Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is a cult-classic of intergalactic proportions. Based on Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel, the film follows the military career of young Johnny Rico in the 23rd century, as the Earth’s United Citizen Federation does battle with the Arachnids, a carnivorous alien species. The cast features Casper Van Dien, Michael Ironside, Neil Patrick Harris, and a young Denise Richards, and through its thrilling and violent content, the film covers themes of patriotism, colonialism, and xenophobia. It’s both a prescient political satire and an action-packed adventure for the ages, and it holds up great today.
With this past November being the 25th anniversary of the action classic, let’s take a look back at what makes Starship Troopers such an icon of 20th century science fiction.
A Financial and Critical Failure, Re-evaluated
.jpg?q=50&fit=crop&w=1500&dpr=1.5)
Starship Troopers is well-known today as a classic science fiction action movie, and is frequently touted as one of the best military satires ever made, but that was not always the case. Upon its initial release in 1997, Starship Troopers was a critical failure and a box-office bomb. Audiences at the time misinterpreted (or just missed entirely) Verhoeven and writer Ed Neumeier’s satirical take on militarist propaganda, believing the film to be actually promoting fascist ideas. The filmmakers were even accused of being Nazis, and the film took a backseat at the box-office to more successful films of that year, such as Gattaca. Critics also took shots at the gratuitous violence and the genericness of the central performances.
In the years since its release, the film has been positively re-appraised, with viewers acknowledging the overt satirical tone and the role that the seemingly flat performances play into mocking the lackluster acting in old Nazi propaganda films. The film is now beloved for many of the same reasons it was initially derided, which reflects the ingenious forward-thinking of the filmmakers.
Paul Verhoeven, The Master of Social Satire
Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven is a true eccentric, with a long career that’s taken him from the Netherlands to Hollywood, with a few stopovers in France. His films range from arthouse to blockbusters, and have covered a large assortment of topics and genres. Despite the diversity of subjects and languages present in Verhoeven’s films, they all share his flair for entertainment with an undercurrent of irony and social commentary. Even his most recent film, Benedetta, goes beyond the could-be sleaze of deranged Nunsploitation and serves as a thoughtful social and religious critique. He got his start doing satirical science fiction with 1987’s Robocop, then took it a bloody step forward with 1990’s Total Recall, and finally honed the craft with Starship Troopers.
According to Game Rant, Heinlein’s original novel “glorifies and romanticizes the military, painting warfare and brutal violence as heroic ways of ending conflict.” Naturally, the Dutch master of social satire wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to poke fun at the original author’s jingoistic ideologies. The result is a biting satire of fascist propaganda, and one of Verhoeven’s all-time best movies.
Revolutionary Special Effects
While Starship Troopers is a fantastic political satire, Verhoeven makes sure to deliver a film that is deliriously entertaining, even when taken purely at surface-level. To this end, Verhoeven and the special effects team allocated about half of the total budget to the incredible special effects. The strikingly realistic and grotesque Arachnid effects make Starship Troopers one of the creepiest, crawliest movies about bugs ever made. 25 years later, the movie still looks great. The Arachnids are entirely convincing, the graphic gore is guaranteed to gross you out, and the outer-space sequences hold up very well.
According to Den of Geek, the special effects in Starship Troopers hold up so well because they were achieved through a “mix of miniature effects, animatronics, and CGI, with each technique carefully chosen to suit its particular sequence.” The special effects team’s hard work clearly paid off, and solidified Starship Troopers as a showcase for gorgeous practical effects and a triumph for early CGI.
A Science Fiction Classic That’s Aged Gracefully
Starship Troopers has stood the test of time as a wonderful science fiction romp and a visionary satire that has only become more relevant as the years have passed. It’s tongue-in-cheek criticism of authoritarianism and neo-fascism is never going to lose its lasting power, and the special effects-fueled action spectacle remains just as exciting as ever. The film also spawned a multi-media franchise that includes multiple sequels, video games, comics, animated content, and collectibles. There have been on-and-off talks of a live-action Starship Troopers TV show coming in the near future, potentially featuring some of the original cast, indicating that the original film continues to be impactful today. 25 years and counting, Starship Troopers remains a satirical science fiction masterpiece.