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Will The New 'Starship Troopers' Reboot Stay Faithful To The Book? (hollywoodreporter.com)

HughPickens.com shares news from the Hollywood Reporter: "Columbia Pictures is rebooting Starship Troopers, the 1997 sci-fi film directed by Paul Verhoeven... The studio is not remaking the film but is said to be going back to the original Heinlein novel for an all-new take." The original movie, considered a mixed success at the time of its release, went on to achieve a cult following, and during the DVD boom of the 2000s it became a mini-franchise for the studio, which produced three additional direct-to-DVD movies... "Starship Troopers [the novel] has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist in its creation of a society where democracy has been severely restricted..." writes Graeme McMillan. "The question then becomes: in updating Starship Troopers to make it more acceptable to today's audience, can it still manage to remain faithful enough to Heinlein's original to please the existing fan base?"
The script will be written by the writers of the upcoming Baywatch film starring Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson.

457 comments

  1. Right. by jrq · · Score: 4, Funny

    The script will be written by the writers of the upcoming Baywatch film starring Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson.

    It's Guy Fawkes night, not April Fool's Day!

    --
    My UID is prime!
    1. Re:Right. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Given this recent election season, I think an unabashed film about a society where the vote is restricted to veterans only makes a heck of a lot of sense. Certainly better than the idiots who have voted for Republicans or Democrats.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    2. Re:Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know, right? Great punch line. They actually had me going there for a while.

    3. Re:Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fine by me since it would me a win for Trump, a majority of veterans vote for Republican candidates and have done so for several decades. Even Gallup polls has covered this: http://www.gallup.com/poll/118684/military-veterans-ages-tend-republican.aspx

    4. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      If you never served your country in any capacity - neither military nor civil service - I don't trust you with voting and nobody should.

    5. Re: Right. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you never served your country in any capacity - neither military nor civil service - I don't trust you with voting and nobody should.

      In the American Civil War, it was discovered that human beings really don't like pointing guns at other human beings -- the vast majority of shots fired during the war were deliberately fired into the air or the ground. So in order to create an effective fighting force, militaries the world over now subject recruits to humiliating, dehumanising treatment and instil in them a deep hatred of "the other". It works well in combat, but it has knock-on effects. For one thing, civilians in an overseas warzone are the same "them" as the other army, so become the "enemy" by default. This alone explains about 95% of atrocities committed against civilians during wars in the last century.

      How is this relevant here? Because it has effects when the soldiers return home. The mindset in the parent post is one of us vs them, and if you're not one of "us", you're one of "them". It's a very dangerous position to take, because it allows the arbitrary dehumanisation of anyone you like, and the recasting of people with different opinions as "enemies".

      It doesn't have to be that way. Instead we can respect everyone's right to an opinion, and assume their opinions are formed in good faith. If we disagree with their opinions or their reasoning, then we can discuss and explain. Telling them their opinion doesn't count isn't productive.

      --
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    6. Re: Right. by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      How is this relevant here? Because it has effects when the soldiers return home.

      Specifically, the odds of domestic abuse go way, way up. We teach them to be shitheels and then we act surprised when they act like shitheels. There's also the issue that the military is a lot more desperate for recruits these days. Garbage in, garbage out. I do believe in rehabilitation, but that's not what the military's indoctrination is about. It's about making assholes into bigger assholes. Meanwhile, we create such animals we don't even let them have rights any more. No, really. The UCMJ forcing enlisted (or even former enlisted) into military courts is unconstitutional right on its face.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Excellent parody of the wolves explaining democracy to the sheep, there, Woodrow. Or was that the other way 'round. Shrug, 6 of one...

      The divide-n-conquering puppet masters (yeah, the usual suspects for anyone paying attention to the Men Behind The Curtain) long ago figured out the best way to get folks to dehumanize each other was to sieze control of something, lend it out at interest, tell one bunch it was a levy, and the other, their due. Some will see patriotic duty in service of this charade, some, Archie Bunker stereotypes to be derided and mocked in honest, sincere, and well-meaning people, and ,some, business, political, or community-organizing opportunities so they don't have to do any real work, leaving that to us peons, etc.

      Follow the $$$ to the Usurians. It ain't hard.

    8. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So says someone who appears to have never been in the military. I don't recall that part in all the training I received over my 22+ years of service in the US military.

    9. Re: Right. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 3, Interesting
      What I was considering saying was that if anything, that makes ex-military less suitable to make decisions than non-military. I decided against it because it sounded a lot like the same "us and them" that I was arguing against. But the thing is that this is a logical standpoint only, and it is certainly not my personal view that former service personnel should be disenfranchised. I am very much against disenfranchisement of anyone. Does that extend to deposed military dictators? My gut reaction to the suggestion that Hitler (had he not shot himself) should have been allowed to vote in democratic elections is one of utter horror, but on the other hand, Hitler was one man, who gets one vote, so yes, it would be right and fair that he gets the vote.

      Disenfranchisement of felons in the US in principle seems acceptable, even though I am personally against it in principle. But then when you analyse it, it's unworkable. When you look at who ends up disenfranchised, there's a clear bias against non-WASPs. African-Americans and Latinos are more heavily affected than white people, and not just because they commit proportionally more crimes (that's a flawed statistic that ignores the correlation of social class with crime and the lack of social mobility for non-whites) -- it's because they get heavier sentences than whites for similar crimes, and in certain cases (e.g. drug possession) this can mean the difference between a sentence leading to disenfranchisement and one without.

      Any other means of restricting the franchise is going to exhibit a similar unintended bias. Exclude military and you exclude groups that are overrepresented in the military; limit to ex-military and you exclude many other groups. Universal franchise is cleanest.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    10. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am a veteran, and from my personal point of view, you're full of bullshit.

      You just come home realizing that people are not as noble as they claim to be, and that life is a lot more fragile than you though it was. Separation of a person from their life is not a difficult thing to do, and the only mental damage done is the mental damage you opt to do to yourself.

      Much of society is based on opinions that we treat as real. That doesn't make them real, it just makes them opinions. In the military, you alter some of your opinions to fight. Just like a person will alter their opinions about killing when presented with the scenario of self defense.

    11. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or we can call anyone who supports for our oponents "deplorables".

      We make the bed we sleep in.

    12. Re: Right. by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      If you never served your country in any capacity - neither military nor civil service - I don't trust you with voting and nobody should.

      That would make you a very un-American asshole, not an educated patriot. Fortunately, the bulk of our Armed Forces understand the true nature of democracy and thus do not share your twisted, wretched view.

    13. Re:Right. by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      Given this recent election season, I think an unabashed film about a society where the vote is restricted to veterans only makes a heck of a lot of sense. Certainly better than the idiots who have voted for Republicans or Democrats.

      Yeah, because literally there are no veterans who have (or at this moment are) voting for Republicans or Democrats. Please take your "No True Scotsman" fallacy and shove it.

    14. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your inhumanity makes you unfit to vote.

    15. Re: Right. by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 1

      You have never been in the military. If you had, you would know that the shit you are saying is complete fiction. I know, because I've been there.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    16. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "..isn't productive." Sure it is, if my gun is bigger than your gun.

    17. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fascinating. The military I served in, and the ones I served with, didn't do this. Which world do you live in that your militaries do this?

    18. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, /. comments are usually full of shitheads, but this thread has turned it into a shithead convention.

    19. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None of this is true. You know nothing about military history and less than nothing about military training.

    20. Re: Right. by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

      >>> we can respect everyone's right to an opinion, and assume their opinions are formed in good faith. If we disagree with their opinions or their reasoning, then we can discuss and explain.

      This rational approach does not work in practice. It would seem that there are situations in which differing rational people can have rational disagreements, and these typically rise from differing priorities or weights or assessments given to aspects of the situation - which is where the rationality breaks down. Consider the simple example of abortion (and note that this discussion is carefully worded to AVOID taking sides). The core argument balances on whether one considers a zygote to be a fully-qualified human; both sides progress logically from their consideration on that point. That core issue can then be complicated into "at what point" a zygote should be considered a fully-qualified human. The two sides of that core decision, and its extension, CANNOT by their very nature either consider the other to be at all rational. The bases on which the decision is made - the priorities and weights given to different considerations - are postulates rather than theorems. It's not enough to "rationally" dismiss an appeal to tradition or "sacred text", since there is "sacred text" on both sides; OTOH people who accept one "sacred text" typically ignore the earlier "sacred text" (an early form of deprecation). Also the "sacred text" is manifestly true, because it says it is.

    21. Re: Right. by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      Decades ago perhaps was different, but today you WILL spend time shining that fucking rock because you are told to do it. Stupid as it is, senseless as it is, and regardless of the more effective alternatives.

    22. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What was your rating or MOS if I may ask?

      I'm pushing my fifteenth year now, having managed to spend around a third or so of that assigned to combat duty... my longest shore posting was stint as an instructor at power school... and sure, I've never launched a shot in anger; not my part of the boat, after all. And most of my mates are just more regular guys doing a job. But we occasionally had SEALs aboard (Strictly for training evolutions and equipment familiarization, of course.) and those were some scary, cold-blooded, MOFOs.

      Yes. The majority of the service is really just a massive enterprise in moving people and stuff from point A to point B and, of course, to fill out paperwork. But some ratings most assuredly do turn out stone-cold killers.

    23. Re:Right. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Trump lost the vetran vote rather early with his crack about a second-rate real estate mogul knowing more about Syria than the generals.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    24. Re: Right. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      That would be because Human beings are not rational.

      Oh, and I'd point out that the science of fetalogy, does not rely on sacred texts, unless you consider an ultrasound picture a sacred text, in which case you've got a bigger problem with your cargo cult than whether or not to let abortion be practiced.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    25. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, just the US does that. Australian military certainly doesn't, nor do the Swiss. That's enough to invalidate your statement, but perhaps I am also wrong. Could you cite another country that does that to their military?

    26. Re: Right. by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

      No cargo cult here. The tradition I grew up with was the Old Testament, which suggests that people are born when they're born. Not very complex. And personally I'd say the mother's life - including psychology and impact and everything else - is what takes precedence until that independent point, and it should be the individual mother's decision because she's the one who has to live with the situation either way. To some people, this ignores the clear fact that babies can survive and thrive having been premature - I did, and my niece's daughter seems to be fine - or even delivered earlier by caesarean. The big difference is that I would not impose my sentiment on those people - I'm not INSISTING they make use of this option - but their logic is internally consistent when they seek to impose their sentiment on others, because they reason correctly from an unprovable postulate.

    27. Re: Right. by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

      Nothing new. "If it moves, grease it; if it doesn't move, paint it." Every damn day.

    28. Re:Right. by dywolf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Speaking as a veteran, limiting the vote to veterans is one of the stupidest, most dangerous things you can do.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    29. Re:Right. by dywolf · · Score: 1

      Trump lost the veteran vote

      Sadly, no he has not.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    30. Re: Right. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      The national service in Heinlein's book was NOT NECESSARILY military. It could be - the main character was in the military - but it did not have to be.

    31. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They should be required to run them through a reverse-boot camp to re-humanize them.

    32. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow. You are a fucking asshole from Berkeley, Aren't you?

    33. Re: Right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go fuck yourself. I'm a soldier. Don't tell me what my life is like. Your stories about the civil war and the training techniques thereafter are pure bullshit.

    34. Re: Right. by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you're denying the science of fetalology altogether, and going back to sacred texts that existed before the existence of ultrasound. Not very evidence based.

      Freedom abused should always be denied. We now have clear evidence of pain back to the 8th week of gestation- far before the "viable" point of 21 weeks- and clear evidence that the mother and child should be considered equals from the moment of conception. Any other point of view denies the last 30 years of research into what goes on in a human womb, and therefore should be discarded.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
  2. Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist

    unbelievable. The entire movie is biting satire of the perils of a society always at war and a society with a universally hated enemy. It's brilliant in its insights; coming out in 1997, it presaged the mess that was 9/11 / war in iraq / war in afghanistan / ISIS. It's a flippin awesome movie and I think they should show it in schools to educate about the dangers of mindlessly buying into the war economy.

    At last weekend's Comikaze convention in Los Angeles, I had an extended conversation about this with Caspar Van Diem. A cool guy!
    I assume the new movie will be a lame rehash of action scenes, without any insights to be had.

    1. Re:Awesome satire. by dAzED1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This. HighPickens and EditorDave should feel bad about themselves. Starship Troopers was a very, very obvious satirical piece, *mocking* racism through an analogy so transparent that anyone who does anything related to movie critique and yet didn't see the extremely obvious, overt, mocking of racism and war-for-war's sake, needs to go get a new job. It was over-the-top and ridiculous precisely to show how stupid most (all? meh) wars are. The bugs could think, only attacked because we attacked first, and were even giving humans the benefit of retreating back so an attempt at communication could be made...instead, we sought to exterminate them completely. Is there really anyone who can't see that it's mocking racism? That the bugs are just a replacement for badguy-of-the-month, be it Muslims, or whatever else we've decided to fear and attack?

    2. Re:Awesome satire. by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To this generation, anything vaguely hinting of duty and authority is immediately branded fascist. Anything remotely offensive is immediately branded racist whether race is actually involved at all (for example, being against Islamic extremism is frequently called "racist" despite the fact that Islam is a religion, not a race). We've raised an entire generation of hyper-sensitive, easily-offended, thin-skinned "citizens" who are utterly repelled at the concepts espoused in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers." All this despite such a generation absolutely requiring a cadre of protectors dedicated to the very principles they abhor in order to shield them from the ramifications of their naivety.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    3. Re:Awesome satire. by Monkius · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Deeply unsure about that. I enjoyed that take, however.

      --
      Matt
    4. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Are those darn kids on your lawn again?

    5. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check out Helldivers if you want a video game experience very reminiscent of SS Troopers (almost a Godwin).

    6. Re:Awesome satire. by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are those darn kids on your lawn again?

      A few were on mine, but I shot 'em.

      --
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    7. Re:Awesome satire. by jgfenix · · Score: 2

      He is talking about the BOOK. It was clearly said.

    8. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was working at a (computer) gaming company when the original movie was first released, and our whole company went and watched it.
      These were not stupid people, but I was soooo disappointed after the movie when I realized I was the only one who recognized it as satire.
      "It's afraid!" *crowd cheers*
      It is a brilliant movie, but to most, it's just an awesome action movie. So sad.

    9. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Islam itself is racist - it is an ideology of Arabic supremacy.

    10. Re:Awesome satire. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

      Despite being critical, the movie was actually fairly faithful to the book's tone. The characters believed what they were saying and believed in their society. Verderhoven (sp) only turned up the dial an extra 5% to achieve the satirical effect. But the basic material was already there.

      Whitewashing the books would be much worse.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    11. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      in order to shield them from naive individuals dedicated to the very principles they abhor.

      Fixed that for you.

    12. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Excuse me for my confusion, as I'm a feebly minded AC, but why is the book considered to promote racism and fascism?

      It's outright stated that the Citizens gain the right to vote via federal service, and heavily implied that it's the only right they gain by doing so. It's also stated that they will take anyone, be they blind, deaf, or dumb, so the only requirements to vote is a willingness to offer up whatever you actually can for the country. A far cry from the modern take on democracy, that being that obliging people to carry specific ID's or proof of citizenship is overly onerous (Admittedly, in many cases where there are these outcries, it is because the ID's that some sub-sections of the population commonly use are disallowed, often intentionally).

      It's also evident that they will take Women for said service, as they are very enthused at the idea of having Carmen enlist, as they typically are better pilots due to their higher G tolerance (And at least in the book, better head for math, as I have not seen statistics for that assertion it made). They also take Juan "Johnny" Rico, from Buenos Aires, so evidently it's not a Aryan supremacist military (Which is decoupled from fascism, but is a commonly used example of a potential agenda), and they are also able to walk around in at least a few cities without anyone mentioning race at all.

      So where does the Racism and Fascism come from? Is it only because the society in the book came to the conclusion that the only people who would properly value their franchise were the ones willing to volunteer their lives and pay dearly for it? It's sure as heck not how our societies work, but I can see where it would come from. The movie plays with Fascist and racist imagery much more, and uses it to make a political point, much as Heinlein himself often did (As he was denied the chance to serve in active duty due to tuberculosis, and was also a very liberal political activist for the time, and often campaigned for the democratic party and their candidates, it's hard to say what portions of that work are due to his frustrations with people not valuing their franchise, which portions are for the time liberal values that ages poorly, what may be his own objectionable beliefs, and what is merely there to satisfy the editor or to make the story feel real to him. )

    13. Re:Awesome satire. by dAzED1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      which part are you deeply unsure of? That humans attacked the bugs first, and that news snippets during the movie actually spent a couple seconds talking about protestors pointing that out? Or that the whole thing was obvious satire? Spending half a second, I find an interview with the director, where he describes it as satire that mocks fascism. Even the wiki entry for the movie calls it satire - in the very first sentence . Do you seriously not catch that the whole movie is making fun of the US and the cycle of generate fear => throw the military at the problem => generate fear?

    14. Re: Awesome satire. by jxander · · Score: 1

      Well, yeah. You saw what they did to robocop, right

      --
      This signature is false.
    15. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "...anything vaguely hinting of duty and authority..."; Robert Heinlein wrote of Duty:

      "Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect."

      This concept of 'duty' seems to have little, if anything to do with so-called "authority". Self-proclaimed authority, and its (sometimes literal) worship, on the other hand seem quite worthy of discussion in terms of fascism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

    16. Re:Awesome satire. by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      I was 15 when Starship Troopers came out, I thought it was fun movie to watch, I wasn't really into the more cerebral aspects of it.

    17. Re:Awesome satire. by dAzED1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Here ya go - they even briefly bring it up during the movie (good satire can't overtly call itself satire while it's being satire) - the only good bug is a dead bug - skip to 2minutes and 9 seconds. It couldn't call itself a spade any more blatantly because, well...when's the last time you saw the Onion saying "hey no really, this is all fake, satirical stuff - don't take it as real, we're mocking things to make a point..." - you won't see Onion doing that, because...it's not supposed to. You're just supposed to use common sense and see that it's satire

    18. Re:Awesome satire. by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

      Nonsense.

      Verhoeven's Starship Troopers is based on the book in the same way that Monty Python's Life of Brian is based on the Gospel of Mathew.

      Don't get me wrong: the movie was awful and I loved it, it remains one of my favorites; but it wasn't "Starship Troopers", it was "Klendathu 90210" or "Doogie Howser, SS".

      Heinlein's book was an unselfconscious Libertarian fantasy, Verhoeven's movie was a sarcastic anti-authoritarian polemic.

    19. Re:Awesome satire. by dAzED1 · · Score: 2

      What?!?!?! They even have a "recruitment" video where they talk about a protestor doing something one day, being tried that day, then being publicly executed the next day. Is your commend satire? Or are you just that insane?

    20. Re:Awesome satire. by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist

      unbelievable. The entire movie is biting satire of the perils of a society always at war and a society with a universally hated enemy.

      Know how I can tell you didn't read the article? (#) Because it's quite clear that in its original context- rather than the misleadingly-edited summary- that it refers to the original book, not to the film:-

      Despite being not only one of Heinlein's best-selling titles and winning the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1960, Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist [..]

      Verhoeven's [1997 film of] Starship Troopers was anything but faithful to the novel, discarding massive elements of the book's mythology — sorry, those who wanted to see the power armor — and ramping up some of its more outré parts to create something that's as much political and social satire as it is a science fiction action movie.

      At any rate Hugh Pickens' original unedited submission is also quite clear that the writer was referring to the original book. The responsibility therefore lies with "EditorDave" who we can assume was the one who cut it down. Admittedly it needed trimming, but it's also an editor's job to make sure that the meaning hasn't been misleadingly altered in the process. (##)

      (#) Yeah, I know. I've been on Slashdot approaching fifteen years, and it was a cliche back then.

      (##) Yeah, I know. The jokes about editors not doing their job have been a staple of Slashdot as far back as I can remember too. Doesn't excuse it, though.

      --
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    21. Re:Awesome satire. by Dogtanian · · Score: 5, Informative

      The actual article makes clear that the quote refers to the novel, not the film. So does Hugh Pickens' original submission. The edited version of the summary doesn't.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    22. Re:Awesome satire. by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. People seem to be unable to recognize satire these days. I though it was really, really well done and really funny in many of its gross exaggerations.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    23. Re:Awesome satire. by bargainsale · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That doubtless explains why most Muslims are not Arabs, and many Arabs are not Muslims.

      --
      Aberrations have appeared in my destiny prognostication engine!
    24. Re:Awesome satire. by Bodhammer · · Score: 1

      Where does Liberty and Freedom fit in in your worldview?

      --
      "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
    25. Re:Awesome satire. by pseudofrog · · Score: 1

      Are you seriously suggesting that "this generation" is the first to interpret Heinlein's Starship Troopers as pro-fascist or racist? I didn't realize Paul Verhoeven was a millennial.

    26. Re:Awesome satire. by kenai_alpenglow · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "We'll always go get everyone back before we leave" - Book "Leave 'em behind, he's wounded" - Movie. Just one of multiple examples. Heck, the movie didn't even have the troopers come down in the "eggs"--one thing I was wanting to see in the movie. It was an ok movie, but the only thing it had in common with the book was the names.

    27. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Black" is not a race either, but making offensive statements about black people is pretty much racism. Islamophobia technically might not be racist, but in practice, those anti-Muslim policies are aimed at Muslims from predominantly Arabic countries. And how is "it's technically not racism, it's just religious intolerance" better, anyways?

      As far as being hyper-sensitive, easily-offended, and thin-skinned, somehow I think it's really the people defending nasty bigoted beliefs that are playing the victim card, here ...

    28. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "I want Indians scalped because they're barbarians, not just their skin color. Don't call me racist."

    29. Re:Awesome satire. by BlueStrat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Islam itself is racist - it is an ideology of Arabic supremacy.

      Islam is a form of government that uses religion as it's basis of authority and legitimacy. It is an authoritarian theocracy designed for world conquest.

      They stand (and kill) for almost everything the Progressive/Left and most of Western Europe hate. Extreme misogyny, murder of LGBTQ, female genital mutilation, forced religious indoctrination, etc etc etc.

      And yet they defend them, call them the 'religion of peace' when they're anything but, import hundreds of thousands of young ME Islamic military-aged males and others into their nations with a laughable excuse for screening and call anyone who questions the wisdom of such a racist xenophobe and worse. This will not end well.

      "There's going to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom!" - Marvin the Martian

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    30. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Are those darn kids on your lawn again?

      A few were on mine, but I shot 'em.

      Wanna Learn more?

    31. Re:Awesome satire. by lenski · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Being of the "get off my lawn" age, I respond:

      Authority must be earned, and upon being properly earned, respected.

      Starship Troopers was an important part of my educational reading (not school assigned, but I learned much from it nonetheless...).

      I learned to despise what passes for authority in the real human world, because they are utterly devoid of the sense of responsibility that Heinlein's officers and leaders showed in their actions and words. The contrast between Heinlein's descriptions of leaders and what we see today in authority figures could not be more clear.

      Heinlein's leaders as described in Starship Troopers generally respected those they commanded, and were not on the take. There is no valid comparison of today's dipshit thieves and Heinlein's world.

      Anyone linking what passes for authority today with Heinlein's story is bound to confuse the "wielding power" we see today, which is at best Feudalist and at worst Fascist, with respect-worthy leadership.

      I am not sure whether a movie made today could possibly accurately reflect the leadership and social commitment philosophy in the book.

    32. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "badguy-of-the-month" ... Muslims ??? They have been on the attack for about 1400 years! Their only retreats are "strategic" as they figure out how to regroup and resume the attack. You need to study their actual history before making such a silly statement as to make them sound like the victims. There are real victims of other wars, and far too many have been victims of MUSLIM AGGRESSION.

    33. Re:Awesome satire. by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1
      I thought that's what I had said. I thought that

      Verhoeven's Starship Troopers is based on the book in the same way that Monty Python's Life of Brian is based on the Gospel of Mathew.

      was completely unambiguous. The absence of power suits was an Instant Loser for me, in terms of faithfullness to the book, philosophy be damned.

    34. Re:Awesome satire. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      The power armor was the gimmick. The libertarian proto fascist philosophy was the message.

      Power armor would have required Ironman level special effects to pull off.

      I read starship troopers many times. It's one of my favorite books. I left the theater feeling the movie was pretty faithful to the book. Making some of the same philosophical points and even repeating many scenes from the book

      I even felt Rico's parents seemed kinda nebbishy and made a good point in the argument of service equals citizenship. Basically softheads were excluded from ruling. Softheads who actually served the state had a much more realistic attitude by the time they finished their period of service.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    35. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is actually a brilliant movie, because the novel stirred up the very same controversy.

    36. Re:Awesome satire. by plopez · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Propaganda pieces always present their most vile principles; e.g. the leader principle; in its most idealized, purest, and perfect form. The entire book is like that (As is "Atlas Shrugged" but that's another discussion). There are no flaws in the system as long as you obey you are well taken care of, except for that pesky "being ready to die at the drop of a hat on your leaders command" bit.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    37. Re:Awesome satire. by plopez · · Score: 1

      He was all based around the leader principle.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    38. Re:Awesome satire. by plopez · · Score: 1

      Seriously do you think anyone in Hollywood will even read the book? Skim it maybe at best. Then watch the movie and rework the script to amp up special effects. Done and done.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    39. Re:Awesome satire. by plopez · · Score: 1

      As if anyone in Hollywood reads books.

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    40. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you want to see some shit watch 'enemy of the state'. At the time it was considered 'thats wacky they dont have all of that'. Well turns out they do.

    41. Re:Awesome satire. by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Hahahaha.

      Well said.

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    42. Re:Awesome satire. by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      You're so smart to figure out that "there is no race, we're all humans", but you still want to use the term 'racism'. And you act like the poster before you is the stupid one.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    43. Re:Awesome satire. by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      He was all based around the leader principle.

      Are you referring to the Fuehrer Principle?

      Or is there a different principle that is using the English word 'leader' and not the German version of the word.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    44. Re:Awesome satire. by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

      Listening to you, S.T. is the new Nostradamus movie style. One can see anything in any movie as long as he (usually) likes it. S.T. is just an average movie, deal with it.

      --
      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    45. Re:Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      Ftfy:

      Generate fear => never ending war => $$$$

    46. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who's "they", the entire world of Islam? You're mad.

    47. Re:Awesome satire. by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Well, if you look at what a "good" Christian from 1916 or 1516 would think of 2016's society he'd be pretty shocked and appalled. The religion we have today is the same religion as the one burning witches at the stake, but the content is malleable because the Bible is full of allegories and euphemisms, not to mention we often plain out ignore certain chapters that conflict with modern society. People think other religions are like their own religion and that their Holy Book is just as much a guideline as our own Holy Book and that they can assimilate modern principles into their religion as easily as we did in ours. Experience from practice suggests that's not the case, but as long as people believe that they don't see the harm.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    48. Re:Awesome satire. by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yes, the poster messed up but the book isn't really fascism as we know it either.
      Politically it is the Roman Republic in space which is not a bad model to use in SF and Heinlein turned it into a more believable space empire than anyone else I can think of (others generally don't go into detail and use it for plot) . Yes I where the word fascism comes from but Heinlein's space Romans do not resemble the English definition.
      As for pinning the views on the author (despite various characters even giving justifications and explanations in the text), his book "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" has politics that is almost the opposite (and just as believable in the situation.

      The thing that annoyed me the most about the movie, which had about as little to do with the book as Abrams version of Trek had to do with others, is that the troops just ran around like sheep getting killed by bugs instead of working together like in the book.

    49. Re:Awesome satire. by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Like I said, anything remotely offensive is branded racist...or, in your case, bigoted. Can't say anything critical about certain politically-protected groups, now, can we? Even when it's true, speaking it aloud gets you the PC equivalent of the scarlet letter.

      Please, find me something incorrect in the poster's statement regard the central tenets of Islam? Homosexuality is a deadly sin, repression of women, religious indoctrination...if this were called "Christianity" instead of "Islam" you'd be calling them backwards, knuckle-dragging, inbred hillbillies who are stupidly worshiping a sky fairy. Alas, bashing Christians is in vogue, just as defending Muslims is in vogue.

      Gotta love progressives. Hypocrisy, doublethink, and cognitive dissonance are so entertaining to watch.

      --
      In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    50. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have been on the attack for about 1400 years!

      By my calculations, that's about 300 years less than Christianity.

      "Muslims" were never a heterogeneous group. Some Muslims were on our side in some wars and other Muslims were on the other side. The most obvious example is WW1, where Arab groups were on our side against the Ottoman Empire. As an additional fun fact, almost no Muslim-majority countries took a side in the Cold War.

    51. Re:Awesome satire. by CaptainLard · · Score: 1

      To this generation, anything vaguely hinting of duty and authority is immediately branded fascist.

      Hey look! This guy is from the establishment and trying to control us with regulations and take our guns! Since he wants such a strong government he must be a Democrat!

    52. Re:Awesome satire. by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      You are aware, I trust, that the majority of Muslims aren't Arabs, right?

      Or maybe not. The level of knowledge of some people here outside fairly limited technical areas is stunning. It's like a forum filled with Rain Man-like idiot savants who can memorize phone books, but have absolutely no knowledge of the world outside their house.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    53. Re:Awesome satire. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Pointing out that a bigoted rant is a bigoted rant isn't bigotry. It's also useful to note that not all prejudice is bad. For instance, being prejudiced against racist ignorant morons who have no fucking idea what they're talking about isn't bad. It's good.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    54. Re:Awesome satire. by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      To this generation, anything vaguely hinting of duty and authority is immediately branded fascist.

      To this generation, the vast majority of institutions and people who have found themselves in positions of authority have shown themselves to be deeply corrupt and generally rotten to the core.

      Anything remotely offensive is immediately branded racist whether race is actually involved at all (for example, being against Islamic extremism is frequently called "racist" despite the fact that Islam is a religion, not a race).

      Congratulations, you can read an old dictionary. For the record, being against Islamic extremism isn't the problem and never has been. Everyone who isn't an Islamic extremist is against Islamic extremism.

      The problem is that the sentiment is more typically expressed as being against Islam in general, and being against refugees (or non-refugee immigrants) trying to get away from Islamic extremism in particular. What would you call that if not "racism"?

      We've raised an entire generation of hyper-sensitive, easily-offended, thin-skinned "citizens" who are utterly repelled at the concepts espoused in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers."

      What the generation who grew up then doesn't seem to realise is that those "concepts espoused" were quite new at the time. The time between the start of World War 2 and when Starship Troopers was published is shorter than the time between the end of the Cold War and today. It was published just over a year before Eisenhower's speech warning of the military-industrial complex.

      Traditional values typically aren't. Conservatives typically don't.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    55. Re:Awesome satire. by rholtzjr · · Score: 1

      We've raised an entire generation of hyper-sensitive, easily-offended, thin-skinned "citizens" who are utterly repelled at the concepts espoused in Heinlein's "Starship Troopers."

      I blame it on Barney the Dinosaur ("I love you, you love me.....". I could not get that stupid song out of my head for years).

    56. Re: Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      I think you're right, there is a lot of violence in some muslim countries. But I think the bigger threat to USA is his "war on terrorism" which by definition never ends and requires us to give up more and more of our freedoms.

      Think about it. "Iraq war" we won because we caught Saddam. "Afghanistan war" I guess wound down because the Al Quaeda was pretty much broken. But the War on Terrorism has no fixed endpoint. We will be fighting it forever.

      Pop quiz hotshot: there has always been terrorism, and there always will be terrorism.

    57. Re: Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      Your larger point is true, but i think the GP was talking about Wahhabi and Sufi extremists sects, which are very much based in the middle east. These are the main generators of the violent extremist muslim ideology.

      I'm not even sure what their end goal is. Maybe they don't know. I think they want to impose extreme ideological purity, as defined by their own philosophy, on everyone else. And they are willing to use all manner of extremist violence to achieve it.

    58. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please, find me something incorrect in the poster's statement regard the central tenets of Islam?

      Sure, here you go:

      "Islam is a form of government that uses religion as it's basis of authority and legitimacy. It is an authoritarian theocracy designed for world conquest."

      What is accurate about that? Pretty much nothing, as far as I can see.

      And before you answer... find a Muslim family who is fleeing one of those authoritarian theocracies that you speak of and ask them what they think.

    59. Re:Awesome satire. by lenski · · Score: 1

      Can't argue that... The book discussed a utopian ideal that (as you note correctly is much like Atlas Shrugged) cannot exist in reality.

    60. Re:Awesome satire. by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      which part are you deeply unsure of? That humans attacked the bugs first, and that news snippets during the movie actually spent a couple seconds talking about protestors pointing that out? Or that the whole thing was obvious satire?

      I have found that a huge percentage of America does not understand satire at all. Satire requires introspection and an ability to think critically, both considered bad by a lot of people.

      Probably the best example is Poe's law, which I end up passing through a lot. Where a satire ridiculing an extreme position is indistinguishable from what a person who actually believes that extreme position would write.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    61. Re:Awesome satire. by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      Yeah, sounds like the new movie is going to be serious about being fascist instead of taking the piss out of it.

    62. Re:Awesome satire. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      To this generation, the vast majority of institutions and people who have found themselves in positions of authority have shown themselves to be deeply corrupt and generally rotten to the core.

      That's no way to talk about Hillary!

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    63. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are those darn kids on your lawn again?

      A few were on mine, but I shot 'em.

      I got em new ones. Just look like sprinklers. Sensitive to movement they say.

    64. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's great, but what does the movie being a satire have to do with the book promoting fascism?
      You seem to be one of those assholes who immediately when they see something that they can't understand automatically jumps to "this guy is wrong" and never stops to consider that perhaps your understanding of the situation is flawed. Might want to work on that.

    65. Re:Awesome satire. by Pseudonym · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's no way to talk about Hillary!

      There's an insightful meme going around to the effect that this election is a choice between everything that's wrong about US government and everything that's wrong about US culture. Lest anyone accuse me of false equivalence, one corollary of this is that at least (and, quite possibly at most) Clinton won't make things worse.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    66. Re:Awesome satire. by ravenshrike · · Score: 2

      Remove head from rectum, and read SiaSL, TMiaHM, Friday, and Job.

    67. Re:Awesome satire. by Boronx · · Score: 1

      The article is referring to the book, not the movie. The book is pretty fascist.

    68. Re:Awesome satire. by Boronx · · Score: 1

      Real life is full of dip shit thieves, which is why Heinleins society (important parts of which have already been tried) will never work or even be a good idea.

    69. Re:Awesome satire. by Cyberax · · Score: 2

      "Starship Troopers" is not "remotely" hinting at anything. It _is_ fascist militarist fiction. It's funny that Heinlein himself couldn't even justify it in-novel. Read it again, you'll see a dialog about why they keep voting rights to military - the answer is basically "just because".

      The behavior of troopers is also contrary to the modern rules and laws of war.

    70. Re:Awesome satire. by ravenshrike · · Score: 2

      If it were a utopian ideal, then people wouldn't have been leaving the planet in droves(Or did you think all those colonists were just bored?). Indeed, apart from how you gain the franchise and that it is some form of representative democracy, very little specific to the operation of the government is even described in the book.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    71. Re:Awesome satire. by tsotha · · Score: 1

      The movie didn't have much in the way of "cerebral aspects". Read the book - it's an easy read and not very long.

    72. Re:Awesome satire. by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      That "something" was murder and the "protestor" was never referred to as such. Otherwise, your memory is great.

    73. Re:Awesome satire. by Boronx · · Score: 2

      Heinlein's society is basically a military controlled utopia. If Fascism had worked like fascist thought it would, it would have turned out something like this. Because its fiction, Heinlein can portray everything turning out fine, but you don't have to believe it.

      What happens when those who did not serve want political power nevertheless? What does the military do to stop them? Do we even need to pose this hypothetical? There are thousands and thousands of histories of countries run by a military backed minority.

      Someone once said that Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. This is cruel, but at least the majority is satisfied. Heinlein is the same thing, but the sheep and one wolf don't get a vote.

      The book doesn't seem racist to me. Maybe they mean that us-or-them attitude the book takes towards alien antagonists.

    74. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure they were talking about the novel, which does indeed present an extreme form of nationalism and a war against a truly alien foe set on the planet of a pacifist/demoralized third species. Paul Verhoven did not write the novel, and the novel does not have cheeky commercials. I love both the novel and the movie, but they're very, very different.

    75. Re: Awesome satire. by Time_Ngler · · Score: 2

      Especially now that one of presidential candidates is funded by the same people that fund terrorism and hold the oil needed to fight wars with.

    76. Re:Awesome satire. by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

      The movie did put irony into a book that was written as an experiment to see how far that you could stretch some notions in society. Heinlein did that often in his books - trying to experiment with what can humans become when certain rules were applied.

      Take a book that has brought society to an extreme not very different from the Nazi Germany extreme and then apply a layer of irony upon that when making the movie. I think that it's going to be hard to actually top that. Many movies that are literal to the books are usually ending up too stiff to be good.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    77. Re: Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1, Funny

      The terrorists want donald trump to win.

    78. Re: Awesome satire. by David_Hart · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think you're right, there is a lot of violence in some muslim countries. But I think the bigger threat to USA is his "war on terrorism" which by definition never ends and requires us to give up more and more of our freedoms.

      Think about it. "Iraq war" we won because we caught Saddam. "Afghanistan war" I guess wound down because the Al Quaeda was pretty much broken. But the War on Terrorism has no fixed endpoint. We will be fighting it forever.

      Pop quiz hotshot: there has always been terrorism, and there always will be terrorism.

      "The war on Drugs" had it's role to play in the militarization of police forces. It too has no end and required giving up rights such as overly broad search and seizure laws, mandatory sentencing, etc. The War on terror takes it even further. But, in my opinion, without the war on drugs, the freedoms lost to the war on terror would have shocked people to no end.

    79. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also best sound track. Ever.

    80. Re:Awesome satire. by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      why they keep voting rights to military - the answer is basically "just because".

      They don't restrict voting rights to the military - read it again. I could be wrong, but I think most of the serving military couldn't vote, not having finished their first term. You had to have completed some sort of term of service to the community (military was just one option) to earn the vote.

      Heinlein himself couldn't even justify it in-novel

      The entire book is presented from the point of view of people raised in the society. Therefore, everything about the society, our protagonist and his friends see as normal, because that's what they grew up with. It's neither presented as particularly good or bad, just the way things are. It's never "justified", merely explained.

      Heinlein wrote many books about some particular political ideology taken to its logical extreme, in a (mostly) sincere and non-corrupt way, running the spectrum from fascism to libertarianism. They each explored the good and bad elements of that society, for there are always both in any interesting society.

      The behavior of troopers is also contrary to the modern rules and laws of war.

      There are no "laws" of war, there are treaties, binding only as long as both sides adhere to them. (As an aside, the last enemy the US fought that signed the Geneva convention was the Nazis - everyone since then has behaved worse than the Nazis towards captives and civilians). Do you believe the bugs signed any such treaties?

      Or are you talking about the military traditions that set so much of modern military behavior? In a fictional world with its own history and traditions? Most of what played out in the military was exactly as Johnnie expected, suggesting it was fully in line with military tradition.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    81. Re:Awesome satire. by lgw · · Score: 1

      Heinlein's book was an unselfconscious Libertarian fantasy,

      Are you confusing it with Moon? Nothing about the society was libertarian - it was straight-up authoritarian. It's often described as fascist, but I think that's people conflating any sort of authoritarianism with fascism.

      The big miss of Verhoeven's movie was that it showed the soldiers as poorly equipped and expendable, quite the opposite of the book (where everyone was in powered battle armor, and superior 1-on-1 against a bug soldier).

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    82. Re:Awesome satire. by lgw · · Score: 1

      libertarian proto fascist philosophy

      You do realize that libertarianism and fascism/authoritarianism are opposite ends of a political spectrum, right? Because you seem pretty confused about this.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    83. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Starship Troopers has been derided for promoting progrock techno-melodic wizardry.

    84. Re:Awesome satire. by lgw · · Score: 1

      The book is pretty fascist.

      What does that mean? Is a history of Germany in the 30s a book that is "pretty fascist"? The book described a society (authoritarian, but not fascist, there are other sorts of authoritarian governments you know), neither endorsing nor condemning it, instead describing it from the point of view of someone who grew up there, horrifying bits and all.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    85. Re:Awesome satire. by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      They don't restrict voting rights to the military - read it again. I could be wrong, but I think most of the serving military couldn't vote, not having finished their first term. You had to have completed some sort of term of service to the community (military was just one option) to earn the vote.

      I actually re-read the portion describing it and they DO restrict rights to those who served in the Federal Service. Though the book does state that most servicemen (as in most real armies) do not see any combat.

