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STARSHIP TROOPER (1997) (***)

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Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's celebrated young adult sci-fi novel is a curious production. Like Verhoeven did with ROBOCOP, he weaves dark satire and extreme violence into the story. In the way he portrays the gung-ho soldiers and the government they serve he is essentially making us root for the Nazis. For the most part it works, but is it fair?

Set in the distant future, humans have colonized planets across the universe. They are having great difficulty putting down the Arachnids species living on the planet of Klendathu. Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien, SLEEPY HOLLOW), his girlfriend Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH) and best friend Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris, TV's HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER) are privileged teens living in Buenos Aires, who want to earn their citizenship. The only way to do so is to contribute to society or join the military. The threesome chooses the latter. The only problem is that Johnny doesn't score high enough to become a pilot like Carmen or the military intelligence like Carl, so he is relegated to mobile infantry and sent to the front lines to slaughter The Bugs or be slaughtered by The Bugs.

In paralleling the stories of Johnny and Carmen, the film looks at the differences between the military experience of the officer and the grunt. Johnny quickly impresses his hard-as-nails commanding officer Lieutenant Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironsides, TOP GUN), Johnny's former teacher and was never impressed with him before. Fellow grunt Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer, SAW) is greatly attracted to Johnny's heroics (or stupid luck depending on your perspective). The Roughnecks talk about the Bugs with loathing and have no qualms killing them in the most savage ways possible. This results in a lot of green goo and blood squirting across the screen.

The plot might follow conventions of war films in many ways, but there are surprises. The story is not on autopilot. The turns give some weight and tension to the material, because the audience can expect anything to happen, because the uncommon has already happened. This lasts right up to the very end with a humorous note to the randomness of war and irony of war heroes.

Whether it's supposed to be part of the satire, the acting is melodramatic to the point of making it campy. Van Dien and Richards provide the biggest suds in this area. That said the love triangle formed between their characters and Dizzy works well, because it highlights the divergent paths their lives have taken.

Heinlein was a manly type who felt a man became a man through violence. He also advocated for a military-controlled global government, which sounds fascist to me. I wonder what this film would be like if Sam Peckinpah had directed it?

But under Verhoeven we get a sly spoof of everything that Heinlein valued. The director has said that his theme was that war makes fascists of us all. He never expands this satire further than that, taking on the obvious targets. You can almost see the conflict on the screen between an all out skewering of totalitarianism and a rousing action flick. Which is curious that this R-rated film was based on a film for kids, doesn't that already take it out of the range of the core fan base? By not going all the way one way or the other, the film isn't fair to its characters at times. War might make people act fascist, but not all soldiers are fascists. Like I said the film is curious. Verhoeven is trying to have it both ways, making a film for Heinlein fans and Heinlein detractors at the same time.

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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks