When it comes to Starship Troopers make no mistake, there
is a massive difference between Paul Verhoeven’s ultra-violent action epic and
Robert A. Heinlein’s masterpiece that is considered the standard of greatness
and cornerstone of science fiction literature. For starters Verhoeven fully
admits that he never even completed reading the book before making the movie.
He says he found the book to be too boring and depressing and basically only
took broad strokes and spun the movie into a sort of satirical pro military video
in a fascist society. He is basically poking fun at the military in general and
doing it in the style that he does better than anyone else in cinematic
history. Now violence in a movie is one thing. Blood and gore in a horror movie
is another but violence in a Paul Verhoeven movie is something else
all-together. The great directors each have their own style but nobody except
maybe Tarantino comes close to what Paul Verhoeven delivers. The violence in
his movies packs such a punch that you often feel you are right there in the
thick of it. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself feeling slightly
uncomfortable with what you are watching. The battle of Klendathu in the film
is one of the most action packed, terrifying, vicious, and in your face scenes
in movie history rivaled perhaps only by the opening fifteen minutes of Saving
Private Ryan. Verhoeven loves to use puppets and robotics for is up close
special effects. The arachnid in the opening battle of Starship Troopers doesn’t
just look real, it is. A few full scale robotic models were built to give the
real life look and it certainly delivered. If you don’t believe me about Paul
Verhoeven movies just check out his filmography, Robocop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, Hollow
Man, and a little known Dutch world war II film called Black Book. All super violent, all tongue and cheek poking fun at
society in general, and all featuring breasts, yeah breasts. A Paul Verhoeven
movie is not complete until a woman takes her top off.
Now, as
for the novel Robert A. Heinlein is considered one of the greatest if not the
greatest science fiction author of all-time. The holy trinity considered by
many to be Heinlein, Asimov, and a battle between “Doc” Smith, Larry Niven,
Frank Herbert, and Joe Haldeman. Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers in 1959 right
in the thick of the Cold War. The novel takes place in the distant future and
it appears the Earth is under a unified world government referred to as the
Terran Federation. Much of the book surrounds the concept that if you want
anything in life you have to earn it. Nothing is given and all is earned and too
earn it, serving in the Terran Federation military is one of the best routes.
Once you complete your term of service you go from being a civilian to a
citizen and your freedoms and rights are increased. It is no easy jaunt though
especially if you sign up for the Mobile Infantry where survival rate after a
tour of duty is quite low. That is the case for Johnnie Rico the protagonist of
the story. Rico recounts leaving school and his admiration for his professor
Mr. Dubois a retired Lieutenant Colonel, how his father doesn’t want him to
join Mobile Infantry, and how his friends Carl and Carmen sign-up but get much
higher ranking positions than Johnnie. Carl qualifies for military intelligence
while Carmen although quite skilled at math and a decent pilot in simulations
simply uses her killer smile to earn her a spot in the flight academy. As for
Johnnie he is sent to Camp Currie to learn the ropes as a grunt and become a
mobile infantry soldier. Life is tough, rough, and unpleasant but through
Johnnie’s hard work and true belief in himself he earns the respect of his
peers and superior officers including the often harsh Sargent Zim who deep down
hold a fondness for Johnnie.
As Johnnie
completes his boot camp training at Camp Currie he is thrown into the fray of
the war. He travels via starships to distant planets within the Milky Way
galaxy to fight an arachnid species that operates under a hive mind and caste
system. He encounters Ace who he butts heads with at first as they jockey for
position in the company but after a good spirited fist fight the two of them earn
each other’s respect. Kitten and Sugar Watkins become his pals and when they
are on temporarily leave in Vancouver, Canada Johnnie gives the best
description of the female species I have ever heard. You have to remember
unlike the movie this military is split between men and women (No co-ed showers in the book). The interaction between
the two is rare. When Johnnie sees a woman walk by on a downtown street in
Vancouver it is essentially the first woman he has seen or been around in
nearly two years. He describes how women walk as the biggest difference between
the two species. Men walk straight, rigid, and robotic. When women walk their
entire body has subtle movements like a hypnotizing dance, very attractive and
alluring. Unfortunately for Johnnie that is the closest he gets to a woman in
the entire book. In the movie Johnnie dates Carmen who dumps him. Johnnie then
hooks up with Dizzy Flores who dies on the battlefield. In the book keep in
mind Dizzy Flores is a man and there is no mention of a romantic relationship.
I must say it was quite refreshing to have a story without a love interest.
Sometimes they are vital and other times I find they are just tossed in for the
sake of it with no real purpose to move the story.
One major
thing to note is the armour and military uniforms that are worn. Heinlein goes
to great and I stress great detail to describe the military uniforms, weapons,
armour, strategy, and tactics. He goes into extensive detail about how
militaries operate with regards to hierarchy and command structure. Johnnie
starts out as a grunt, maggot, or simply recruit. He is not even a private yet.
When leaves Camp Currie he is a Private and by the end of the book he has the
rank of a Captain. It is a long hard walk to reach the heights of a captain and
Heinlein does a great job of making the reader understand just how difficult it
is to survive and progress through military ranks. It is no picnic and the weak
are easily and quickly rooted out.
In the movie the military
uniforms and equipment really attracted me. It all looked so organized and cool
but one thing always struck me as odd. Taking on such a vicious enemy like the
arachnid would certainly require more than your standard assault rifle. Surely
you would need some heavy artillery to deliver a more powerful punch especially
when those giant flame throwing beetles came powering through the ground. Now
yes, they had tactical nukes (which is not possible, splitting the atom is not
a tactical affair) but I found it strange how there were no armoured vehicles
or tanks. It was also strange when during the battle at Whiskey Outpost they
did not utilize those tactical nukes. They relied exclusively on machine gun
fire and tower guns with what appeared to M-60 machine guns. Surely those nukes
would have wiped out the arachnid with ease. They already hit those giant bug
batteries at the battle of Klendathu to prevent them from shooting their energy
beams into space to attack the fleet. In the book, mobile infantry is equipped
with armoured battle suits like exoskeletons that allow the advanced jumping
and strength. In the movie they reach their destination via drop ships but in the
book they are shot out individually in pods that fire out of from the star
cruisers.
Overall,
Starship Troopers is heavy on philosophy, political theory, and society.
Heinlein was clearly trying to stamp his viewpoint on how the world should
work. He was pro military and naval academy graduate himself. He believed a
term of service or even better a tour of duty should be more encouraged if not
mandatory. Duty, Honour, and Sacrifice, these were the virtues that man should
be pursuing. He takes all these ideas and concepts and uses the character of
Mr. Dubois to hammer them through to the reader. I found myself agreeing with a
lot of what he was trying to say. Is it really too much ask a human being to
roll-up their sleeves up every once in a while to help and defend their way of
life and society? Are we not on this planet together? Should we not try to work
together for a common goal? These are themes that I believe Heinlein was trying
to get through to the audience. I do believe that Starship Troopers would make
excellent reading for a high school or college graduate. Aside from the action
adventure part it really asks great questions for the reader to ponder and help
shape the type of person they want to be and what type of society and world
they want to live in.
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