      It's neither presented as particularly good or bad, just the way things are. It's never "justified", merely explained.

      Heinlein quite obviously tries to justify it in-universe and pretty much fails.

      I found the relevant piece:

      Sally didn't tell it by the book. Finally Major Reid cut him off. "Bring a summary to class tomorrow, three thousand words. Mr. Salomon, can you give me a reason—not historical nor theoretical but practical—why the franchise is today limited to discharged veterans?"

      "Uh, because they are picked men, sir. Smarter."

      "Preposterous!"

      "Sir?"

      "Is the word too long for you? I said it was a silly notion. Service men are not brighter than civilians. In many cases civilians are much more intelligent. That was the sliver of justification underlying the attempted coup d'etat just before the Treaty of New Delhi, the so-called ‘Revolt of the Scientists': let the intelligent elite run things and you'll have utopia. It fell flat on its foolish face of course. Because the pursuit of science, despite its social benefits, is itself not a social virtue; its practitioners can be men so self-centered as to be lacking in social responsibility. I've given you a hint, Mister; can you pick it up?"

      Sally answered, "Uh, service men are disciplined, sir."

      Major Reid was gentle with him. "Sorry. An appealing theory not backedup by facts. You and I are not permitted to vote as long as we remain in the Service, nor is it verifiable that military discipline makes a man self-disciplined once he is out; the crime rate of veterans is much like that of civilians. And you have forgotten that in peacetime most veterans come from non-combatant auxiliary services and have not been subjected to the full rigors of military discipline; they have merely been harried, overworked, and endangered—yet their votes count."

      Major Reid smiled. "Mr. Salomon, I handed you a trick question. The practical reason for continuing our system is the same as the practical reason for continuing anything: It works satisfactorily.

      And there's actually a country that's close to what Heinlein dreamed of - it's China. Gaining political power unofficially requires at least some military service... with the expected results: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...

      Or are you talking about the military traditions that set so much of modern military behavior?

      Stuff like adherence to Geneva Convention: nuclear bombing a city (with "small" 2kt nuclear weapons), purposefully attacking civilian infrastructure to intimidate the population, that sort of thing. And right at the beginning of the book.

      Of course after that Heinlein invents an enemy that is completely alien and unreasonable so that chemical weapons and massive nuclear bombardments against them pose no ethical questions (which is a crime against literature). "Old Man's War" by Scalzi is much more nuanced in this regard.

    86. Re:Awesome satire. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Stuff like adherence to Geneva Convention: nuclear bombing a city (with "small" 2kt nuclear weapons), purposefully attacking civilian infrastructure to intimidate the population, that sort of thing. And right at the beginning of the book.

      So just like WWII then.

    87. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    88. Re:Awesome satire. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

      No, having been a libertarian for over a decade, I can see how quickly magical libertarianism can fall into fascism in the real world. There is nothing to block the strongest from taking over under a libertarian system. Starship troopers assumes for some magical reason the government wouldn't abuse it's power when history shows military rule is no protection against the corruption of power.

      But it was a great read as a young teenager.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    89. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're talking about bias, not prejudice.

      Prejudice means "pre-judge," i.e. it would be assuming someone is a racist ignorant moron who has no fucking idea what he's talking about based on some superficial criteria or the larger group they belong to.

      And yes, it's always bad.

    90. Re:Awesome satire. by lgw · · Score: 1

      What part of Troopers seemed in any way libertarian? The authoritarian government wasn't very corrupt, in-book because the people voting actually cared a lot about that, but it certainly "abused its power", at least from my point of view.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    91. Re:Awesome satire. by Cyberax · · Score: 0

      Oh, jeez, another idiot who thinks an author must be endorsing something just because he wrote about it. I'll leave it to you to reconcile Troopers and Moon.

      Heinlein was well-known to be militaristic (with his Navy career and everything), it's not even controversial. And I fail to see how "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress" contradicts anything, given that they ruthlessly bombard the Earth in it.

      I actually re-read "Starship Troopers" and it's even more horrifying than I remembered it. For example, "History and Moral Philosophy" course (_mandatory_ in schools) was only taught by veteran teachers (no doubt specially prepared) who then communicate their evaluation of students to the government. Or that children are taught that their ideology is scientifically superior.

      Is it the "nukular" part that's scary? Are you projecting that fear onto this fiction world for some reason?

      Not really. I just came back from a tour of the first breeder reactor in Hanford - I love everything that's radioactive. It's nuking civilian targets to use nuclear fallout as a cover that I dislike.

      So, like any war we've ever fought, then?

      Pretty much. Though the US is getting better.

      Fuck Scalzi, that Hugo-ruining SJW asshole.

      But so was Heinlein. See: "Friday". If that's not a social justice war then I don't know what is.

    92. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And before you answer... find a Muslim family who is fleeing one of those authoritarian theocracies that you speak of and ask them what they think.

      How about we ask the Pulse nightclub shooter or the San Bernardino shooters?

      "Islam is a form of government that uses religion as it's basis of authority and legitimacy. It is an authoritarian theocracy designed for world conquest."

      What is accurate about that? Pretty much nothing, as far as I can see.

      And we don't see any citations to refute any of that. You don't see Sharia Law. You don't see ISIS is the Islamic State even though it's in their name, and is a theocracy.

      You don't seem to 'see' much at all if it conflicts with your worldview, do you?

    93. Re:Awesome satire. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      > Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist

      unbelievable. The entire movie is biting satire of the perils of a society always at war and a society with a universally hated enemy.

      The book. They're talking about the book Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. To be honest, I don't see how you can really make a film out of a book which was mostly about the thoughts of a guy jumping around in a suit of power-enhanced armour (Warhammer 40K's Space Marines are heavily derived from the Mobile Infantry of the book) firing miniature nuclear warheads at aliens from a distance, but there you go.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    94. Re: Awesome satire. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Your larger point is true, but i think the GP was talking about Wahhabi and Sufi extremists sects, which are very much based in the middle east. These are the main generators of the violent extremist muslim ideology.

      ...which is why it is so wrong to associate the violence with Islam. Associating the whole religion with the actions of a violent few is like blaming Burlington, Vermont for Ted Bundy's actions.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    95. Re:Awesome satire. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 2
      Prejudice is not bad, it's a core mechanism of the human brain. It is only a problem when we cease to use our higher functions to challenge it. But that's really off-topic, so to bring it back to the topic, that's the problem with Heinlein's original book. It's a long time since I read it, but I don't remember there being anything at all that challenged the idea that the Arachnids were anything but enemies, and the nicknaming of them as "bugs" was never questioned. It was a simple "they started it, let's kill em" plot.

      The real danger in the book is that at that time all wars were actually fought between humans (primitive, pre-interstellar wars are hard to picture, I know) and "nasty aliens attack and we are obliged to kill them all" hides the true moral issues that underlie genuine human conflict. This thread occurs in all countries' fiction at some point, but it just keeps bubbling back to the surface in America at the moment. Independence Day and Battle: Los Angeles were the same. Faceless, voiceless, nameless enemies that appear, attack and must therefore be killed. Do not question, merely shoot. In Independence Day, the people who believed in peaceful coexistence were the first to be killed. That's more than a little symbolic. Scary scary psychology.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    96. Re:Awesome satire. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      "Black" is not a race either, but making offensive statements about black people is pretty much racism. Islamophobia technically might not be racist, but in practice, those anti-Muslim policies are aimed at Muslims from predominantly Arabic countries. And how is "it's technically not racism, it's just religious intolerance" better, anyways?

      That's far more insightful than the zero score reflects.

      The whole concept of racism proliferates racism by reinforcing the flawed belief in "race". There is no such thing as race. For much of last century, it was believed that the humans of the different continents evolved from different ancestral species of homonid -- by talking about races, they were really talking about specieses... and people really, really believed that.

      Every time someone says "that's not racist", they're reinforcing some bullshit arbitrary distinction between nonsensical "races". And the worst part of it is, our concept of race is so skewed that you're only white if all you ancestors were, but one bit of black and you're black; for example, Barack Obama is categorised as "America's first black president" rather than "America's latest white president" and people are howling about having a "black" MJ in the latest Spiderman film. Barack Obama and Zendaya both have white mothers, so why do we define their "race" by 50% of their genes?

      Racism is racist.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    97. Re:Awesome satire. by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 1

      Stuff like adherence to Geneva Convention: nuclear bombing a city (with "small" 2kt nuclear weapons), purposefully attacking civilian infrastructure to intimidate the population, that sort of thing. And right at the beginning of the book.

      So just like WWII then.

      Yes. But we are supposed to be OK with that. And I am not OK with that.

      --
      Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
    98. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anything remotely offensive is immediately branded racist whether race is actually involved at all (for example, being against Islamic extremism is frequently called "racist" despite the fact that Islam is a religion, not a race).

      Congratulations, you can read an old dictionary. For the record, being against Islamic extremism isn't the problem and never has been. Everyone who isn't an Islamic extremist is against Islamic extremism.

      The problem is that the sentiment is more typically expressed as being against Islam in general, and being against refugees (or non-refugee immigrants) trying to get away from Islamic extremism in particular. What would you call that if not "racism"?

      How about religious discrimination. I'll admit it is not as catchy a term as racism, but it has the benefit of being accurate and true.

      Once of the reasons racism is so abhorrent is because it discriminates based on factors over which people have no control. Religious discrimination however is about something over which people do have a choice; people can, and do, abandon religions when they find they can no longer agree with them.

      While inappropriate discrimination[*] of any form is bad, muddying the waters by erroneously using the more emotively powerful and catchy term muddles the arguments against it.

      [*] I have yet to see a good argument against discrimination on the capability to do the job a candidate is being hired for.

    99. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So basically what you are saying is, "You can't handle the truth!"

    100. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...but have absolutely no knowledge of the world outside their house.

      I think the traditionally used phrase you're looking for is "parent's basement"

    101. Re: Awesome satire. by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      You need to stop watching Alex Jones mate. It's rotting your brain.

    102. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or is there a different principle that is using the English word 'leader' and not the German version of the word.

      Well those Germans do enjoy a good sing-a-long!

    103. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Although most were closer to the communist bloc.

    104. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you and your ugly, genderless friends need to stop spending so much time in the Berkeley quad with moronic, hand painted signs, and get an education.

      Islam was spread by the sword. There's a reason their holiest places were all stolen from other religions.

      The entire pilgrimage to Mecca predates Islam by centuries. As does the Quabba.

      How did Mecca fall again? Oh right... after signing a supposed "peace treaty" with Mohammud. ...Then they all got slaughtered.

      Nice religion ya got there.

    105. Re:Awesome satire. by quenda · · Score: 1

      That doubtless explains why most Muslims are not Arabs, and many Arabs are not Muslims.

      Arabs are not even a race either. They are a language group, like "Hispanic". Arabs can be white & blue-eyed, black or brown.

    106. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow that point went right over your head didn't it.

    107. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, are you telling me that there are people out there who cannot tell that starship troopers is satire?
      Are you telling me that you think that 1984 was an endorsement of a surveillance state? Or that a brave new world was actually advocating a government that determines every aspect of your life?
      Wait, let me guess, Terry Pratchett was really advocating dictatorship over democracy.
      I never realized there was even a controversy about this.

    108. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm. Maybe requiring military service (or civil service for the medically ineligible) to vote is a good idea...

    109. Re:Awesome satire. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      This. HighPickens and EditorDave should feel bad about themselves. Starship Troopers was a very, very obvious satirical piece, *mocking* racism through an analogy so transparent that anyone who does anything related to movie critique and yet didn't see the extremely obvious, overt, mocking of racism and war-for-war's sake, needs to go get a new job.

      What's more, for all the movie's ills and failings, this was the one thing it managed to get right! In the theater I laughed out loud at the ham-handed propaganda techniques used in the film reel inserts in the movie. A lot of people didn't get it. I suspect that a lot of Slashdotters don't even get it. Overestimating people is just as large a failure as underestimating them. What's fascinating is that Paul Verhoeven also made Total Recall, which is another cheesy sci-fi adaptation which manages to retain the central theme and address the main point of the book while also being an explosion-laden cheesefest. I'm more and more impressed by him as time goes by. He may not make great adaptations, but they are fun and also adress the central theme that made the book great.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    110. Re:Awesome satire. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If it were a utopian ideal, then people wouldn't have been leaving the planet in droves(Or did you think all those colonists were just bored?).

      I just thought they had a population problem, which is what would happen if you had both unlimited resources and the right to procreate. Indeed, we have one already. (Though our technology in theory will let the planet support even more people than what we have now, we're not using it that way, and we are spending through natural capital at an unsustainable rate.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    111. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's because you don't know the difference between socialist and communist

    112. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not prejudice. Prejudice is "pre judge", i.e. making up your mind on something before having relevant details. It's impossible to be prejudiced against racist ignorant morons who have no fucking idea what they're talking about, because them being racist ignorant morons who have no fucking idea what they're talking about is a factual judgment with nothing "pre" about it. Totally agree with the parent's statement, of course. Nothing unreasonable about pointing out that a bigoted rant is a bigoted rant.
      That said, declaring someone a racist ignorant moron etc without prior cause, because they support a certain politician, or live in a certain region, or have a given religion? That's prejudice. Deciding you're against bigoted rants before you hear the actual rant? That's not.

    113. Re:Awesome satire. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Heinlein quite obviously tries to justify it in-universe and pretty much fails.

      He doesn't try. His character tries. Go look to see what Heinlein's next book is if you don't think that Troopers was meant as satire.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    114. Re:Awesome satire. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Lest anyone accuse me of false equivalence, one corollary of this is that at least (and, quite possibly at most) Clinton won't make things worse.

      That's an incredibly stupid thing to say. The status quo is that things keep getting worse for the populace. Clinton is the status quo candidate. Thus, the one thing we can place money upon is that under Clinton, things will get worse. This is not an endorsement of Trump; it is rather a condemnation of your sloppy thinking.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    115. Re:Awesome satire. by Monkius · · Score: 2

      That the book is a satire. In fact, I don't think anyone who has read it thinks it is (though it doesn't take itself very seriously). The movie takes potshots at facism and war propaganda, yes.

      --
      Matt
    116. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The statement by Graeme McMillan (citing the novel) is flat out wrong. The novel isn't racist and facist. The movie was racist and facist, albeit as satire.

    117. Re:Awesome satire. by drinkypoo · · Score: 0

      Well, if you look at what a "good" Christian from 1916 or 1516 would think of 2016's society he'd be pretty shocked and appalled.

      It's funny you mention that since all the same criticisms of Islam are also valid when leveled against Christianity. Christianity also puts God's law above the laws of men. Christianity is also replete with massacres against unbelievers. Remember when Moses told his followers to kill all the men and older women, and keep only the virgin women? Good times!

      The only substantive difference between Christianity and Islam is that Christianity was people writing a book to give them excuse to conquer some land because they didn't have any, and Islam was people writing a book to give them an excuse to conquer some land because they wanted more. A Christian sect already attempted to conquer the world and make us all live like them. It was called The Inquisition — its last public execution happened in 1826, but The Vatican's Congregation of the Inquisition stuck around until 1908 — at which point they simply renamed it to the "Holy Office", and it is still around. The only reason the inquisition is not in full swing is that the Catholics don't have the power any more.

      Religion must be eliminated if we are to go forward together as a species. Not outlawed and systematically destroyed, but simply educated away. Studies show that religion cannot survive mass education, so we should be educating the religious by any means necessary. It's a war that they're making on us, we have to make war back — but without making martyrs. That means something sneakier than just killing them.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    118. Re:Awesome satire. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      For instance, being prejudiced against racist ignorant morons who have no fucking idea what they're talking about isn't bad. It's good.

      Well, you have there in a nutshell why I don't trust religious people. They're not all racist, but they are all willfully ignorant and most of them are morons. That most people in general are morons does nothing to detract from the argument. Indeed, it strengthens it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    119. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oops, just read the original submission. The parenthetical note attributing the racism and fascism to the novel was added by EditorDavid, not by Graeme McMillan or TFA. The error here lies in the summary. The quote, if read in original context and attributed (properly) to the 1997 movie, is factual.

    120. Re:Awesome satire. by Dogtanian · · Score: 2

      That wasn't the point being made.

      Noah Haders felt able to criticise the article despite it being obvious he'd never actually read it- only someone relying on the misleadingly-edited summary would have taken it to refer to the film, rather than the book.

      Meanwhile, his comment was edited up to "5: Insightful" by people who- equally obviously- hadn't read the article either.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    121. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, people don't even know what the words mean. They are just extremists for the sake of trying to be "different".

    122. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, let's see in Christianity, homosexuality is a deadly sin. Women should respect and obey their husbands, and the weekly thing called Church is religious indoctrination. Both are backwards, knuckle-dragging, inbred systems of though founded and brought about when we thought that frogs spontaneously generated from mud, heavier objects fell faster than lighter ones, and the Earth was the center of the universe.

      The problem isn't which religion, it's that any system which is based on belief of non-falsifiable statements is fertile ground for making people's lives miserable.

    123. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot the "war on poverty"...

      Research the "March of dimes"...

      It is probably a sad fact that humans are basically sheep.

    124. Re:Awesome satire. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      No, having been a libertarian for over a decade, I can see how quickly magical libertarianism can fall into fascism in the real world. There is nothing to block the strongest from taking over under a libertarian system.

      Versus a Democracy, or Republic, or Socialist ideology which can never fall into fascism in the real world... Libertarianism at least tries to maintain some semblance of "power from the people" as opposed to most of the other government ideologies.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    125. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure you meant Salafi not Sufi. Sufi are earmarked for extermination by the former (in short, Sufism is known for introspection and mysticism). Or by the ISIS/Al Qaida types, if exhalted but non-violent Salafi and Wahhabi somehow do exist.

      The issue of violence may transcend sects in some way. Saudi and Qatar instill violence for political gains or cold war with the Iran/Syria block. I will happily depict Salafi and Wahhabi as pawns of the Saudi, manipulated to play for the interests of Saudi, the US and even Israel. Sort of like terrorists and political extremists sponsored by the CIA or the Soviet Union.
      But then again I will ask to be careful, like saying "this war is a war between Sunni and Shia" has limits. Because hell, that's kind of a US war propaganda talking point.

    126. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That's no way to talk about Hillary!

      There's an insightful meme going around to the effect that this election is a choice between everything that's wrong about US government and everything that's wrong about US culture. Lest anyone accuse me of false equivalence, one corollary of this is that at least (and, quite possibly at most) Clinton won't make things worse.

      Things can always get worse.

    127. Re: Awesome satire. by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      I live in Western Europe. I've got a better idea of what's going on here than someone on the other side of the Atlantic who doesn't leave their basement. What I think of Islam is largely irrelevant.

    128. Re: Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The movie has a lot more to think about than the book. The movie is actually incredibly well done satire, at least considering it's own popularity.

    129. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Starship Troopers" is not "remotely" hinting at anything. It _is_ fascist militarist fiction.

      There's nothing fascist about that society. Facists believe that democracy is obsolete, but in that society anybody can vote - provided they first serve - and voting is very important. Voting is not tied to sex, or race, or land ownership, or wealth. That society is far more democratic than Athenian democracy (where only 15-20% of the population could vote), and more democratic than any society where voting is based on wealth or land ownership (such as many democratic societies throughout history).

      Universal suffrage has not been and does not need to be a defining characteristic for a society to be viewed as a liberal democracy - because throughout history the vast majority of liberal democracies have not had it, and there are still liberal democracies that do not have it today. For example, in 2008 in the USA we find 5.8 million people were not allowed to vote as a result of with felony convictions, and another 11 million do not get to vote as a result of being "illegal" aliens (even if they have lived here for decades).

      Labeling that society fascist is simply a way to reject the ideas without having to resort to logic or reason. It's knee-jerk reactionism.

    130. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah automatically branding somebody/something as fascist or racist immediately is pretty absurd. You know what also doesn't help? Painting a whole generation as "thin-skinned citizens" who are easily-offended. They will inherit the earth. Might be better to engage with them instead of painting them as the bad guys.

    131. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The undiscerning often have trouble telling satire apart from the real thing.

      I recall that for years a lot of conservatives thought that Steven Colbert was one of them.

    132. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heinlein's ideas about government were comically naive and a recipe for an utterly ineffective and corrupt military.

      This is par for the course with Heinlein. He never follows his ideas through to their logical conclusion, rather he follows them through to a fantasy conclusion where they always work great.

      He was a great author but it's dangerous to think of him as anything more than a mediocre political thinker.

    133. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gotta love conservatives. Blaming all the problems on progressives.

      It's funny. When it comes to guns killing people, guns and/or gun culture are never remotely the problem. It's always the "bad guy" behind the gun. However with Islam, it's never about the individual and always about the religion. Apparently you can't have a good person wielding Islam? Absurd.

      The real hypocrisy is not thinking Christianity is as absurd as Islam.

    134. Re:Awesome satire. by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      You say rights, plural. What's the second one? The franchise is the only right given to Service veterans in the book. You could call preferential job treatment in certain job sectors a right, except given it requires a 20 yeah run, that's not applicable to the majority of citizens.

    135. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ther movie was retarded bullshit. There is nothing to be gained from watching it. It wasn't "satire," it was "incompetence."

      There's a phenomenal novel of the same name. Perhaps one day they'll make a movie of that.

    136. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is fair to say that the novel is fairly fascistic because it is, it is also also a good reading despite all the non sense

    137. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't do either then - vote Johnson !

    138. Re:Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      > rather than "America's latest white president"

      A characteristic that ALL presidents shared at one point or another.

    139. Re:Awesome satire. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      You can prejudge based on facts (you never have complete facts).

      I am prejudiced against crack heads and tweakers for example. I don't have to know they are thieves, I assume it. That's prejudice, but it's completely reasonable.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    140. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They even have a "recruitment" video where they talk about a protestor doing something one day, being tried that day, then being publicly executed the next day.

      A murderer, not a protestor.

    141. Re: Awesome satire. by Time_Ngler · · Score: 1

      I was actually talking about Hillary. The Clinton foundation accepted donations from Qatar and tried to hide it, and according to wikileaks, the government of Qatar is funding ISIL.

      http://mobile.reuters.com/arti...

      From https://wikileaks.org/podesta-...

      we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence >> assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, >> which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and >> other radical Sunni groups in the region.

    142. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Universal suffrage has not been and does not need to be a defining characteristic for a society to be viewed as a liberal democracy - because throughout history the vast majority of liberal democracies have not had it, and there are still liberal democracies that do not have it today. For example, in 2008 in the USA we find 5.8 million people were not allowed to vote as a result of with felony convictions, and another 11 million do not get to vote as a result of being "illegal" aliens (even if they have lived here for decades).

      It's also common to have many laws affecting people that they are not allowed to vote for. For example, people who live outside a jurisdiction but own land in it do not get to vote on local property taxes - which often means jurisdictions have higher taxes on non-residents than residents.

      No ethical government would do that, of course. But you won't have much success finding ethical government in many places.

      Similar issues arise with respect to laws passed before a person is born, or old enough to vote, and with respect to judicial precedent. Many people in so-called "democracies" do not actually get to vote for the laws that affect them, or how those laws are interpreted. Nobody calls these states fascist unless they meet a very different standard than just limited voting.

    143. Re:Awesome satire. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Are those darn kids on your lawn again?

      The kids that were on my lawn were sent over to Iraq, and have not come back...

    144. Re:Awesome satire. by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      > The entire movie is biting satire

      I have little doubt that was at least part of Paul Verhoeven intention. His execution left much to be desired though. So I could easily forgive someone who watched it and thought it was just an extraordinarily poor attempt at rendering Heinlein's work onto the screen. Even if he'd done as good a job at satire as he did with, for example, Robocop; that would still miss a lot of the point of the book though. Heinlein's novel was very much more nuanced than the "military good, war good, only good bug is a dead bug" screed that Verhoeven seems to have taken away and wanted to tear down.

      Remember, Paul Verhoeven has had a very much "hit or miss" career. When he did good... Robocop, Total Recall... he really nailed it. When he did bad... Showgirls, Starship Troopers... he knocked out some real stinkers.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    145. Re:Awesome satire. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      ... I actually re-read the portion describing it and they DO restrict rights to those who served in the Federal Service. Though the book does state that most servicemen (as in most real armies) do not see any combat. ...

      In the book, "Federal Service" includes many things besides Military. What we call First Responders, things like Forest FireWatch, Space exploration, Disaster Rescue, many things that most don't want to do but has to be done.

    146. Re:Awesome satire. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Stuff like adherence to Geneva Convention: nuclear bombing a city (with "small" 2kt nuclear weapons), purposefully attacking civilian infrastructure to intimidate the population, that sort of thing. And right at the beginning of the book.

      So just like WWII then.

      Yes. But we are supposed to be OK with that. And I am not OK with that.

      The characters in the book were ok with it. The citizens in WWII were ok with it. You are not one of the characters in the book.

    147. Re:Awesome satire. by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Actually it doesn't. The book itself doesn't name any other occupations in the "Federal Service". Later author's comments expand it, but not the book itself.

    148. Re:Awesome satire. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Satire is what happens when someone wants to make Innovative Art, but doesn't know how, and then gets despirate.

      Never do satire, especially when people can't see your face. It will only make people thing you are a bit stupid... ;-)

    149. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Serious. Anyone who says the movie was "pro-fascism" is mental midget who completely didn't understand what they were watching. Fucking dim bulbs!!

    150. Re:Awesome satire. by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      Perhaps the original post has been edited. It now says that the novel has been accused of promoting fascism and being racist. The film is clearly a satire of militarism - which was why many Heinlein fans hated it, they felt it was a perversion of the author's intent. It sounds like the filmmakers are aiming to do a sort of Heinlein Light - softening the fascist and racist aspects while retaining the book's positivity toward military service and its take on the responsibilities of citizenship. I don't know whether it's possible to achieve that balance or whether the original source is too flawed under the lens of current day politics.

    151. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the book, the Bugs never tried to communicate with humanity, and never responded to human communication attempts. Humanity only learned ANYTHING about them through the Humanoids (the 'Skinnies'), an Arachnid subject/allied race. After Humanity did enough damage to both parties, their alliance broke apart, and the Humanoids formed a separate peace with Humanity.

      But even at the end of the book, when the Bugs had been reduced to just their homeworld, and Humanity was closing in with planet-cracker bombs and overwhelming force, the Bugs refused to negotiate or surrender.

      If you want parallels, try looking at World War Two - the Nazis and Italians as the Bugs and Skinnies.
      All your dehumanizing talk has less to do with real world propaganda, and more with entertainment - by making the enemy faceless aliens, you don't offend any of your potential markets. Unlike, say, the Red Dawn remake, which learned the hard way that you can't blame the Chinese or Russians anymore.

    152. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, y'all rate this garbage +4 informative?

    153. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist

      unbelievable. The entire movie is biting satire of the perils of a society always at war and a society with a universally hated enemy. It's brilliant in its insights; coming out in 1997, it presaged the mess that was 9/11 / war in iraq / war in afghanistan / ISIS. It's a flippin awesome movie and I think they should show it in schools to educate about the dangers of mindlessly buying into the war economy.

