MovieChat Forums > Starship Troopers (1997) Discussion > Now I understand?

Now I understand?

posted 8 years ago by rebbacchus-1
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Why the movie made such a hash of Heinlein's book. The director never read the whole thing, and never understood Heinlein's philosophy. Instead he saw Totalitarism instead of altruism. Heinlein was very clear that vets weren't smarter, nicer, noble, etc. than others, their virtue was their willingness to put the needs of mankind ahead of their own.

Yes, I saw the satire, but it rang hollow then and more so now. Heinlein made reference to the Birkenhead drill, how many of the folks who made this junk understood or would have stayed in ranks?

[–] ttaskmaster 8 years ago

With all due respect, no you don't quite understand...

The director and his crew conceived a film, about soldiers in space fighting alien bug-type creatures. As they were coming to the end of pre-production and getting ready to start casting, filming, etc, one of them chanced upon this book called Starship Troopers by Heinlein. In basic terms, it was remarkably similar to the plot Verhoeven's lot had already laid down, to the point where it could be argued they were similar enough to bring copyright issues and ther legal problems.
Also, there were already some other production companies looking to make a film of Starship Troopers...

So, to avoid a minefield of difficulties, Verhoeven secured the rights to Heinlein's book and adapted his existing screenplay. He did start reading the book but he found it too depressing, so had one of his guys read the whole thing and advise thereafter.

In short, it was never intended to be a film of THE book and they didn't even know about THE book until after they'd already done their own story.

As it stands, the film is many more things as well as a satire. It both portrays and at the same time counters a lot of the same criticism Heinlein's book battled against, while also portraying and at the same time countering the philosophies Heinlein did, while also serving as a vehicle that delivers a great mindless popcorn action flick with loads of violence and gore plus some nudity, while also criticizing the very genre and the audience that such things appeal to, while also offering a critique on all the above... so yeah.