Starship Troopers: Doing Your Part - Analyzing the Ultimate Propaganda Biopic Film Ever

This movie is a very strange one. Certainly it is not accurate to the story written by Heinlein from which it derives its name. The og story is far more complicated, with the movie boasting some ‘race-swaps’ and one character who had her character’s sex changed from the book to the movie so that we got a love-triangle of sorts.

But the first scene that arrests attention is arguably the opening one. In this scene we get what is honestly a pretty standard if you’ve ever watched the propaganda of the ‘30s and ‘40s piece of propaganda. It is a scene that has become something of a meme with the soldiers yelling out ‘I’m doing my part’, which is what all governments seem to love to have all their people proclaim… just before they plunge to their doom or otherwise do whatever they are told, rather than thinking for their part.

Certainly there is plenty to analyze throughout this movie, but each scene should be digested I think. As this was a very strange film, not at all what I was expecting. Neither a stupid comedy, nor a comic book movie, nor the sort of depressing epic that is Moon or Equilibrium, but rather a mindless action movie, it seems more interested in doing what Lucas wished to do in his Prequels; capture the essence of and the regular day lives/world of those who inhabit the universe.

It is one thing to make a movie that is a mindless action scene after another or explosion scene after explosion scene (looking at you Michael Bay). It is also one thing to make a plain old good vs evil movie, a la Star Wars Episodes 4-6. It is another entirely to shoot a movie where you inhabit the world of the characters.

In this case, Starship Trooper gives us a rare something, a glimpse into another universe. One in which the characters are bombarded like most Americans, since quite some time ago constantly bombarded by propaganda, so that the characters who speak with American accents in this film are no less propagandasized than those of to-day’s world or those alive during the disastrous Vietnam conflict.

The opening montage shows a variety of young men and women proudly proclaiming how they are doing their part, it speaks to the vigour and the passion with which they blindly follow their government.

And whatever for? Is it for love, like what the Trojans fought for? Or is it perhaps out of a sense of moral duty as those who fought for Charlemagne did, or even to defend their homes like those who fought for Aelfred or Jehanne D’Arc? Or perhaps it is for glory like those who fought for Edward III.

No, none of these reasons. They fight to claim citizenship. What is the difference between a ‘Citizen’ and the rest of those who live under the dominion of the militant Federation?

Quite simply Citizens enjoy the franchise, have lower taxes, can hold public office and can have more than two kids. In a word it is the WEF’s wet dream. The whole of the world’s youths prepared to die and utterly enthralled by the promise of what they might gain if they just agree to become killer-fodder- er I mean soldiers.

The difficulty though is in seeing the point of it. Sure, you might only be permitted one child if you remain a Civilian, however it doesn’t seem like the Federation really knows what they’re doing.

How many of the older generation have all their limbs? The ones we see peppered throughout the movie seem to be missing legs, hands and arms. On that note, given how few older adults appear throughout the movie, and how the glimpses we get into the citizen body it seems that oddly enough, this is a mostly youthful society. That is to say that there is no hint of the aging demographics of so many countries that currently dominate the world.

Naturally society in this film is presented as a fairly happy go lucky one, a militant one and something that offers none of the sorrows and melancholies of regular life. Or even the myriad joys that come with being alive.

Nowhere do we see people reading, reciting poetry, singing or otherwise engaging in much more art than dancing, as they prefer to focus on the various mating ceremonies that bring men and women together and concentrating upon military glory and rank.

What is more is that the Federal Network also reveals the enemy of this highly militant society; alien bugs. Okay, so we’re up against the Zerg, gotcha.

What is so strange though, is the suggestion that the enemy is throwing large meteors at the earth. And they are on the other side of the universe. How the- okay there’s propaganda then there’s just outright lying to people’s faces.

I’m no scientist, nor a sci-fi/futuristic guy yet even I know it would take quite a bit of technology, quite a bit of work to move asteroids from one end of the galaxy to the other. And yet, somehow the aliens can do this? And the Federation has the firepower to stop these meteors that are being lobbed from across the universe before they even reach Earth, yet can’t provide better equipment than a couple of regular auto-rifles? It is strange how to reach earth, the meteors would have to travel at unimaginable high-speeds, and that the government has everything in place to catch them and destroy them, yet their land-rifles are such trash that they can’t penetrate the hides of the alien monsters that menace humanity.

The first live showing of the invasion of Klendathu I think it is, is an utter disgrace and one that seems more like an SNL skit than a serious invasion. If human equipment is so piss poor that they can’t penetrate the aliens’ hides, how is the Federation supposed to protect humanity? How are they able to destroy and pulverise the ‘Alien Meteors’?

Maybe I’m thinking too much about it, but it seems like the whole climate change scare; blame an external threat for natural phenomena to scare the population and get them to do what you want them to do.

As to the piss poor rifles, it seems that the Federation ought to have known better than to have utilized bullets on such creatures. Heck for that matter, why not bombard the planet? Clearly they have interstellar and heavy capital ships equipped with heavy turrets and canons, capable of punching apart asteroids (I don’t dispute that, just the ability to lock onto one flying across space from one corner of it to the other). So wouldn’t those same canons be of use in blasting apart the planet, then you land the troops after of course equipping them with proper weapons rather than you know, the equivalent of ‘bee-bee guns’.

This intro was such a funny one that I could not stop laughing, as the propaganda on display and also the sheer incompetence was just mind-boggling. It is as though the Federation were run by current leaders, yet if they had never discovered ‘woke’ and instead became interested in interstellar expansion and exploration.

Naturally the whole Federal Network intro bit is a Propaganda film being shown to the main heroes of the story, namely Johnny Rico, the lead of the story. A high-school kid who is pretty aimless and comes from a rich family, he is utterly enraptured like many guys of the 90s with Denise Richards, who plays Carmen SanDiego or Ilba-something or other. Doesn’t matter, she’s there to be hot, to cheat and to otherwise play another Denise Richards character. Nothing against her, Carmen is an amusing character though not a likable one.

In opposition to her is the character of Dizzy Flores who is clearly hung up over Johnny, with the two women in a pretty obvious competition for the lead.

But most of all, above all else there is one character who shines above all others, one character who merits attention, above all others and who realistically would have nailed both Dizzy and Richards… Barney Stinson!

Just kidding, in all serousness though Neal Patrick Harris plays a more muted character (sadly), than his most iconic one (and no I didn’t just write this part of the article just so I’d have an excuse to watch the ‘Awesome’ song/video and add it in here.. okay maybe I did but anyways).

But the most depressing part of Starship Troopers though (other than the bodycount) is the fact that strangely enough; no one save Rico’s parents and the man’s high-school teacher seem to even consider questioning the propaganda of the government.

The teacher seems to be a former veteran and one who has come out scarred and wounded in spirit by what he saw, and by the complete mismanagement of the war. He’s against anyone joining the army, and seems to be of the opinion that Johnny and the rest of his students should stay away from it.

Given he’s one of the few middle-aged adults around, it seems likely that he has buried a great many of his students due to them signing up for the army. One cannot possibly imagine what it must be like to bury your students. Speaking as a teacher, it is never easy to do. The news that your student is dead is something that knocks the wind from your lungs, it can leave you confused, lost and unsure if maybe you could have done something to help. It is akin to being a third parent without half the responsibilities.

The trouble is that this doesn’t and cannot compare to the grief and sorrow of a parent losing their child, which is the worst, most unimaginable pain anyone can ever have inflicted upon them. The pain though doesn’t simply go away, doesn’t heal and can never heal. It is something that stays with you, that haunts and grinds you down as you struggle to even put one foot before the other just to advance a single step. Can you? Not sure. Can any mentor who has seen their students grow, laugh, rage, improve and triumph really be the same after he has buried a student?

These questions must be asked of Johnny’s teacher. It is this that is the reason for which the Federation is a truly despotic, despicable government. Certainly the Bugs or Zerg or whatever they’re called are a threat, yet to throw away the lives of what amount to youths and children, so callously despite evidently having the fire-power and means to level the playing field shows not simply an incompetence but a kind of maliciousness that is hard to wrap one’s mind around.

Certainly they have to at the end deploy the Infantry, strategically it only makes sense. However, why not blast apart the mountains, why not provide cover fire? Or use aerial supremacy? Or better guns and armour? If they truly gave their best and did their best, it seems they’re not very good at this, and humanity is screwed unless a better leader appears, or maybe it is that they are genuinely malicious and keeping the numbers down.

Either way, it is hard to feel cheerful about humanity’s odds in this film, given the magnitude of the bugs that menace the earth and the scope of the military blunders that are made tactically and strategically throughout the film.