Army...

[Zeb_Carter]

Just saw a commercial for the Army...US Army...and they were using the music that was written for Starship Troopers.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Just saw a commercial for the Army...US Army...and they were using the music that was written for Starship Troopers.

I never saw the movie as it was reviewed as a terrible version of the book. However, if we can move the soundtrack over to the book then I consider it very apt. Have you seen what modern prostheses do? There are soldiers who have returned to (admittedly limited) uniformed duty wearing them. Research into powered armor proceeds apace. Lazer weapons are under development. Now all we need to do is make a minor change in the Constitution . . .

 

[JagFarlane]

Just saw a commercial for the Army...US Army...and they were using the music that was written for Starship Troopers.

Sweet! Then men and women will be sharing showers in the military soon!?!?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I never saw the movie as it was reviewed as a terrible version of the book. However, if we can move the soundtrack over to the book then I consider it very apt. Have you seen what modern prostheses do? There are soldiers who have returned to (admittedly limited) uniformed duty wearing them. Research into powered armor proceeds apace. Lazer weapons are under development. Now all we need to do is make a minor change in the Constitution . . .

It was horrible and not even resembling the book except for character names and the bugs. It was a total piece of trash that probably had RAH spinning in his grave. Complete waste of money...got it for $2 in China when I was there so it didn't take that much money out of my pocket.

The music wouldn't work with the book, the Federation, if I recall correctly, wasn't the bleak tyrant that it was in the movie. And women didn't fight in the trenches...they were pilots...males weren't.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

It was horrible and not even resembling the book except for character names and the bugs. It was a total piece of trash that probably had RAH spinning in his grave. Complete waste of money...got it for $2 in China when I was there so it didn't take that much money out of my pocket.

The music wouldn't work with the book, the Federation, if I recall correctly, wasn't the bleak tyrant that it was in the movie. And women didn't fight in the trenches...they were pilots...males weren't.

Damn! The book is enshrined.

And you are totally correct. There was nothing bleak or tyrannical about the literary version of the Federation. The screen writer must have been some left-over '60's New Left asshole trying to destroy RAH's reputation. Fat chance of that!

He just thought that if you wanted to vote, you ought to earn the right by "giving to society" before, not "back". Seems fair to me . . .

Think of all the politicians we wouldn't have . . .

 

[3113]

The screen writer must have been some left-over '60's New Left asshole trying to destroy RAH's reputation.

LOL! Oh, please! First, I'd never enshine anything RAH wrote. Good stuff, but let's get perspective here. He wasn't Shakespeare.

Second, the writer of the movies wasn't a 60's new left asshole. Technically, given date of birth, he was a 70's Dazed and Confused asshole. He wrote RoboCob and he's a satirist. And the person really responsible for how Troopers came out (love it or hate it) was director Paul Verhoven, a Dutch director whose homeland was over-run by the Nazis and, in his childhood, witnessed the allied the bombing of a Nazi Military base right near where he was living. The war to him was both exciting and dangerous; after the war, he saw a lot of American films, Hollywood adventure films mainly, including War of the Worlds. In the early 60's, he was in the Dutch Navy.

Gosh, darn, ya don't think all THAT might have influenced him when he made Starship Troopers perhaps? As compared to Vietnam...oh, wait, neither one of these guys was likely influenced by that. Screenwriter was too young, and director was Dutch and in the Navy, not dodging the draft.

Well, guess what, the way that movie came out had nothing, NOTHING to do with the 60's, and everything, EVERYTHING, to do with the Nazis, American adventure films and, yes, probably the Dutch Navy. It satirizes American War Movies, especially American style War Movies from the golden age of War Movies. It's about the propaganda of making war and war movies, and how everyone need to watch out because there's always a chance that some regime, like the Nazis, will make a proposal to go to war and then start slanting things and taking away the rights of people to object to the war and then....

Now if you've enshrined the RAH book and can't see any movie made with that title as anything but an insult to the book, then forget about it. Hey, I understand. There are movies made that were losely based on my fave books that I don't like even though they bear no resemblance to them and have their own story and spin.

But I really don't think you outta judge this movie sight unseen. It's a movie that warns American to watch out lest a seemingly "righteous" war turn us all into Nazis. It's a very biting and very funny movie, a very misunderstood movie as people take it at face value and miss the satire entirely. It's not brilliant, but it makes a valid point, one that a lot of people missed as they compared it to the book and ignored it on its own merits.

Should Verhoven have taken such liberties with the material? Should he have been given the book at all in order to indulge himself that way and make points that had no relevancy to what Heinlein thought or felt? Probably not. I wish it had a different title and I wish it wasn't based on that book, but then I suspect that it wouldn't get a fair shake anyway, as the joke tends to fly over most peoples heads, hence it's reputation.

But I don't think that makes it a rotten movie. Maybe a failure, but not rotten, and certainly not a movie to have a childish tantrum over. Believe me, I know the film industry--if there's money to be made, they'll do Starship Troopers again, maybe this time in slavish faithfulness to the book.

