"Starship Troopers" is one of my favorite films of all time. Based on the 1959 book of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein, "Starship Troopers" is a science fiction film directed by famed science fiction director Paul Verhoeven.
If you've seen any of Paul Verhoeven's other works ("Robocop", "Total Recall", and "Elle") you should know that the Dutch filmmaker is a master of taking campy, dumb fun films and infusing them with a certain amount of sly wit, deeper intelligence, and dark satire. It's the combination of all of these aspects that makes the satire in his films so effective.
He makes a fun and campy movie that can entertain you on a surface level, but that campy fun is always in service of the broader message/themes that are visually woven into the background. The film that embodies this the most is "Starship Troopers".
The thing that always makes Paul Verhoeven's satire work, for me at least, is that he makes an engaging human story that is capable of entertaining people on its own. His film "Robocop" is first and foremost a story about a cop trying to regain some level of humanity after he is mortally wounded by gang members. The overarching themes of "Robocop" (satirizing the 1980s Reagan Era excess of both crony capitalism and amoral American corporate culture) are displayed in the visuals and the behaviors of the characters in the background. "Starship Troopers", on the other hand, manages to be even more overt with its messages/themes than almost any other Paul Varhoeven film.
The book that the film is based on deals with a united humanity, the Federation, in the future who have been colonizing the various planets. However, their colonization is contested by a hive mind, insectoid species known as the Arachnids or "Bugs" as they are called by the human soldiers. The book was written as a response to the U.S. suspending nuclear tests in the late 1950s. The conflict between the humans and "Bugs" can easily parallels that of the Americans and Soviets during the Cold War. However, the book was criticized (and rightfully so in my opinion) for its over-glorification of militarism and downright fascist ideology. The book glorifies war as adventurous and the Federation operates under a strict class system where those that serve in the military are the only ones allowed to vote.
Paul Verhoeven, however, grew up in Nazi occupied Holland and witnessed the ideology and tactics that the Nazis used in their fascist regime. Instead of making a direct and straightforward adaptation of the book, Paul did what he does best; satirize something through comedy. The fascism of the Federation is made overt through their military uniforms, flag, and macho uber-masculine bravado. The soldiers equipment resemble the drab, grey German combat gear of World War II. The intelligence officers practically resemble SS officers with their black leather trench coats and officer caps. However, the most prominent examples of satire in the film are the exaggerated jingoistic behaviors of the soldiers in this society and the propaganda videos that are responsible for spreading these beliefs.
Throughout the film, there are moments where Federation propaganda videos play to let the viewer better understand the mentality of the people living in the Federation. Verhoeven took visual inspiration from famous propaganda films from World War II such as the Nazis' "Triumph of the Will" and the Americans' "Why We Fight". The Federation videos feature massive armies in columns with heroic music in the background similar to "Triumph of the Will". The videos feature footage of civilians doing homefront duties and depicting dead bodies of soldiers to elicit an emotional response similar to "Why We Fight". However, they are also exaggerated to comedic levels in order to make this style of propaganda and the jingoistic ideals that it fosters appear silly and downright stupid.
During the videos, soldiers hand their deadly combat rifles and bullets to overexcited children who play with them as the soldiers smile at them. We also see children violently stepping on cockroaches and are described as "Doing their part", even though Earth cockroaches have nothing to do with the "Bug" aliens. These situations are made so obvious and ridiculous that you wonder how anyone could fall for this. It displays how fascist societies indoctrinate youth by depicting war and being a soldier as cool and exciting, causing them to want to join and fight. It displays how obvious the emotional manipulation is by showing a dead dog killed by the "Bugs" followed by an angry man stating that "the only good bug is a dead bug", which was a phrase often used by Americans to describe communists during the Cold War. "Bug" is used like a racial slur that, in wartime, is often used to dehumanize an enemy to justify killing them (such as "nip" for the Japanese or "gook" for the Vietnamese).
The attitudes that are presented in these propaganda videos are echoed in the characters, which makes the film a bit of a comedic tragedy. The main character, Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) is a relatively good person. He cares for his friends and family. He wants to do his part to help society because he believes it's the right thing to do. This makes it kind of morbid when he enters the Mobile Infantry, the ground troops who run into battle yelling and shooting. They are all gung ho and ready to lay down their lives for the Federating to the point that they have a nihilistic perception of their own lives. One of the battle cries for the Mobile Infantry is "Come on you apes. Do you want to live forever?" and "The fleet does the flying while the Mobile Infantry does the dying".
"Starship Troopers" is a story about a young man and his friends trying to find their place in their society, which is something that many audiences can relate to. However, the film also makes this story a bit tragic as he gets wrapped up in a military life for a fascist society that views his life as disposable. On top of that, the film is also an action film that uses over-the-top gore and comedic satire (like most Varhoeven films) to hammer home his themes through entertainment. By depicting these ideals through the lens of exaggeration and silly "B-movie" camp, he robs these fascist ideals of their enticing "coolness" and makes them all look like buffoons for going along with this mentality. This is why I feel "Starship Troopers" deserves to be regarded as a prime example of how comedic exaggeration can be used to amplify the messages within a work of dark satire.
