Starship Troopers (Off-Topic)

by marmot 1333 , Thursday, May 12, 2016, 18:04 (3284 days ago) @ Blackt1g3r

Is a really interesting point in the "books vs movies" conversation. It is an adaptation of the book, but it presents the material differently and provides an almost completely opposite take than the source. That doesn't make it a bad movie or a bad adaptation, though. A lot happened in US and world culture & history between the publishing of the book and the creation of the movie.

If you're interested, you should read these articles about it. I read this AV Club one a few years ago when it was published, and found this Atlantic piece today when trying to find the former. Notable quote below:

The resulting film critiques the military-industrial complex, the jingoism of American foreign policy, and a culture that privileges reactionary violence over sensitivity and reason. The screenplay, by Robocop writer Edward Neumeier, furnished the old-fashioned science-fiction framework of Robert A. Heinlein’s notoriously militaristic novel with archetypes on loan from teen soaps and young adult-fiction, undermining the self-serious saber-rattling of the source text. Even the conclusion makes a point of deflating any residual sense of heroism and valor: We see our protagonists, having narrowly escaped death during a near-suicidal mission, marching back to battle in a glorified recruitment video—suggesting that in war the only reward for a battle well fought is the prospect of further battle.