On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Devon Eriksen explains why filmgoers still identify with the humans in Verhoeven’s unfaithful-to-the-story film of Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers:
Here’s a hint:
It’s called Starship Troopers. Not The Big War with the Bugs.
There’s a reason for that. Heinlein was one of the 20th century’s greatest authors, if not THE greatest, and he was also the 20th century’s greatest philosopher and it’s not even close.
So he didn’t name things by accident.
Starship Troopers isn’t about the war. It isn’t even about war. And it’s certainly not about the fucking bugs.
All that shit is just stage dressing for the story is really about. That’s why the book doesn’t end with defeating the enemy. It ends with Rico meeting his father again, facing future fights together.
Starship Troopers is about the military life, the relationship between armies and the civilizations they serve, and what it means to be a soldier and a man.
Eurotrash communists failed to get the point, not merely because they have the “media literacy” of a sack of wet hammers, but also because they don’t understand soldiering, civilization, or manhood.
So, yes, Verhoeven tried to make fun of Heinlein and failed miserably because Heinlein was a better storyteller, a better man, and a better human being by a margin so great that the Earth can barely encompass it.
But even though his failed satire makes humanity clearly the good guys, the war clearly righteous, and soldiers clearly cool and heroic, it still doesn’t recapture the actual meaning of Starship Troopers.
Because the real themes were so invisible, so incomprehensible, to Verhoeven that he couldn’t even see them to disagree with.
So enjoy the film for what it turned out to be … a fun, campy, morally unambiguous story of heroes squashing disgusting bugs. Suitable for popcorn consumption.
Then, read more Heinlein.
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[…] READING MORE HEINLEIN IS ALWAYS A SOUND PLAN: “It’s called Starship Troopers, not The Big War with the Bugs“. […]
Pingback by Instapundit » Blog Archive » READING MORE HEINLEIN IS ALWAYS A SOUND PLAN: “It’s called Starship Troopers, not The Big War — June 6, 2026 @ 01:30
How about a movie of ‘Bill, the galactic hero’ (Harry Harrison)
Comment by Greg MacDonald — June 6, 2026 @ 03:49
I thought his Stainless Steel Rat books would adapt nicely to a cartoon treatment, but if they made any I didn’t notice (not surprising, as I watch very little in the way of TV, movies, or streaming services these days).
Comment by Nicholas — June 6, 2026 @ 09:42
Any film with Dina Meyer in a nude shower scene is OK by me.
Comment by LoneStar78730 — June 6, 2026 @ 05:59
Maybe Verhoeven’s objective was just to serve up something foul and shove it in the faces of people like me, someone who actually read and understood Heinlein’s book. Verhoeven feels affronted by us for our successfully contesting with the objectionable, which he cravenly chooses to avoid.
Comment by Thomas Hazlewood — June 6, 2026 @ 09:27
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen the movie, except for very short clips embedded in long essays slamming the movie. As I understand it, Verhoeven already “knew all about the story” despite never having read it, hated it with a passion, and made his movie to “discredit” the evil right-wing fascism he believed the story contained. An early indicator of how Hollywood is willing to leave vast sums of money on the table so they’re not pleasing the kind of cretins who vote Republican. (Wasn’t there a recent successful series cancelled because it was popular with the wrong kind of fans?)
Comment by Nicholas — June 6, 2026 @ 09:46
Quite aside from all the Hollyweird obsession with viewpoints Heinlein never had, Starship Troopers would require them to make a good movie with more than one antagonist. I have exactly zero belief that they’re capable of such a basic task.
Comment by John Bowen — June 6, 2026 @ 10:12
i have loved Heinlein’s works since I was a boy a long time. I think his romantic literature helped save my life. He is great writer and his work is the place to go for inspiration. i am glad you pushed back on Verhoeven, he deserves it. One point of disagreement, however, The greatest philosopher of the Twentieth Century, is Ayn Rand. If her novels have not convinced you, her non-fiction like Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology surely will.
Comment by John G. — June 6, 2026 @ 14:15
I’ve read a fair bit of Rand’s non-fiction writing, but I’m afraid I’ve never been able to get very far in her fiction. I think I came to it too late … everyone I know who loves The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged encountered them as teenagers.
Comment by Nicholas — June 6, 2026 @ 14:59
I read Starship Troopers about six times before I understood it. By then, I was in the Army. I count myself a Citizen with voting rights.
Comment by Bob — June 6, 2026 @ 15:49
I was only in the reserves and never saw combat … in the book, that would be sufficient, I believe.
Comment by Nicholas — June 6, 2026 @ 16:11