least according to me, others will see this differently.
On a basic level it's one helluva action packed, over the top, rock-em-sock-em movie. I mean the carnage and the firepower are insane!
On another level it blatantly mocks super patriotic, militaristic types with a Nazi like send up, complete with SS and Gestapo style uniforms and state sponsored propaganda clips from the Federal Network.
On a third level the film is like a litmus test. It feeds us images and actions that intellectually we know are wrong. But because there's no movie cues like: sinister music or scenes where actors react with horror to the wrong doings...we accept that what we're seeing is the truth... which is: the good guys are fighting the evil bugs to save Earth...and that's the lie.
The entire film is a propaganda tool, much like some of the films Nazi Germany made. All of the information that we know about the enemy is told to us by the Federal Network news clips. We see attractive young people going off to war heroically after Earth has been attacked by 'bug meteors'. But it's the bugs who are the victims. The film gives a couple strong clues to that fact. The films says it was the Mormon colonist who invaded the bugs territory. In one Federal Network news clip the only dissenting voice is heard when the reporter says, "some say the bugs were provoked by the human's intrusion into their natural habitat. That a live let live policy is preferable to war with the bugs."
It's in this video clip below, notice there's an announcement that says "we now break net and take you live to Battle station Ticonderoga"...That's important as it's a live feed from an reporter who gives us the information. It's not part of the Federal Network's propaganda information system. This gives us access to the only dissenting view on the war.
At the end of the film we see the smart bug is caught and taken to a laboratory, where it's being tortured by sticking a metal probe into it's head. It's screaming in pain and no one cares. Torturing prisoners is wrong. Yet there's no sinister music, none of the character looks on in horror as the prisoner is tortured, the film tells us 'it's OK to torture your enemy' and we buy it.
The whole asteroid strike on Argentinian is a false flag. It's used as a prelude to war with the goal being eradicating the bugs from the galaxy, so humans can colonize. The bugs can't send asteroids to attack Earth, they're on the other side of the galaxy! It would take 10,000 of years for an asteroid to reach Earth. The bugs have no technology, they can't possible see Earth from where they are, they can't even aim. The bug plasma is nothing more than their way of mating.
The film tells us one thing through the power of propaganda and then challenges us to see the truth.
Starship Troopers works on 3 levels, at least according to me, others will see this differently.
On a basic level it's one helluva action packed, over the top, rock-em-sock-em movie. I mean the carnage and the firepower are insane!
On another level it blatantly mocks super patriotic, militaristic types with a Nazi like send up, complete with SS and Gestapo style uniforms and state sponsored propaganda clips from the Federal Network.
On a third level the film is like a litmus test. It feeds us images and actions that intellectually we know are wrong. But because there's no movie cues like: sinister music or scenes where actors react with horror to the wrong doings...we accept that what we're seeing is the truth... which is: the good guys are fighting the evil bugs to save Earth...and that's the lie.
The entire film is a propaganda tool, much like some of the films Nazi Germany made. All of the information that we know about the enemy is told to us by the Federal Network news clips. We see attractive young people going off to war heroically after Earth has been attacked by 'bug meteors'. But it's the bugs who are the victims. The film gives a couple strong clues to that fact. The films says it was the Mormon colonist who invaded the bugs territory. In one Federal Network news clip the only dissenting voice is heard when the reporter says, "some say the bugs were provoked by the human's intrusion into their natural habitat. That a live let live policy is preferable to war with the bugs."
It's in this video clip below, notice there's an announcement that says "we now break net and take you live to Battle station Ticonderoga"...That's important as it's a live feed from an reporter who gives us the information. It's not part of the Federal Network's propaganda information system. This gives us access to the only dissenting view on the war.
At the end of the film we see the smart bug is caught and taken to a laboratory, where it's being tortured by sticking a metal probe into it's head. It's screaming in pain and no one cares. Torturing prisoners is wrong. Yet there's no sinister music, none of the character looks on in horror as the prisoner is tortured, the film tells us 'it's OK to torture your enemy' and we buy it.
The whole asteroid strike on Argentinian is a false flag. It's used as a prelude to war with the goal being eradicating the bugs from the galaxy, so humans can colonize. The bugs can't send asteroids to attack Earth, they're on the other side of the galaxy! It would take 10,000 of years for an asteroid to reach Earth. The bugs have no technology, they can't possible see Earth from where they are, they can't even aim. The bug plasma is nothing more than their way of mating.
The film tells us one thing through the power of propaganda and then challenges us to see the truth.