MovieChat Forums > Starship Troopers (1997) Discussion > Some of the worst combat training ever

Some of the worst combat training ever

posted 9 years ago by apollo_rising
3 replies | jump to latest

First, I love this film. It has a special place in my heart. It was one of the first movies I secretly watched as a kid. I remember being mesmerized by the film and terrified by the brain bug, sucking the brains out of people. Basically an amazing movie experience!! But as I've aged and matured, I have become more aware of the films flaws (although I still absolutely love watching Starship Troopers!).

Now that my reverence is out of the way, I can get to the meat of my post. The combat training is horrible! Troops run out from behind cover in groups, ignoring any and all logic. It's a bunch of soldiers going Rambo on the bugs. As a result they get massacred by the bugs. The troops have no formation or combat tactics. They stand out in the open, in a straight freaking line, waiting to be run down. Then the inevitable idiot runs out screaming "Get Some," like the swarm of bugs with somehow be terrified of this act.

For a highly intelligent military society, the soldiers are terribly trained. This is what bugs me about this film. The society is capable of interplanetary travel and space exploration, but they have no understanding of basic combat tactics. It's absurd.

[–] criztu 9 years ago

For a highly intelligent military society, the soldiers are terribly trained. This is what bugs me about this film. The society is capable of interplanetary travel and space exploration, but they have no understanding of basic combat tactics. It's absurd.

That was the intention. This movie is subversive. It apparently glorifies the Military, while subliminally making you reject, or at least question, the Military.

If you will have the chance to learn more stuff in this life, you will learn that War is a systematic genocide of the excess males in a community.
Human societies are hierarchies, with the top Alpha male enjoying access to resources and females, while lower Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omega males, live a less and less enjoyable life, as they decrease in rank.
When enough discontent against the tyranny of the Alpha male accumulates in the lower rank males, a rebellion occurs. The existence of the entire community is threatened in such instances.
To avoid this social apocalypse, the Beta males usually remove the Alpha male, to ensure the survival of the community - in the movie, Sky Marshal Dienes is replaced by a woman (lower rank).
But because the tension continuously accumulates in the lower ranks of a society, the higher ranks are forced to continuously purge this latent violence, which, if it is not channeled to the exterior of the hierarchy, it will irrupt in the interior of the hierarchy.

By waging a constant war against external enemies, the Alpha males purge the excess males who can't be integrated into the social structure - males who can't find a normal job, can easily find a job as soldiers, and be sent off to die in distant lands. Or at least be kept away from home. This way, they don't get to concoct a revolution at home.

I hope that by now you understood why the Military in Starship Troopers is so idiotic. The purpose is to purge the excess males, potential revolutionaries, from the human society. The purpose is NOT to defeat the bugs.

The war against the bugs is eternal, just like America's wars against the Natives, the Mexicans, the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Cubans, the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Serbs, the Afghanis, the Nicaraguans, the Somalis, the Yemenis, the Chinese, the Libyans, and so on and so forth.

The American veterans official suicide rate between 1999-2010 was at 22 suicides per day. One American soldier committing suicide, every hour.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cockroachcharlie 8 years ago

I'm just glad that, like me, you are able to still love this film despite it's obvious flaws.