> The film is filled with images that interrogate and contradict the rhetoric
> of militarism/fascism. For example, even though the commanders reassure
> their troops that they will make it out alive if they remember their
> training, it is obvious that once the battle begins their training has ill
> prepared them for what is coming next. Later the grunts realize they were
> being used as bait to test the defenses of the enemy. The ways in which the
> main characters come to accept and internalize a complete devaluation of
> human life is fascinating.
>
> I know that one of Verhoeven's aims in the film was to indict the audience,
> by encouraging us to cheer for the heroes even though we are seeing them
> transformed into fascists. I think this is a bold effort and far more
> interesting than the usual military propaganda we are presented through
> films like Saving Private Ryan.
>
> I think the film deserves a second look.
A brilliant movie. One of my favorites. Tom Wheeler and I were just hanging out watching "America at War" on the FOX News channel and he remarked that Starship Troopers is an even more relevant movie today.
It would be pretty funny if somebody could infiltrate the FOX studios and slip that movie into their live feed. Would the FOX News groupies notice the difference?
<< Chuck0 >>
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INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).