When it was first released back in 1997, Starship Troopers was heavily criticized for endorsing fascism and violence. Late film critic Roger Ebert noted that it often takes two of three of the troopers to kill an Arachnids with conventional gunfire. He was also a reader of the source material novel by the same name written by Robert A. Heinlein.
Ebert also said the Arachnids are a “pop-up enemies in a space war.” And that’s what a lot of people misunderstood when the movie was released, dismissing it as another sci-fi/action flick. Even Ebert gave it just a two-star negative review. When the movie made it to the home-video market and showings on cable TV, people could view it more in private. Here’s where it became clear this was actually more than your standard popcorn fare.
However, lately, several fan theories have brought up more insightful observations. For instance, that the World Federation blamed the asteroid’s destruction on Buenos Aires on the Arachnids. A week ago, I noted in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens that Starkiller Base defies many laws of physics in how a radiation pulse laser can be blasted across the universe. It’s reported that the Arachnids home planet of Klendathu is reportedly on the edge of Milky Way Galaxy.
Traveling the speed of light means it would take one year to travel the distance of about 5.88 trillion miles. Now, if Klendathu used a Phasma Bug that could fire a phasma burst that would knock an asteroid on a trajectory away from the planet. It would have to travel at a very huge speed and not come into contact with any other objects in space.
Now, the Arachnids seem to be a primitive species. Even with a brain, it couldn’t somehow determine the space trajectory for a Phasma Bug to let out a phasma burst to shoot into the space to hit an asteroid of the appropriate size to do any major damage. And that asteroid would have to travel at a huge speed (faster than the speed of light) about 50,000 light-years to Earth.
It’s totally impossible for an advanced society to do this. Even NASA which has some of the smartest minds in math and science say that interstellar travel in the current form would take hundreds of light-years. Now the movie does have the ships traveling at warp speed but even that takes time. It’s not an instant jump across the galaxy.
Then, you have the issue when the Athena under the piloting of Carmen Ibinez (Denise Richards) nearly collides with the asteroid. It knocks out the communication satellite thanks to some maneuvering by Carmen. This would cause the asteroid to go off its trajectory just a tad which in space terms means it might have missed Earth completely. Remember, it would have to be traveling at a huge speed yet the Athena is able to divert and miss it.
Now, the World Federation, which is supposedly the main political power on Earth is having to play damage control when the asteroid destroyed Buenos Aires. The Athena was unable to make contact with their communication systems destroyed. I find it highly unlikely the Athena couldn’t have gone into warp drive to contact another ship.
But it wasn’t possible for the Athena‘s Captain Deladier (Brenda Strong) to know the asteroid was going to hit the Earth. It’s assumed the asteroid was from the Klendathu system but it could’ve been a rogue asteroid. Yet people on Earth have to deal with the fact that a young officer and a woman captain might have inadvertently caused the mass destruction of a major city.
So, they just say it’s the Arachnids. Also, all through the movie, we learn how they’re able to spread propaganda through the news media. A news report indicates that a killer was arrested, tried and convicted then set to death by execution all in the same day. So, fair justice isn’t a thing people believe in.
In the first part of the movie, the schools are encouraging the behavior in the students to enlist and become a Citizen. The social studies teacher Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironside) is gearing the students more toward the idea that democracy doesn’t work. Even though it seems they live a nice life, the father of the protagonist Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) says he’d take 10 lashes in the public square than his son to join the United Citizen Federation.
It’s pretty much obvious this way of thinking after generations has become commonplace that people like Johnny, Carmen and their fellow students, Dizzy Flores (Dina Myers) and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris), are so used to it they don’t see any need to change. Besides, it appears Johnny and Carl, at least, live a life of luxury. Even though he failed his math exam badly, Johnny can still get into Harvard.
At school, the biology teacher (Rue McClanahan) makes the students dissect and examine the the huge bugs, which resemble Chariot Bugs, from Klendathu. This is an attempt to make the students see the Arachnids as disposable pests. Just like the teacher Kantorek in All Quiet on the Western Front, the goal is to indoctrinate young minds. And all the four students end up signing up to a Citizen.
But during the boot camp scenes, there are signs the Arachnids are totally useless as a major enemy. When the infantryman Ace Levy (Jake Busey) questions why they should learn how to properly throw knives at their enemies, their drill sergeant, Zim (Clancy Brown) throws a knife at his hand impaling it. Zim later tells the others that their enemies can’t detonate a bomb if their hands are disabled.
Yet not once do we see the Arachnids even using bombs.
During a training exercise, the young infantry soldiers fire on green human-like targets. Wouldn’t the purpose be to train the soldiers to battle Arachnids. It’s obvious they’re ill-equipped and ill-trained to battle the Arachnids. If the whole purpose was to defeat an enemy, it would be simpler to send a firebombing of Klendathu.
But their goal isn’t to defeat an imposing enemy, it’s to create genocide and colonize Klendathu and other planets where Arachnids live. Naturally, Mormons who set up a colony are going to be met with violent resistance. It’s the Citizens who are invading Klendathu and the Arachnids are fighting back. The machine-gun fire is difficult to take down many of the creatures, unless there’s a lot of it.
And the only way to get a lot of gunfire is to have a lot of Citizens. When Johnny uses his battleground commission authority to order a nuclear attack, it is overridden by his superiors. The World Federation needs to take over the planet. That’s why the movie ends with the implications that the fighting isn’t done which just the capture of a brain.
The movie that was dismissed as a dumb war movie is actually a war movie about dumb people. Going back to the point about indoctrinating children, a news reel is shown of young children killing small bugs as an adult (possibly a teacher) watches and gleefully laughs. The news seems to be a precursor to what Fox News and other conservative news channels have become. Whenever an older woman tries to argue there could be smart Arachnids, like a brain, a younger man yells at her, shouting how stupid she could be.
Sound familiar?
Also, the TV war correspondent (Greg Travis) who is seen first near a battlefront is obviously working for the Federation. At first, he seems like a simple unfortunate war correspondent. Later in the movie, where as most of the first half is a flashback to when the teens were younger and going through their training, the correspondent is interviewing Citizens. He talks about how there were allegations the Arachnids are innocent. Johnny hears this and says he was from Buenos Aires and “I say kill ’em all!”
The correspondent then looks at the camera as Johnny and the rest walk away all pumped up. The look he gives the camera is in agreement as if he’s meant to say, “That’s all that needs to be said.”
Even though he was born in Amsterdam, director Paul Verhoeven was a young child living in The Hague in the Netherlands during World War II. It was next to a German military base and he and his family were in constant danger and his parents nearly died following a bombing nearby. Some people questioned why a director who grew up during a Fascist regime occupation would make a movie like this.
But it’s actually a satire of the entire military industrial complex. Children of all ages and all countries are encourage to support the military. But it’s actually the war mongers who get the best benefits. All those big ships, weapons and uniforms have to come from somewhere. People high up are profiting. I wouldn’t even doubt a deleted scene in which Johnny’s father actually profits from this, yet he doesn’t want his son to join. He doesn’t mind other sons dying and being maimed, though
It seems funny that the World Federation has no one else to fight. So rather than live in peace and harmony, they have to have a reason to keep the money flowing. And the only way to do that is to provoke those living on other planets. A scene where Carl demonstrates how to shoot an Arachnid known as a Warrior, the Federation Armed Services hasn’t trained them how to fight their enemies.
The Arachnids were totally innocent. And the whole time, Verhoeven and the rest of the cast and production tricked us into following the bad guys.
Do you get me? Please comment.
Zane Says 