The main cast of the sci-fi satire took the stage at the Chicago Comic Con and Entertainment Expo.
Starship Troopers continues to be a point of contention in the more shrill corners on the internet. Fling the title into the search field on X (formerly Twitter) and you’ll immediately notice two sides forming up. One cohort contends that Paul Verhoeven’s 1997 banger is a satire of fascism and militarism as subtle as brick to the head. The other, who sport an alarming number of anime PFPs and shitty opinions, think it’s a celebration of the same. “If it’s a satire, why’d they make it look so cool?” they type as I up my spending limit on the Dan Murphy’s app. For what it’s worth, it did make The Hollywood Reporter’s List of The 40 Best Antifascist Films.
But whatever the political make up of the crowd at Chicago’s C2E2 (always tricky) they were happy to see Starship Troopers stars Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Michael Ironside, and Dina Meyer, who got together for the Only Good Bug Is A Dead Bug reunion panel. The title alone probably sparked a few more debates.
Adapted from Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel of the same title by Robocop screenwriter Ed Neumeier, Starship Troopers ditched the original’s straight-faced militarism for a knowingly campy, extremely violent parody of fascism dressed up as a sci-fi bug hunt. Dutch director Verhoeven grew up under Nazi occupation and, having tossed the book aside after a few chapters (it’s still worth a read, by the way) took his visual cues from propagandist Leni Riefenstahl to craft a deliberately bombastic propaganda flick – essentially a piece of pro-fascist media from within the world of the film.
Depending, on who you listen to, this actually jibes with Neumeier’s original intentions. After writing Robocop with Steven Miner, Neumeier worked on a spec script called Bug Hunt at Outpost 7, a jingoistic send up of war movies. Neumeier stripped the script for parts after it was realised that it was similar enough to Heinlein’s novel, and the rights were available. The rest is hotly contested sci-fi history.
But if you were puzzled as to Starship Troopers‘ intent, you’re not alone. Recalling her first watch, Denise Richards said, “We were all like, ‘We didn’t know this was a fucking comedy.’”
Genre veteran Ironside, who played history teacher and infantry officer Jean Rasczakin the film, remembered Verhoeven thinking he’d overshot the mark for American audiences. “Paul said to me when the film didn’t do well in North America, ‘Maybe I was too subtle for the American consciousness.'”
It’s worth remembering that Neil Patrick Harris is straight-up costumed as an SS officer in the film.
It’s all fascinating stuff, and well worth carving an hour out of your day for.
and if you think the arguments over Starship Troopers will ever die down, just wait til District 9 director Neil Blompkamp’s more faithful adaptation gets going. It’ll be a bloodbath.
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