⛥𝕬𝖒𝖕𝖍𝖔𝖇𝖊𝖙⛦

I was motivated to watch this movie because the recent success of Helldivers 2, and the way it relitigated the discourse around this film. I'm well aware of the thing everyone wants to say about this film, but instead of talking about people talking about the movie, I wanted to watch it again and make my own assessment.

This movie was an observation of the powderkeg of American fascism, one that was gradually built up over it's history, accelerated rapidly after World War II, became particularly noticeable in moments like Vietnam and the Gulf War, and would inevitably go off a few years later with "the war on terror".

Like other Paul Verhoeven films, it is not subtle. It becomes especially egregious during the "TV" segments, similar in nature to Robocop's. But what is also an important part is the contrast between what the public understands and the reality of what comes.

The main plot of the film is centered around Johnny Rico joining the military and his rise into "heroism" alongside his best friends Carl Jenkins and Isabelle Flores. Initially I was very dismissive of it. It just seemed like some military-themed teen drama. But as the film developed, it became clear: it was to establish that these soldiers who are sent out to fight are in fact just teenagers, having just barely passed the threshold that made it legal for them to leave their home and die in the name of colonialism. That's why the opening segment of the film, the "I'm doing my part" recruitment ad features an actual child among the other soldiers.

I think between the teen drama and the action sequences, it is very easy to lose sight of the core of this film's message, particularly if you are a teenager or 20-something in 1997 who's too fixated on being entertained by gunfire and nudity to bother with a close read.

The slow buildup becomes more clear when we see Neil Patrick Harris' (a former teen actor) character having become what the UCF considers its apex military member, an intelligence officer quite literally dressed up like an SS officer, seeing the front lines as simply a numbers game. Rico too has become the apex example of frontline infantry, fully willing to lead the charge into the meat grinder of war.

An important theme of this film is fear. Specifically that fear is a humanizing element, the thing that keeps people alive and from going off to die. The UCF teaches people that fear is shameful and to do away with it. They trained their soldiers to fight humans, which causes the initial invasion of Klandathu to be a disaster, as they don't know how to fight bugs. And the turning point at the climax of the film is realizing that the bugs also are capable of fear, which makes them more human, which makes them easier to kill. As a broader political philosophy I have mixed feelings on this, but for the particular message at the particular point in history, I think it definitely gets it's point across.

If I were to write my own sort of sci-fi military story, I would probably lean a bit harder into the fact that these are teenagers being thrust into combat by having them act a bit more like actual teens rather than television teens, but I think in other areas the satire gets its point across excellently. The "brain bug" getting captured and tortured while the fascists cheer victoriously with the parting words of "they'll never stop fighting" really hits home just how fucked the situation is. Don't enlist. You will just be hurting innocent people and probably die in the process.

But to get back to my original point, I think Starship Troopers is broadly speaking a very efficient satire and a fairly entertaining film for people who need to see something that validates their antifascist beliefs, but if you wanted to show it to a fascist to tell them they're wrong, it would not work. I think the only way to effectively sell a satire TO a fascist is to tell a story where they look pathetic instead of monstrous. They don't care about being monstrous because being monstrous is their goal. They need to be reminded of reality. Not the worst-case-scenario reality they fantasize about, but the reality they actually live in, where they are sad and pathetic and are making life worse for themselves and those they care about.