Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
STARSHIP TROOPERS, the book, is plotwise, about people caught in an interstellar war. Go a bit deeper, and it also includes a commentary about citizens' roles in their native society, the price of freedom and affluence, the role of soldiers in a society, and what kind of people voluntarily put their life at risk for their society. Its trying to get us to contrast that world, that society, to ours and wonder how would *we* react. Would we be Johnny Rico? Could we?
Now, Heinlein's politics tended to be on the right side of the spectrum by today's standards, but JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you..." line is right in line with what STARSHIPS TROOPERS is all about.
In many ways the movie is a parody of the book. And in fact hardly anything in the movie comes from the book. One big hint: no powered armor.
(Understand: Having read the book several times before seeing the movie, I *loathed* the movie. It smacked too much of "nazis in space." Just me, okay?)
The Animated ROUGHNECKS, on the other hand, I really liked. (Yay! Power armor!) 
It was closer to the world of the book. |
I know this is off-topic, but I have to chime in and say that you got it in one! "Parody" describes the movie very well indeed. I also loved the book, but perhaps because I'd seen the movie first, I kind of liked it in a special "B-grade movie" way. It's fun to watch for sure.