The Future is Murder (Starship Troopers (DVD))

Member Name: Hunting_Bears

Product:	Starship Troopers (DVD)
Date:	25/06/03 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great script, genius director

Disadvantages: none

I think Paul Verhoeven is a cinematic genius. That may sound shocking to some readers but hear me out. This insane Dutchman has had to distinctive periods in his work: 'The Dutch period' and the 'American period'. In both he has courted controversy with his garish and outlandish style, a hyper-real world were sex and death are intertwined, working in such film genres as the war film, erotic film noir, sci-fi and historical epic, Verhoeven manages not only to usually disgust the audience but also engage them.

Paul Verhoeven was born in 1939 in Holland. After studying for a PhD in mathematics he started to make films for the Royal Navy. Holland until that time had never really had a film industry so by the time Verhoeven began he really was THE FILM INDUSTRY. Verhoeven scored a massive international hit with 'Turkish Delight' and then throughout the seventies he made television and film. The director made such films as 'Spetters', 'Soldiers of Orange' and 'Katie Tippel'. 'The Fourth Man' a precursor to 'Basic Instinct' was his last Dutch film in 1984. Hollywood beckoned and Verhoeven was tired with Holland's reluctant financing strategy in relation to film production. In 1987 Holland lost its greatest director to The United States of America. Now you may think all this is just biographical filler but you are dead wrong. The impact American culture had on this man can be seen in every film he has directed since. 'Starship Troopers' is Verhoeven's American masterpiece. It is my belief that Verhoeven is a visionary director and a brilliant satirist on contemporary American culture.

'Starship Troopers' is the story of four innocent high school kids; Johnny Rico, Dizz, Carl and Carmen leaving school and joining the army. They split off into various departments, Rico and Dizz join the mobile infantry, Carl goes to Intelligence and Carmen jo

ins the airforce. After their hometown of Bueno Aires is destroyed by a meteor sent by the Arachnids an interstellar war breaks out changing their lives beyond all imagining.

When this film was released in 1997 critics were up in arms calling Verhoeven a fascist. The whole point of the film is that war makes everybody a fascist. This is stated clearly in Verhoeven's excellent audio commentary on the DVD. The critics were uncomfortable with this approach but the whole film is bathed in military propaganda (the director took inspiration from WW2 American and Nazi documentaries). He also seems to be saying that America is fast becoming a fascist state in which the youths are constantly pelted with ideologies linked to race, social status and power.

The greatest thing about 'Starship Troopers' is how it represents blind faith in government and how it basically brainwashes the population in the classroom. The film is full of slogans and dialogue such as 'the supremacy of the human race', 'stamp the bugs out' and 'they're afraid'. It maybe set in the future and in space but it draws uncomfortable parallels with recent events such as Afghanistan and Iraq in which the sheer military force of America travels around and sets out to destroy 'others'. 'Starship Troopers' a space soap opera is actually a brilliant political allegory.

The film was based on a book from the 1950's and scripted by 'Robocop' writer Ed Neumier (did you know Robocop is a re-working of Jesus Christ's life story and also a satire on the Los Angeles police department?). The basic narrative of the plot is not important in fact it is almost 'Full Metal Jacket' in space. What Verhoeven and Neumier do is build up themes not only about politics but about the dehumanizing effect of the Armed Forces. When we first meet the four central characters they are happy go lucky kids an
d by the end they are hardened war vets who have been to hell and back.

The acting in 'Starship Troopers' is so beyond bad it is transcendent I almost feel like Paul Verhoeven is taking the piss out of the entire film. Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards and Dina Meyer are straight from Blandsville, USA and seem to have exstensive training in the world of soap opera. This is exactly what the film needed. The rest of the cast is filled with B movie actors such as Jake Busey, Clancy Brown, the guy who played Doogie Howser and Michael Ironside as a gruff one-armed War veteran and neo-fascist schoolteacher.

The special effects are incredible and still hold up seven years on. The dialogue is first- rate cheese for example 'Everybody fights, nobody backs down and if you let me down I'll kill you myself'.

The actor's appearance is all eye candy Casper Van Dien is so Aryan that the director's themes are apparent in the face of one blonde-haired blue-eyed actor with a square face. Denise Richards is gorgeous but she couldn't act her way out of a horrendous regional theatre production.

The cinematography by long time collaborator Jost Vacano is a superb mixture of steely grey and bright pronounced colours, Vacano is truly a master of light.

If you buy this film (and you should) allow yourself to revel in its delibarate cheesiness and its allegorical message. A film for cineastes and multiplex audiences, now that's entertainment!


FILM INFORMATION

director: Paul Verhoeven
writer: Ed Neumier
Cinematographer: Jost Vacano
Cast: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Jake Busey, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside


Running Time: 2hrs 4mins

DVD extras

Audio Commentary (Verhoeven's commentary's are always a joy because the guy is barking mad)

Screen Test (discover the cheese and why Verhoeven cast s
uch dead
weight actors as Van Dien and Richards in these awful tests)

Deleted Scenes (not bad but not great)

Scene Development (interesting for tech-heads and cineastes)

Featurette (so-so featurette on a masterpiece film, one day there should be a real documentary on this film)

Trailer (does anybody actually watch these?)

Scene Selection (as standard)

Subtitles (in many languages)

1:85:1 widescreen format

The transfer is pristine and it makes this film even more enjoyable and the sound rocks too!

Hope you enjoyed my opinion and now go buy the film and repeat this mantra

'Paul Verhoeven is a genius'.

Summary: