Blood and guts revisited

When "Starship Troopers" came out in 1997, it was a science fiction movie. With giant bugs, interstellar warfare, shockingly beautiful protagonists of both sexes and large guns, it was a summer blockbuster that got by on flash, and that was fine. I liked it pretty well.

I saw it again on TV the other night, and it was suddenly political allegory. I don't know how I missed it before — maybe because in 1997, the idea of ill-equipped teens fighting in a large-scale desert war based on fraudulent intelligence was still pretty alien. But knowing what we know now, it's hard to see the movie as anything but a war commentary.

In the early minutes, the main character, Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), is trying to figure out whether he wants to join the military or go to college. The decision is a source of friction between him and his family, because there are increasing reports of skirmishes between Earthling troops and an insect-like alien race. Rico eventually joins up, largely to impress a girl who has also enlisted, but is about to quit when "the bugs" launch an audacious attack on his hometown, killing his family and many of his civilian friends.

And so the earthlings rush to war. As you watch soldiers in their late teens and early 20s get rushed through basic training before shipping out to fight an enemy they have only seen in propaganda films, it's a little strange. When it becomes obvious that Earth's leaders have plans beyond simply defending the homeland, it's downright unsettling. And when Rico's unit realizes that the body armor they've been issued is not strong enough to stop the bugs' pinchers, you start to wonder if director Paul Verhoeven wasn't just a little bit psychic.

Almost everything in this silly, gory shoot-'em-up has since come true. In the film, female soldiers are sent to the front lines along with the men, and romance blooms between firefights. As a significant percentage of the young adult population joins up, Rico begins running into ex-girlfriends and former teachers in the course of his duties. This is starting to happen today, when it seems as if half the people you meet have a relative or friend who has been overseas.

The battles in the movie are nothing short of horrific. At the time, a lot of critics bashed "Starship Troopers" for being obsessed with suffering and violence, and Verhoeven's patriotism was even called into question because he showed earthling troops accidentally killing each other in the heat of battle. Viewing the movie today, the most striking thing about the friendly fire sequences is that the military actually announces them to the public and holds someone accountable.

This is not to say that the movie is a great one. Anyone without a high tolerance for splashing alien blood would do well to steer clear, as would anyone who has an aversion to action movie clichés. But for the average citizen, "Starship Troopers" is definitely worth a second look, if only to marvel at how it took less than a decade for U.S. foreign policy to make a surreal orgy of gunplay and dismemberment look like serious political commentary.