      At last weekend's Comikaze convention in Los Angeles, I had an extended conversation about this with Caspar Van Diem. A cool guy!
      I assume the new movie will be a lame rehash of action scenes, without any insights to be had.

      Did you even READ the novel? The movie is as related to the novel as a Donald duck comic would be.

    154. Re:Awesome satire. by dywolf · · Score: 1

      they call it racist because its also usually seen, and opposed, on ethnic grounds, which is pretty close to "racist". and religionist and ethnicist aren't really words in use yet.

      and really, what you're describing, is really just your own nostalgia at not being able to be openly and publicly prejudiced anymore.
      we're not thin skinned because we disagree with the open use of slurs, nor is disagreement with such usage naiveté.
      instead we are better people for it, as is the nation.

      as no, we don't require a cadre of protectors we disagree with.
      this may be news to you, but many of us are veterans and police officers and other guardian type folks.

      Heinlein's book is largely garbage. among his works, it's probably one of his weakest. the main redeeming quality, beside some fairly entertaining space opera, is when it's main character is viewed as an example of good leadership (hence it's presence on the Commandant's Reading List). and I don't think he wrote it to be a treatise on government; he simply chose a background setting that fit the story he wanted to tell. but calling its backdrop fascist is accurate.

      in short, shutup dude, you don't know what youre talking about.
      the kids are gonna be alright, just like you were, despite your forbears making the same dire predictions.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    155. Re:Awesome satire. by dywolf · · Score: 0

      more bigoted BS from you.
      shocking.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    156. Re:Awesome satire. by dywolf · · Score: 1

      if it were valid criticism you'd have a point.
      but its not.

      its naked bigotry and outright lies based in ignorance and falsehoods trying to cloak itself under the guise of "criticism" despite having no valid claim to that word.

      no, hundreds of thousands of "middle eastern fighting age males" are not being imported.
      no the screening isn't laughable (but your ignorance is).

      no, those weren't central tenets anymore than grabbing a random line of law out of Exodus makes it a central tenet of Christianity.
      by focusing on just those parts of Islam you reveal your own ignorance about everything else in the religion, labeling an entire religion on the basis of a few extremists who falsely claim the religion and base their world view on just a few sentences of the book. that's no more valid than labeling all Christians as homophobes and bigots on the basis of the Westboro Baptists obsession with homosexuals deriving a single line of the Old Testament.

      Its not hypocrisy to defend their right to exist against the ignorant, such as yourself, who say they have no such right, even as we criticize their shortcomings (the real ones) which we do. but notice we don't criticize all of Islam for the failing of one country. Iran has compulsory Hijab. that's bad. France has tried to ban the hijab. That's ALSO bad. The Taliban's interpretation and implementation of womens rights (ie, none) is bad. But not all Islamic countries are the same, and there have been more female heads of state from Islamic countries than western European's have (note the exclusion of central and south America cause they also have had several).

      In fact, most of the things you complain about and try to paint as applying to ALL of Islam really only apply to a few people in a few countries who are abusing their power. Should we denounce all democracies because the NSA was reading everyones email? Should we denounce all christianity because a handful of priests abused alter boys and were shielded by their bishops? Prior to the Iranian Revolution and the Taliban's defeat of the Mujahedeen and subsequent takeover of Afghanistan, both those countries were fairly secular and even westernized nations.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    157. Re:Awesome satire. by dywolf · · Score: 1

      one could make the argument that Heinlein intentionally chose a very alien enemy to highlight and embody how we dehumanize our enemies through propaganda to make them seem less than human. remember, Heinlein lived through WWII, so he saw the way the Japanese and Germans were depicted. especially the Japanese (since there were still far far more people of German descent and even with family still over there who might call BS on going too far). and we continued to do the same in regards to communist Russia.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    158. Re:Awesome satire. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Indeed but to the same people that say this being anti-Jew is considered "Good." Disgusting.

    159. Re:Awesome satire. by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      The thing that annoyed me the most about the movie, which had about as little to do with the book as Abrams version of Trek had to do with others, is that the troops just ran around like sheep getting killed by bugs instead of working together like in the book.

      Due to the obvious lack of heavy weapons, armor, any sort of tactics, etc used in fighting the bugs, I figured they were being sent out against the bugs by the government to get killed. Using small arms like they did against the bugs was pretty much the wrong tool for the problem. The point to using a weapon is to be able to kill, or at least neutralize the threat from, the opponent with a single use of it.

    160. Re:Awesome satire. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      No, you are 100% wrong. Active duty soldiers cannot vote - re-read the book. They 'vote' by staying in the military and supporting the system under which they live by making their drops etc. Plus the national service required to earn the franchise might not be military. Re-read the book. When your race (the human race) is fighting against another race (not the human race) that is trying to destroy you utterly you might find that rules of war go out the window. Just saying.

    161. Re:Awesome satire. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      The difference between China and ST is that the residents - non citizens - had civil rights and property rights - and last i noted in the ST there was not 'mobile execution vans' going round killing criminals.

    162. Re:Awesome satire. by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      Did you READ THE BOOK? As opposed to watching that movie that had almost nothing in common with the book?

    163. Re: Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Which doesn't say that Clinton is funded by Qatar. The Clinton Foundation accepted a very large donation. I'd think the government of Qatar thought they'd get special access to the Secretary of State. I'd need more evidence to know if they got it.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    164. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      Islam is a form of government that uses religion as it's basis of authority and legitimacy

      Islam is a religion, not a form of government. Muslim countries tend to be authoritarian, but they aren't a single theocracy (well, ISIS purports to be the theocracy, but obviously isn't). Muslims tend to think that mixing religion and government is a good idea, which I intensely disagree with, much like a lot of Christians even now.

      Female genital mutilation is not a Muslim practice, although it seems to be predominantly in Muslim countries. If it were part if Islam, it would be much more widespread. There's lots of Muslims that believe in "honor killings" and the like; do you think they'd hesitate to mutilate young girls if it was part of their religion?

      I'm not fond of Islam, and I'm not fond of most of the Muslim societies I know of. However, they are humans, and have human rights, and right now a large number of them are bona fide refugees.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    165. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Race is primarily a social construct, and so is whatever a society defines a race as. This has varied over time, as well as what groups are classified as.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    166. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Given areas to colonize, you will get colonists who just don't like it at home.

      I thought that the most interesting departure from reality was not the scientific-looking stuff, but having an objective morality simple enough to prove stuff with. At one point in the book, Rico is assigned to write, in symbolic logic, how high a priority recovering prisoners should be after a war. Despite this, the form of government is selected "because it works", with only veterans being able to vote (although "veteran" in this case includes people with completely nonmilitary service).

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    167. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The right to vote is restricted to those who have completed their terms in Federal Service, but that's much more than just the military. Rico wanted to be in the military, and the story is from his point of view, so the rest of the service is mostly glossed over.

      It's still a bad idea, but it's a somewhat different bad idea than many people think.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    168. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      In the part about Rico's preferences, he puts down military occupations only, deciding that if he can't even get into the Mobile Infantry he didn't care what they had him do, but there's a couple of random nonmilitary possibilities mentioned.

      It was clear that a person could sign up and serve his or her term no matter what, although they'd have trouble finding a use for a blind and deaf paraplegic. A recruit that washed out in MI basic training refused to accept a medical discharge, and was still removed from the training camp.

      There's relatively little mention of non-military service in the book, but it's not a sociological treatise, it's Rico's point of view.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    169. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are so right. it appears most kids today think that the most important thing is their own skin, they have no idea that there could be a 'greater good' or anything that is more important than themselves that they would sacrifice anything for.

    170. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Heinlein's society is basically a military controlled utopia.

      The form of government is left very vague. It's some sort of democracy where only those who have completed a term of service (probably non-military) can vote. In the few glimpses we get of non-military life, there is a required course in History and Moral Philosophy, which, in Rico's school, is taught by a military veteran, but other than that I don't remember military control.

      What happens when those who did not serve want political power nevertheless?

      They are politely told to sign up like everyone else with the franchise. The idea is that a term of service is an easier way to get the vote than organizing revolution. That's the whole idea behind the form of government: it's not that people who have served are better in any way, but that people who want to change things will find it practical to serve their term.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    171. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Democracies try to maintain some semblance of "power from the people", and that includes socialist ones. Libertarianism is hardly unique here.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    172. Re:Awesome satire. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I haven't seen it. A friend of mine who liked the book told me that the movie was shot from the point of view of the bugs, who depicted themselves as people and those big scary MIs as monsters.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    173. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow, you really are stupid, aren't you? What stops me from running for President in the United States? Well, I am under 35 and not born here, those are rules, no one shoots me or anything, they are just required. Same thing in Starship Troopers. No sinister intent and the Military definitely does not run things on that world. Merely in order to be allowed to vote, you had to have FIRST done one term of service to the nation. One term of service, Dipshit, not joined the military or killed xxx number of people of xxxxx color.

      Read the fucking book, not just the passages your professor made you read to illustrate HIS/HER agenda and let you pass their course.

      Think for yourself.

    174. Re:Awesome satire. by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Is there really anyone who can't see that it's mocking racism? That the bugs are just a replacement for badguy-of-the-month, be it Muslims, or whatever else we've decided to fear and attack?

      But of course, none of this had anything at all to do with the book. The movie just grabbed a few items from the book and tried to write a whole new narrative; therefore, it should have never been called Starship Troopers based on Heinlein's book. It should have been called anything else at all. I was so disappointed when walking out of the theater. It may have been a good movie, but I never noticed. I was expecting the movie to, in some way, actually relate to the book.

      History and Moral Philosophy? WTF is THAT?

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    175. Re:Awesome satire. by strikethree · · Score: 1

      You are aware, I trust, that the majority of Muslims aren't Arabs, right?

      The majority of Muslims are not white and/or eurocentric; therefore, it does not matter if they are A-Rabs or Malaysian. They are not "us". That is all that counts... (I know you can not see my eyes rolling right now but that is ok)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    176. Re:Awesome satire. by strikethree · · Score: 1

      (As an aside, the last enemy the US fought that signed the Geneva convention was the Nazis - everyone since then has behaved worse than the Nazis towards captives and civilians)

      Hm. I will grant that burning people alive is pretty horrid but putting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people into trains without food or water and without concern for their survival (after all they were only going to get gassed. gotta love that zyklon b) seems to be against the Geneva Conventions. The Nazis also used the Jews for sexual pleasures so the forced marriages and outright rapes by subsequent aggressors can not really be considered "worse".

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
    177. Re:Awesome satire. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      That also means that much of the "flack" about the book is from people that did not understand what the book was saying, but assumed they did.

      That's why people with military experience tend to feel better about it, the military teaches people to be more careful with things! ;-)

    178. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Authority must be earned, and upon being properly earned, respected.

      Conversely, unearned authority must be bitterly opposed and rejected.

    179. Re:Awesome satire. by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      It's funny you mention that since all the same criticisms of Islam are also valid when leveled against Christianity. Christianity also puts God's law above the laws of men. Christianity is also replete with massacres against unbelievers. Remember when Moses told his followers to kill all the men and older women, and keep only the virgin women? Good times!

      The difference between Christianity and Islam is that Christianity went through a reformation and many large US Christian denominations even have female pastors, and some include LGBTQ as well. Almost all believe that God meant it when he said "Vengeance is mine" and the vast majority are quite pacifistic and nonviolent in most circumstances. There are no 'honor killings' or fatwas issued. Nobody is threatened or killed for leaving Christianity. The vast majority who do object to non-hetero sex are of the "hate the sin but love the sinner" type.

      Islam has not seen a similar reformation to adapt to modern society and still largely operates from a 6th-century set of morals, laws, principles, and practices. On the whole as it currently stands, Islam is totally incompatible with the modern world. Islam must either reform itself or risk being reformed or destroyed by the rest of the world. One of the two IS going to happen. It's up to believers in Islam to choose. So far, they have chosen violent conflict.

      Religion must be eliminated if we are to go forward together as a species. Not outlawed and systematically destroyed, but simply educated away.

      The problem is twofold; first, it is human nature to form religions/believe in supernatural forces. Short of some sort of mind-control you will fail, as the Chinese fail. Second, a functioning society that is not a prison/police state requires a common moral framework among its' citizens for peace and order to be maintained, and religion has been the only system to achieve it to any meaningful and useful degree. This is particularly true the more free and open the society is, as in such societies, restraints on personal behavior are most often self-imposed.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    180. Re:Awesome satire. by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      The term "race" really has no precise, globally accepted definition.

    181. Re:Awesome satire. by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      and read SiaSL

      What does the Southern Illinois Adult Soccer League have to do with this?

    182. Re:Awesome satire. by RespekMyAthorati · · Score: 1

      There is no such thing as race.

      It's just a word in the English language, and as such has multiple meanings.
      Associating a particular individual with a particular race is pretty much impossible,
      but there are groups of people whose ancient ancestors came
      mostly from Africa, East Asia, South Asia, northern Europe. That is a perfectly valid way to define the word "race".

    183. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is, those boundaries are arbitrary and there is more genetic variation within a "race" than between races - no matter how you define them.

      No one denies there are phenotypal variations between populations. The idea that you can group populations into a "race" in any meaningful way has been refuted.

    184. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It may have been a good movie, but I never noticed. I was expecting the movie to, in some way, actually relate to the book. History and Moral Philosophy? WTF is THAT?

      Huh? They skipped a lot of discussion and gave Rasczak lines originally spoken by Dubois and Major Reid, but otherwise that scene is almost word-for-word straight out of the book.

      Sure, they changed "Carthage" to "Hiroshima" and "soldier" to "citizen," but otherwise it's pretty much the same.

    185. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, having been a libertarian for over a decade, I can see how quickly magical libertarianism can fall into fascism in the real world. There is nothing to block the strongest from taking over under a libertarian system.