 

[3113]

Oh, and given the message of the movie, I find it not only hilarious that the Army is using the music to get recruits for Iraq...but very, sadly apt.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

LOL! Oh, please! First, I'd never enshine anything RAH wrote. Good stuff, but let's get perspective here. He wasn't Shakespeare.

Second, the writer of the movies wasn't a 60's new left asshole. Technically, given date of birth, he was a 70's Dazed and Confused asshole. He wrote RoboCob and he's a satirist. And the person really responsible for how Troopers came out (love it or hate it) was director Paul Verhoven, a Dutch director whose homeland was over-run by the Nazis and, in his childhood, witnessed the allied the bombing of a Nazi Military base right near where he was living. The war to him was both exciting and dangerous; after the war, he saw a lot of American films, Hollywood adventure films mainly, including War of the Worlds. In the early 60's, he was in the Dutch Navy.

Gosh, darn, ya don't think all THAT might have influenced him when he made Starship Troopers perhaps? As compared to Vietnam...oh, wait, neither one of these guys was likely influenced by that. Screenwriter was too young, and director was Dutch and in the Navy, not dodging the draft.

Well, guess what, the way that movie came out had nothing, NOTHING to do with the 60's, and everything, EVERYTHING, to do with the Nazis, American adventure films and, yes, probably the Dutch Navy. It satirizes American War Movies, especially American style War Movies from the golden age of War Movies. It's about the propaganda of making war and war movies, and how everyone need to watch out because there's always a chance that some regime, like the Nazis, will make a proposal to go to war and then start slanting things and taking away the rights of people to object to the war and then....

Now if you've enshrined the RAH book and can't see any movie made with that title as anything but an insult to the book, then forget about it. Hey, I understand. There are movies made that were losely based on my fave books that I don't like even though they bear no resemblance to them and have their own story and spin.

But I really don't think you outta judge this movie sight unseen. It's a movie that warns American to watch out lest a seemingly "righteous" war turn us all into Nazis. It's a very biting and very funny movie, a very misunderstood movie as people take it at face value and miss the satire entirely. It's not brilliant, but it makes a valid point, one that a lot of people missed as they compared it to the book and ignored it on its own merits.

Should Verhoven have taken such liberties with the material? Should he have been given the book at all in order to indulge himself that way and make points that had no relevancy to what Heinlein thought or felt? Probably not. I wish it had a different title and I wish it wasn't based on that book, but then I suspect that it wouldn't get a fair shake anyway, as the joke tends to fly over most peoples heads, hence it's reputation.

But I don't think that makes it a rotten movie. Maybe a failure, but not rotten, and certainly not a movie to have a childish tantrum over. Believe me, I know the film industry--if there's money to be made, they'll do Starship Troopers again, maybe this time in slavish faithfulness to the book.

I don't enshrine much else he wrote, just enjoyed the bejeebers out of it. Starship Troopers, on the other hand was about soldiers, from one who knew soldiers for people who perhaps didn't understand soldiers. I was a soldier . . . for a long time. It spoke to me and as a soldier who could have been 'between my loved home and the war's desolation' I don't need some guy who directly benefited from what other soldiers did 'warning' me about much.

I may be taking this too hard. I just spent three days on the Normandy beaches where Europeans still come up to the veterans of that battle and thank them and have their children and grandchildren shake hands with them so that they can say to their children that during their lives they touched heros.

Sorry,

 

[jomar]

I never saw the movie as it was reviewed as a terrible version of the book. ...

It was horrible and not even resembling the book except for character names and the bugs. It was a total piece of trash that probably had RAH spinning in his grave. Complete waste of money...got it for $2 in China when I was there so it didn't take that much money out of my pocket.

...

I figured your comments were based on having read the book first. I didn't and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Besides having Doogie Howser in it it's a satire on newsreels, buddy movies, combat movies, Nazis and above all it's over the top and a hoot to boot.

So, without ever reading the book I could see how it might disappoint. If there's a way to see it with fresh eyes I think you'd enjoy it. If you're open to those kind of movies, that is.

Hmm, as I wrote this I was doing a check and finally read 3113's comments. I heartily agree with her.

ETA: 3113 - they did a sequel to ST; it sucked.

 

[snap1415]

The movie could have been titled "Attack of the Stupid People".

Somehow humanity has conquered space flight between stars but they've forgotten the concept of crew-served weapons.

 

[JagFarlane]

ETA: 3113 - they did a sequel to ST; it sucked.

They actually just released ST3, straight to DVD lol the ads are on tv here

 

[jomar]

They actually just released ST3, straight to DVD lol the ads are on tv here

Ha! I'd watch the trailer, but straight to DVD says it all.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The sequel was a straight to DVD also. I kind of liked the second one, the first one wasn't bad per se it just sucked cuz it didn't follow the book.

And ST3 brings back Johnny Rico - I guess the actor, don't remember his name - couldn't get any other work after the first ST stinker.