Starship Troopers is a 1997 science-fiction action film from RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven, at least that is how it would appear on the surface. The story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry, a futuristic military unit in a war with an alien force known as the Arachnids and follows Rico’s career from recruit, to finally officer.
Yet just like RoboCop, which was released a decade prior, Starship Troopers is actually a biting political satire about militarism, automatism, xenophobia, and colonialism all in the guise of a traditional late 90s action movie. Starship Trooper takes the RoboCop satire one step forward and creates a meta film that would exist as a piece of propaganda in the universe of Starship Troopers. 25 years before Pixar would get meta with Lightyear as the movie Andy would have seen in Toy Story, Verhoeven was getting meta without saying it outright.
The result is a film that received mixed reactions at the time of its release but has grown in public reception in the years since and has become a highly regarded piece of science fiction as well as satire. It has been cited by filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, James Wan, David Lowery, Edgar Wright, and many more as one of the best films of the 1990s. Despite being more than two decades old, Starship Troopers still stands out as one of the best satires ever made.
Book Origins of Starship Troopers
TriStar Pictures
Starship Troopers is an adaptation of the book of the same name written by Robert A. Heinlein in 1959. A standard pulp science fiction story, the novel is famous for helping popularize the concept of the space marine, one that would be explored in other media like Aliens, Avatar, and Halo. The original novel has been examined for its ideological views, particularly its view of war and conflict as not only necessary but vital. It is a science fiction war adventure where it is inherently cool and can be appealing to young readers.
When it came time to adapt the movie, director Paul Verhoeven stopped reading the book after two chapters, saying the story was too right-wing. Verhoeven himself grew up in German-occupied Netherlands during World War 2 and decided to use the story’s basic plot but deconstruct the material and make it a satire of militarization and mock concepts of fascism. This meant that Starship Troopers the movie was making fun of the very concept Starship Troopers the book held so sincerely.
Starship Troopers Knowingly Is A Piece of Propaganda That Exist In The Universe of the Film
From the get-go, the overriding creative intent of the filmmaking team behind Starship Troopers is to create the movie with the look and feel of a piece of propaganda. The entire production is designed to look like a recruitment tool that would exist within the world of Starship Troopers. To do this, the filmmakers make many deliberate illusions of the fascist iconography of Nazi filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl, most notably Triumph of the Will.
The costumes worn by the Mobile Infantry are designed to specifically mirror Nazi uniforms. The movie’s central conflict is not resolved through a peaceful understanding the villains are sentient, but the military might cheer at the idea that their enemy is afraid of them. The movie opens and ends with the in-universe news show FedNet encouraging the viewers to join the fight, showcasing the entire story takes place within the universe as a sort of recruitment tool.
Yet despite that, Verhoeven is able to sneak in subtle jokes the audience is meant to laugh at to show the absurdity of this universe, from the desk clerk telling Rico the front line infantry made him the man he is today only to reveal he has no legs and is missing an arm, to the fact that a high school teacher is encouraging the students that violence is the only acceptable answer which is a contrast to the teaching of a normal high school. Despite making a meta-textual in-universe piece of propaganda, Verhoeven also sprinkles in enough winks for the audience to know none of this is meant to be taken seriously.
The Casting Fits The Satire
Sony Pictures
One of the best encapsulations of Starship Troopers as a satire is the movie’s cast. Much criticism was made at the time of Starship Troopers’ release due to what many considered a limited acting range of stars Casper Van Dien and Denise Richards. However, this is part of the design, as the filmmakers have cast the type of traditionally beautiful young people that a fascist state would put in their propaganda to sell their ideology to a young audience. Even down to the fact that the movie takes place in Buenos Aires, all the central cast are Caucasian stars looking more like models than actual soldiers.
Van Dien’s casting is a particular stroke of genius, as the film makes an obvious note that despite not having good grades he is the perfect soldier and therefore the perfect citizen. He is a blunt instrument who gives his life to a military career, out of blind loyalty to the federation that he has been given all his life being taught democracy was bad and this war is the only true determination of worth.
The Satire Worked So Well Audiences Didn’t Get It
Starship Troopers’ satire was so precise that despite being over the top, at the time of its release was a little subtle for some viewers who at best saw it as just another big sci-fi blockbuster with nothing on its mind or worse, took the ideas said in the movie to heart as actually talking points instead of jokes mocking the very idea of service guarantee citizenship. Despite the movie clearly making a mockery of fascist ideas (the movie opens with the civics teacher railing about the dangers of democracy) many interpreted the film as a pro-fascist movie. It was a satire that went over many people’s heads, but that might mean the filmmakers did the job too well: military propaganda is meant to go over the heads of the viewers as to make them not think they are being tailored, so they replicated the work so effectively that many audiences just saw a fun action film with great action.
However, as time has moved on, more people have been able to see the creative intent of the film. Some of it might have been timing. When Starship Troopers was released in 1997,tThe Cold War had been over for six years and the United States, the main target audience for Starship Troopers, was not involved in any major conflict. It was a time of peace and prosperity. Yet since the September 11th terrorist attacks, the War in Afghanistan, a growing political divide, the rise of politically slanted news organizations spouting concepts like ‘fake news’, and a rise in fascism and nationalism across the globe, the world has sadly caught up with Starship Troopers to where it is now more relevant.