      As a young teenager without any idea what libertarianism really means, I suppose. Hint, it doesn't mean anarchism.

    186. Re: Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      I know you're talking about hillary, but I'm talking about donald trump.

    187. Re:Awesome satire. by keithrc · · Score: 1

      You completely missed the most important part of that quote: "Starship Troopers [the novel] has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist" The novel and the movie are very different in this regard. Verhoeven took an unironic novel about fascism and turned it into a satire.

    188. Re:Awesome satire. by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      I think if you read the quote in its full context you would have seen that while the author thought he was talking about the novel, infact he was talking about the movie and mischaracterizing it. You have to get inside people's heads to truly know what they mean...

    189. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Islam is a religion, not a form of government. Muslim countries tend to be authoritarian, but they aren't a single theocracy

      Why should there be? Islam is fiction. As there is no truth to it, there are splits within Islam, just like there are splits within Christianity, so why would two groups with different Islamic beliefs willingly accept a single government?

      Look at the history of Islam, it was created (seemingly by Mohammed) as a way to tell people what to do (i.e. to govern them). Christianity was created in a different environment, early Christians had no power, they had to accept the rule of government, it is more limited in the control it tries to exert over its followers.

      Female genital mutilation is not a Muslim practice, although it seems to be predominantly in Muslim countries.

      Whilst true, it has been incorporated into Islamic culture there. Without Islam keeping it going, it would die out within a few generations at most.

      I'm not fond of Islam, and I'm not fond of most of the Muslim societies I know of. However, they are humans, and have human rights, and right now a large number of them are bona fide refugees.

      Which is why we need to separate the religion from the people. Islam is a horrible religion, certainly the worst of the mainstream ones. The good people who are Muslims, are not good Muslims as if they were to follow the Islamic teachings fully, they would do things good people wouldn't do. The same is likely true for Christianity.

      All religions need to go, but I'd settle for just removing the harmful ones. I wouldn't discrimitate against someone because they identify themselves as Muslim, but only on the actions they take or views they knowingly promote.

    190. Re:Awesome satire. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Neither does "art". But we know it when we see it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    191. Re:Awesome satire. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Arguably, the movie didn't take it as far as the book, the book was even more over the top satire.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    192. Re:Awesome satire. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not very arguable. The book was not satire, it was a straightforward adventure with some philosophy sprinkled over it. You have to take into account the context of the times in which it was written.

  3. Trigger warning by William+Baric · · Score: 5, Insightful

    to make it more acceptable to today's audience

    Yeah, because today's audience prefers to be in a nice echo chamber rather than having to face something that could challenge their ideas.

    1. Re:Trigger warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      My take is they want to make a big budget action film with very little dialogue and lots of explosions, because it will do well in markets other than the US.

      The original film satirized the command and control authoritarianism of the leaders - I assume they don't wish to contradict or parody authoritarian leaders in nations where this new film may do well.

      And it won't have Michael Ironside.

    2. Re:Trigger warning by umghhh · · Score: 1

      You mean audiences in US of A do not like explosions?

    3. Re:Trigger warning by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      No, he meant it's cheaper to subtitle or voice-over if there is a minimum of spoken dialogue.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    4. Re: Trigger warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sub and dub explosions?

      I'd pay triple to see that.

      [desire to know more intensifies]

    5. Re:Trigger warning by lgw · · Score: 1

      I really don't think "challenging ideas about an authoritarian government" would play well in China, do you? Do you think they're trying to make a good movie, or make a profit? I have the lowest expectations for this one - but it they put everyone in power battle armor, I'm there.

      In the meantime, the badly-animated 3D cartoon is actually pretty good SF, and far closer to the book (though stuck with the premise of the movie, they at least added a few large power suits to the mix).

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    6. Re:Trigger warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it a trigger warning or a dog whistle? Where do these terms even come from?

  4. That was kind of the point by plover · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Heinlein didn't picture a "Service guarantees citizenship" society just to have it whitewashed away by today's PC standards. Any reboot that ignores the societal aspects may as well be filmed by Michael Bay, and just go straight to CGI exploding aliens; it won't be true to the book in any way.

    --
    John
    1. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I thought the book was a great thought-provoking read, in that it was morally honest.

      The movie was definitely fun, but not really honest, apart from a couple of scenes. Not surprising considering the director didn't even read the entire book. The director behaved precisely the way a fascist reading something that made them uncomfortable would (he didn't read it, and called it crap).

      One concept that certainly didn't translate from the book to the film was that serving didn't necessarily mean toting around a weapon. It meant putting your blood, sweat, and tears into service for society. There was also the telling commentary on who deserves blame for a crappy society in the book, with the example of the untrained puppy.

      I only wish the politicians here actually had skin in the game with these wars. About the only ones I sort of trust about these wars are those who have served or have kids serving.

      My guess is that a society like the one in the book would actually be less fascist, and less war-mongering than what we have now.

      An equally good idea that Heinlein had was the concept that everyone votes to go to war or not. All those who voted yes, are the first ones drafted. If you believe that going to war is necessary, then you should put your own ass on the line.
       

    2. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually the only non-PC, or non-modern values part of the film was the way death sentences were celebrated. The movie's society followed the ideas of US military: "be all you can be (telepaths promoted quickly)", "today's army (we got the gear) wants to join you", "look sharp (with your perfect smile), be sharp, go army", and "I want YOU (kids included) for US army."

    3. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When discussing a rather pointless task assigned to my nephew in the U.S. Army, he said, "It's Army Strong, not Army Smart."

      That's all I internally see when my eyes see advertising featuring "Join the Army" slogans.

    4. Re:That was kind of the point by lenski · · Score: 1

      Good points, I agree. Too bad reality does not and can never measure up.

      What makes the book a piece of fiction rather than "serious commentary" is the idea in the book that leaders of society could be worthy of respect, wielding their authority responsibly. What I've found in way too many years in Corporate America is that we see all of the authority and none of the responsibility.

      Thus, a nicely thought-provoking read is left behind in my childhood, overrun by reality.

    5. Re:That was kind of the point by plopez · · Score: 1

      "Be all you can be, a private taking out the garbage. That's all you can be."

      --
      putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
    6. Re:That was kind of the point by sphealey · · Score: 1

      = = = One concept that certainly didn't translate from the book to the film was that serving didn't necessarily mean toting around a weapon. It meant putting your blood, sweat, and tears into service for society.= = =

      Of course, if "society" decided to undertake an interstellar war of indefinite duration after you signed up for, e.g. the research station on Pluto, you were stuck for the duration. And not able to vote (for example, against continuing the war) until you were discharged, which would be... after the end of the war.

      sPh

    7. Re:That was kind of the point by Boronx · · Score: 1

      The book is crap. Somebody talented like Verhoeven doesn't need to read the whole thing to figure that out.

      The idea that service is the only path to citizenship, is both wrong and backwards.

      First, the military will fuck with your head if they think that will make you a better soldier. Second, they will propagandize you to the hilt if it will keep morale up.

      Lastly, the world needs as many outlooks as possible. Diversity means strength. This is true in thought as well as genetics.

    8. Re:That was kind of the point by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Because of course, you were completely unaware of this proclivity of the society you lived in and went to Pluto in a state of ignorant, terminal naivete.

    9. Re:That was kind of the point by Catbeller · · Score: 1

      The point that is eternally missed is that the required service *did not have to be military service*. For those who could not or would not serve in a defense capacity, there were other jobs to do in endless other capacities. After all, everyone isn't a potential martial artist aged 18. The idea is you put yourself in service to your society. The other main idea is that people do not value what they do not earn and perceive to be worthless: the right to vote. Which today is abundantly clear, given the small percentage who bother to vote.

    10. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heinlein explored this military service for citizenship in several of his novels.

    11. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hooray !
      No more drones - let's put Obama's and Hillary's daughters in fatigues instead. Give them a gun each, minimal training, and drop them into East Aleppo.
      See how long the wars run then ...

    12. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It meant putting your blood, sweat, and tears into service for society.

      More precisely, it meant risking your life in service of your society.

    13. Re:That was kind of the point by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The movie was definitely fun, but not really honest, apart from a couple of scenes. Not surprising considering the director didn't even read the entire book. The director behaved precisely the way a fascist reading something that made them uncomfortable would (he didn't read it, and called it crap).

      The Director was Paul Verhoeven who also directed Total Recall, another good-natured romp which nonetheless captures the central tenet of the book upon which it is based. Total Recall was (in part) about whether you can trust reality at all. Meanwhile, Troopers was a satire about fascism. If you look at Heinlein's body of work as a whole, that becomes abundantly clear. People called him a fascist (and still do! idiots) for writing Troopers, ignoring that he also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land. These are books, people. Works of fiction. They're not missives.

      My guess is that a society like the one in the book would actually be less fascist, and less war-mongering than what we have now.

      The whole point of the book is that it was more fascist and more war-mongering, and that these things go together.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:That was kind of the point by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      people forget that Heinlein was in that early era, the golden age of scifi.
      and that just cause he wrote doesn't mean he agrees with it.
      rather, he and his peers, as shepherded by the great editor John W Campbell, were pushed to explore ideas and themes, including ones they themselves didn't agree with.

      Heinlein wrote Troopers, but that doesn't necessarily mean who agreed with its premise, or at least entirely (though things he said later showed he did agree with some things). but really what he did was what any good author does: create a world that reflects and backs up the story he wants to tell or explore.

      Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game and its ensuing sequels, which is basically the opposite to Starship Troopers "kill the bug because they're bugs", exploring showing empathy and regret over a lack of understanding of the "enemy". Yet Orson Scott Card himself has in his real life persona revealed himself to be rather racist and homophobic, and wrote another series of books that read like an Alex Jones/Fox News fanfic.

    15. Re:That was kind of the point by Lotus456 · · Score: 1

      People called him a fascist (and still do! idiots) for writing Troopers, ignoring that he also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land.

      He also wrote the nonfiction treatise Take Back Your Government (original title: How to Be a Politician).

      --
      "It's a good computer... for I to BM on!" - apologies to Triumph, the insult comic dog
  5. on the jump by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    hope it works out to visualize the book

    1. Re:on the jump by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2

      Its "on the bounce", not "on the jump" ;)

  6. Or do a different Heinlein book by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

    Friday would be my preference.

    1. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      The Baywatch director might have managed that one. Although cats are tough.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 0

      Although cats are tough.

      No dog should ever say that. ;^P

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    3. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      I understand neither women nor cats. Although there are lots of things I disagree with RAH about, on that we agree.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by John.Banister · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Harsh Mistress came to mind first for me. The more I think about either story, the more I think they'd each do better as a mini-series on Netflix. Too much of the world building would have to be cut out in something that's just a couple of hours, and one hour of a Friday movie would doubtless be fight scenes.

    5. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2

      Yes, definitely. One of his best books. Alternately I would look at one of the juveniles, like Farmer in the Sky or Have Spacesuit will Travel. Both have stood the test of time and would form the basis of a great book.

      I would love to see Stranger made into a movie or series but I have no idea how it would work out.

    6. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by John.Banister · · Score: 1

      It'd be easier to do justice to one of the juveniles in a 2 hour movie. I can think of a few SF movie making teams that have it in 'em to do one of those successfully. Whether they'd want to would be a different question. I don't know how much interest there'd be in the portrayal of a 1950 view of the future, where one of the attractions would have to be that it was showing a 1950 view of the future. The temptation to satirize the implied "America great again" message inherent in seeing that from where we stand today could prove overwhelming, as could the viewer temptation to perceive satire regardless of intent.

    7. Re:Or do a different Heinlein book by dywolf · · Score: 1

      Orphans of the Sky.
      its a chase plot, and those are easy to adapt to the screen.
      and you get commentary on religious dogma too.

      or The Green Hills of Earth.

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
  7. depends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i liked the first one.

    1. Re:depends by kenwd0elq · · Score: 0

      The original Starship Troopers movie had only ONE redeeming feature, after screwing up everything else in the book.

      The one singular redeeming scene was the naked co-ed shower scene. That was it; NOTHING else in the movie was worth watching.

    2. Re: depends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. The movie was a steaming pile of horse poop.

    3. Re:depends by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      The one singular redeeming scene was the naked co-ed shower scene

      Surely that was a reference to The Number of the Beast.

  8. Why would it by rossdee · · Score: 1

    The 1997 film wasn't faithful to the book

    The MI weren't in amoured suits.

    They got the characters of the teacher (of history and moral philiosophy) and the Leiutent mixed up

    RAH must have been spinning in his grave.

    The award of best Heinlein adaptation goes to The Puppet Masters with Donald Sutherland as 'the old man

    1. Re:Why would it by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Informative

      The 1997 film wasn't even based on the book, but was from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost 9. About the only thing it has in common with the book is the title and that humanity is fighting some bug monsters. Apparently someone decided to buy the rights to the name so it could be marketed more easily and they incorporated a few concepts from the book.

      However, it was still an enjoyable film even if it wasn't a faithful book adaptation. Even today, I'm skeptical that a faithful adaptation could work as a movie, so at best we get a vacuous CGI action movie.

    2. Re:Why would it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verhoven is very much anti-fascist and was openly contemptuous towards the book and it's themes. His movie is an inversion of the tone of the book, he used the basic structure of the story and world and took it in his own direction, creating a satire instead of an direct adaption. This pissed off fans of which I am not one and I recognise that the movie is actually excellent as it is, despite (apparently) not adhering closely to the book at all. Judging by what I've heard of the book it doesn't seem all that interesting to me anyway, armoured suits are hard to take seriously today when AI and robotics (or more specifically, drones) are clearly the future of military conflict.

      Basically, he didn't make the movie for you or the books fans, he's probably quite happy that you hate it.

    3. Re:Why would it by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      The Puppet Masters with Donald Sutherland as 'the old man

      Its a low bar then. That was a horrible movie. Almost as bad as Varley's Millennium.

    4. Re:Why would it by umghhh · · Score: 2

      Whether anybody can call themselves anti-fascists (and do not succumb to be an complete ass terrorizing everybody to the extend to justify being call a faxcist themselves) is one thing. I do not know much about V. but he did not read the book. If so he could not really make any inversion of it either.
      Armored suites not being anything to be used? Well have you ever looked at your SWAT teams or even normal police officers? They look like robots already. I tend to think that when we reach the point to have drones and microrobots doing all the policing then our race will be cleansed - not because of evil AI but because it will become easy for a psychopath to give an order.

    5. Re:Why would it by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 1

      The 1997 film wasn't even based on the book, but was from an unrelated script called Bug Hunt at Outpost 9.

      You people are so easily trolled. That was the working title, not an original script. Do you actually think the guy who wrote Robocop had never heard of Heinlein or Starship Troopers?

    6. Re:Why would it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I have heard of this book" != "Everything I write is an adaptation of this book".

    7. Re:Why would it by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      I'm skeptical that a faithful adaptation could work as a movie

      Easy recipe: simple, straightforward script based on the book; R. Scott or Cameron to direct; Giovanni Ribisi and Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead roles... throw in Sigorney Weaver as a ship captain somewhere and James Earl Jones as your admiral; bugs by H.R.Giger; powered armor courtesy of Votoms; presto: formulaic and effective; what's not to like?? ;)

    8. Re:Why would it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There were *some* similarities between the book and the movie. You could tell the movie had gone through a large number of rewrites. Some of the original threads were there but not many. There were some real crazy off the wall stuff that was not even in the book. Then on top of that he tried to redo the Robocop thing. Large sections of the book were missing. The movie was kind all over the place in the second half. Which indicates large numbers of rewrites and going through the 'Hollywood' process of committee meeting movies.

      As a rather B movie with an A budget it was OK for what it was. If they had stuck to the book they would have had a rather dark war social commentary that would not have sold at all. Instead they made the social commentary Verhoeven wanted to make which kind of missed the point of the book. It was still a good commentary but not the one the book was making.

      The movie and the book are two very distinct things. I enjoy them both but the movie really is nothing like the book and the book is nothing like the movie. I like reading movie books. They are sometimes interesting as to things left out of a movie. So I figured the book would be close but slightly different. Not wildly different. I enjoyed it but it was very different.

      It is like the movie Dune and the book. With that they even managed to stay sorta close to the story. It suffered from a problem as much of the book is what particular chars were thinking. That does not translate well. The mini series is probably the closest anyone has got to the book though even that strayed a bit.

    9. Re:Why would it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I do not know much about V. but he did not read the book. If so he could not really make any inversion of it either.

      He didn't need to know more than bits and pieces about the book to get the pitiful few hooks back into the novel's plot; he had growing up under Nazi occupation to fuel his fascist satires.

    10. Re:Why would it by Catbeller · · Score: 1

      Did ANY of you ever bother to read the damned book?

    11. Re:Why would it by dwye · · Score: 1

      The movie had the naked coed shower scene; the book had more message than something by Ayn Rand.

      Which would you expect kiddies to concentrate upon?

    12. Re:Why would it by dwye · · Score: 1

      It wasn't a very good book, to be fair. Just a slightly more grim one of his Juveniles.

      It was very faithful to the book, though.

  9. I cheered for the bugs by david.emery · · Score: 2

    The special effects were pretty cool, but Verhoeven totally missed the point of the book.

    1. Re:I cheered for the bugs by umghhh · · Score: 1

      He did not read it so he could not miss it. Still satire or not the film is just an interpretation of the book and is thus different. I know people that went for the film for explosions and guns etc and considered this a silly flick that you can forget minute you left the cinema. There are people that interpreted fascism into the film. There are others that have seen strong anti-fascism in it. I think the movie was great because it offered all these different way to see it. For most of the movies that is difficult. I am not sure V. actually wanted to make it this way. He still did.

    2. Re:I cheered for the bugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Verhoeven didn't miss the point, rather he made a point that Heinlein himself should have seen but somehow missed completely, as did most sci-fi writers from the era. Which is (one of the reasons) why they're unreadable now, while the ST film is still great. The film is self-aware in a way that the book never was and never could have been because Heinlein just lacked the required critical faculties.

    3. Re:I cheered for the bugs by david.emery · · Score: 1

      So how the fsck do you make a movie of a book you haven't read, and have -any credibility-? It's one thing to "adapt for the cinema", it's a whole nuther thing to steal the title and a couple character names and ignore the intent of the book.

    4. Re:I cheered for the bugs by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      ... because Heinlein just lacked the required critical faculties.

      That's right. Heinlein was a simple idiot who stumbled upon storylines that he didn't understand, and wrote novels of things he had no ability to comprehend.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    5. Re: I cheered for the bugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because the director and the script writer are different people?

    6. Re:I cheered for the bugs by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      ... because Heinlein just lacked the required critical faculties.

      That's right. Heinlein was a simple idiot who stumbled upon storylines that he didn't understand, and wrote novels of things he had no ability to comprehend.

      Yes, actually understanding how things work, gets in the way of creative writing. Any pot-smoking writer can tell you that, but a non-pot smoking one might not realise that it is his own stupidity and ignorance that give him creative freedom.

    7. Re:I cheered for the bugs by Boronx · · Score: 1

      You nailed it.

    8. Re:I cheered for the bugs by sheramil · · Score: 1

      So how the fsck do you make a movie of a book you haven't read, and have -any credibility-?

      Jodorowsky said he hadn't read "Dune" when he decided to make a film of it. Perhaps you should ask him.

      haha, Jodorowsky's "Starship Troopers". god knows what he'd make of it.

    9. Re:I cheered for the bugs by david.emery · · Score: 1

      The move version of Dune proves my point, I think :-)

    10. Re:I cheered for the bugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, perhaps Paul Verhoven can console himself over his loss of credibility by bathing in the vast ocean of money he made producing the film.

  10. .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If people can't recognize the satire in Starship Troopers..... we as a society have failed and I humbly await the Great Filter.

    1. Re:.... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      Only the shitty movie had that. The novel had a far more subtle message.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    2. Re:.... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't mind the movie, there were parts I really enjoyed. I like the fact that Verhoeven doesn't pull his punches.

      However, it is NOT the book, and if there's one thing the book is NOT, it's satire.

    3. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you mean? Would Heinlein, a libertarian/anarchist, promote fascism?

    4. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, yes they would.

      They are a moralistic bunch, self-righteous and quick to anger.

      Key ingredients in the fascism stew.

    5. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 1

      Says someone who doesn't know the meaning of the word.

      --
      If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
    6. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Catbeller · · Score: 2

      Semantics was one of Heinlein's passions. The idea that the word "fascist" would lose its actual meaning would sadden and infuriate, but not surprise him. That he would be called one would earn the mouth-breather a well-earned verbal beatdown. The man was the opposite of a fascist. Infuriating.

    7. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      That he would be called one would earn the mouth-breather a well-earned verbal beatdown. The man was the opposite of a fascist. Infuriating.

      Uh huh. Unless he was like a modern Democrat, who claims to oppose things like criminal banks, bullshit wars and illegal spying, yet love politicians like Obama and Hillary that adore illegal spying, bullshit wars and criminal banks.

      It doesn't matter what you say you support. It matters what you actually support at the end of the day that matters.

    8. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      News flash: you can write about a topic of interest to you without "promoting" it.

      Does Stephen King promote murder?

    9. Re: .... Politically Correct Starship Troopers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are so correct.
      The comments here have made me depressed.
      So many people cannot separate the story written from the views of the author.
      Wait, let me guess.
      Brazil was really a movie glamorizing bureaucracy and torture?
      Just because it doesn't have a "happy" ending where the "evil" government gets defeated doesn't mean the author thinks that this is how we should design our society.

  11. don't do it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sounds like they are going to take a Turd on the book and try to tell us this more version somehow smells of roses.

  12. Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by kenwd0elq · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No. Not only no, but HELL NO! Hollyweird will implode into its own singularity before that happens.

      "Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist in its creation of a society where democracy has been severely restricted..."

    Democracy severely restricted? Nothing like that in the book; separate states have their own governments, and ANYBODY can get Federal citizenship by putting in a 2-year tour of Federal service. You can't buy a franchise, you have to EARN it - but it's open to EVERYONE. If you have one eye and one hand and an IQ of 80, they'll find something for you to do for two years.

    1. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you had just enough IQ to understand the oath and no eyes or hands, they would likely have you testing footwear for the military. Otherwise I agree.

      Note that it was stated that if needed they would find you a job counting the fuzz on a caterpillar by touch if that was all you could do, and the only pass/fail test was if you could understand the oath or not, all else was in determining capacity for service. Testing survival gear on Titan was another option, which again, would not require a particularly able body or mind (and in fact would be helped in someways by having people feeble in both to ensure that it is designed such that casualties or untrained people can still survive)

    2. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by mykepredko · · Score: 1

      Nice to see a comment from somebody who's actually read the book.

    3. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by ShooterNeo · · Score: 1

      And if you survived in a war against a near peer interstellar enemy. In the books I vaguely recall that the bugs weren't primitive or stupid and were a deadly foe. If NATO had fought the Soviets, with nukes left off the table, there would have been massive death tolls on both side. (yeah, NATO would probably have "won" in the end...at which point the nukes start flying and gg)

    4. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by skam240 · · Score: 1

      The racist part of that description got me a bit. Now granted, it's been ages since I've read the book but I don't remember anything racist about it. As you say, Federal citizenship was open to everyone, you just had to serve.

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    5. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So... citizenship (and thus the right to vote) restricted to those willing to spend 2 years unquestioningly obeying orders from an overpowering government? That's severely restricted democracy, my friend. Heinlein wrote it that way, and I think he genuinely believed that it would lead to people more invested in their system, but I don't think even he would argue that this wasn't a severe restriction on the democracy we have today.

    6. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      Better than leaving it to the type of people who think that Trump and Clinton are saviors.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    7. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Democracy severely restricted?

      You have to earn your citizenship bro.

    8. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      So I guess you're also for limiting the 2nd Amendment protections? After all, only military should own guns.

      If you actually read the book you'd find a passage about the reason for this system. And the answer in the novel is "just because". But yeah, giving voting rights only to people who spend 2 years in a totalitarian (by design) organization under all kinds of pressure surely would produce the greatest democracy ever. After all, when a putsch happens military always establishes a perfect democracy with respect of human rights.

    9. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by ravenshrike · · Score: 1

      There were effectively two wars going on, one against the bugs, which were a threat that was completely incommunicado with the Terran Federation until the capture of a brain bug, and the other with the Skinnies, who went from allies of the Bugs to allies of humanity. There was no explanation as to why in the novel.

    10. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Boronx · · Score: 1

      Yes, and all the people who don't serve will be content with no power, and they won't turn into an overtaxed underclass boiling over with resentment and revolution. Why? Because Heinlein said so.

    11. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by rbrander · · Score: 1

      ..except the book said only 5% of "federal service" volunteers made it into the military. The rest did all the other of society's tough jobs (bedpans and invalid care, remote mines, etc) to earn their votes.

    12. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      I don't remember this passage. Care to point the chapter?

      And in reality lots of countries have mandatory military service yet there's little correlation with the level of democracy. Both utter hellholes and highly successful democracies have draft and/or mandatory civil service.

    13. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Catbeller · · Score: 1

      Governments are by definition power. They aren't a reading society.

      You spend two years serving. Not as a zombie, not as a brainwashed monkey. You could ring the bell and leave at any time during your service. Even active military could resign before a drop, and the only punishment was the loss of the vote and full citizenship.

      You simply did a necessary job and proved you could understand the need to put the welfare of your fellow wo/men over your own. The very opposite of Ayn Rand's sloppy love letters to sociopaths. The job could be anything that was sometimes dangerous, unpleasant, but necessary and no one would want to do.

      The situation in the novel described a spacefaring society that had actual, real, gosh-darned alien races that were attacking the Terrans, so a military was warranted.

    14. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      But yeah, giving voting rights only to people who spend 2 years in a totalitarian (by design) organization under all kinds of pressure surely would produce the greatest democracy ever. After all, when a putsch happens military always establishes a perfect democracy with respect of human rights.

      Sort of like our current system, where the only people who don't have to worry about a lifetime of poverty from paying student loans over medical school are:

      1) Children of 1%ers to whom a couple hundred thousand dollars is gambling money

      2) Poor schlubs who volunteer for the military - and make it into military medical school

    15. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Uberbah · · Score: 2

      You simply did a necessary job and proved you could understand the need to put the welfare of your fellow wo/men over your own.

      More like a simply unnecessary job, one that subjected you to systemic indoctrination and peer pressure. Like the poor shlubs who got drafted into Vietnam, and were placed in the position of gunning down innocent villagers minding their own business and watching their friends in the platoon get shot by snipers.

    16. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by sheramil · · Score: 1

      There were effectively two wars going on, one against the bugs, which were a threat that was completely incommunicado with the Terran Federation until the capture of a brain bug, and the other with the Skinnies, who went from allies of the Bugs to allies of humanity. There was no explanation as to why in the novel.

      perhaps it was an allegory for the Spanish Civil War. Terrans = Fascists, Bugs = Anarchists and Skinnies = Communists.

    17. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by ET3D · · Score: 1

      The main problem with the book, and other Heinlein stuff, is that it only works assuming that people generally have good intentions. Heinlein tends to have simplistic characters, which work well in his worlds, and therefore some people unfortunately imagine that what he suggests would work well in real life.

    18. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by fgouget · · