Starship Troppers

Starship Troppers

 A society where citizenship is gained only by serving in the national military, where violence is the common solution for most problems; this is perhaps a utopia for some people but a way of life in Starship Troopers, a bit cut throat and barbaric but socially acceptable. The main character Rico is publically punished, tied up and whipped, reminiscent of Roots but far less effective in context. I understand the idea of a mandatory military being like slavery, but this scene misses the mark for me. This movie rides a very fine line, on one side a pro-war, dominant, aggressive behavior but on the other side it can be questioned that the story is trying to provide the extreme in order to show the worst of human behavior. Starship Troopers is relative to a few of the films we watched earlier this semester films like Gojira and Them, that dealt with the fear of the other invading our space and claiming our society as their own. The bugs are determined to bring the human race to an end, which can be perceived as a reflection of a pro war Society, the acceptance of violence as a solution to almost any problem. In Darko Survins essay serving categorizes 2 stanzas of war based sci-fi films, the first stanza justified war as necessary and better for humanity, the second suggests and avoidance of war by all means possible. Starship Troopers is a first stanza story all the way and Survin comments that a pro war society thrives on a war economy, putting capitalism ahead of public interest, referred to as a “cancer stage” of existence. At first glance it is easy to see Starship Troopers as a fun action packed sci-fi film, the overall aesthetics and special effects are very well done. The bugs look realistic in the space, interacting with the soldiers believably. Aside from the eye candy the story opens up a few different avenues of interpretation, providing some food for thought about glorification of war and the social perspective and possibilities of condoning such behavior. Starship Troopers is it better story than movie, unfortunately the cast does not live up to the story. Casting seems more important than the acting skills of the cast, lending itself to the eye candy genre. So Starship Troopers is a good story that got a little too much candy coating and unfortunately that puts just enough distance between the viewer and the story / premise to seem watered down.