Movie · 1997 · Adventure, Action, Thriller, Science Fiction · 2h 9m · R · English
Curator score: 5.8/10 (660.1K ratings)
A new kind of enemy. A new kind of war.
Overview
Set in the future, the story follows a young soldier named Johnny Rico and his exploits in the Mobile Infantry. Rico's military career progresses from recruit to non-commissioned officer and finally to officer against the backdrop of an interstellar war between mankind and an arachnoid species known as "the Bugs."
Ratings
Curator score: 5.8/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.84/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Metacritic: 52
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Paul Verhoeven
Production
TriStar Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Jon Davison Productions, Big Bug Pictures
Cast
Casper Van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Michael Ironside, Patrick Muldoon, Seth Gilliam, Rue McClanahan, Blake Lindsley, Steven Ford, Ungela Brockman, Bruce Gray, Denise Dowse, Amy Smart, Tami-Adrian George, Julianna McCarthy, Dale Dye, Dean Norris
Where to watch
Netflix, Philo
Curator Review
Verdict
A gleefully savage sci-fi war satire that works both as a loud, bug-blasting action movie and as a razor-edged parody of militarism, propaganda, and youth indoctrination. Its glossy, deadpan style is the joke, and the movie keeps getting sharper the more seriously it is taken.
Best for
Viewers who like satire hidden inside big studio spectacle
Fans of militaristic sci-fi, creature features, and practical-effects carnage
People interested in media propaganda, fascism, and political irony
Audiences who enjoy camp played straight on the surface but subversive underneath
Skip if
You want earnest, emotionally grounded sci-fi
You dislike exaggerated acting, irony, or tonal whiplash
You prefer subtle worldbuilding over broad, satirical world design
You are looking for a clean hero's-journey adventure without political bite
Overview
Paul Verhoeven turns a glossy future-war adventure into one of the sharpest studio satires of the 1990s. On the surface it is all recruitment posters, heroic speeches, and alien slaughter; underneath, it is a vicious joke about how easily violence, duty, and nationalism can be packaged as virtue.
Worth noting
What makes the film endure is the balance between sincerity and mockery. The performances are intentionally stiff, the newsreel inserts are hilariously sinister, and the action is staged with enough scale and gore to satisfy as a monster movie even while the film is exposing the machinery behind the spectacle.
Bottom line
It is also a movie that keeps revealing new angles with time. Some viewers come for the bugs and the battle scenes, others for the political satire, but the real pleasure is how completely the film commits to its own manufactured world while quietly dismantling it from within.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Griffin Newman (5★) · 5421 likes
No one will ever sneak a film of this size through the studio system ever again.
George Hanna-Wilson (5★) · 3354 likes
Starship Troopers is quite possibly the most brilliant movie disguised as a dumb movie ever made.
Neil Bahadur (4.5★) · 2348 likes
"This year we explored the failure of democracy, where the social scientists brought our world to the brink of chaos. We talked about the veterans, how they took control & imposed the stability which has lasted for generations since.."
Verhoeven actually has precious little to say about fascism which we don't already know (at least in the context of 2017) - but even moreso than the advertisements which resemble propaganda of both Republican and Democrat alike, what remains interesting is the… more
matt lynch (4.5★) · 2102 likes
Goes so far out of its way to identify itself that it's almost impossible to understand how badly misread it was on release. Possibly the Verhoeven Rosetta Stone, not least because the Mad Dutchman was never afraid to show you how spectacular and seductive violence can be.
Kristen S. Hé 何盛皓 (5★) · 1985 likes
François Truffaut once said, “It is impossible to make a true anti-war film, because the act of looking at violence is inherently exciting”. Robert A. Heinlein wrote, “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor”. Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers would have had them both rolling in their graves. Verhoeven’s 1997 adaptation throws good taste — and Heinlein’s original novel — out the window. The rare film that indulges the horrors of war and the… more François Truffaut once said, “It is impossible to make a true anti-war film, because the act of looking at violence is inherently exciting”. Robert A. Heinlein wrote, “Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor”. Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers would have had them both rolling in their graves. Verhoeven’s 1997 adaptation throws good taste — and Heinlein’s original novel — out the window. The rare film that indulges the horrors of war and the… more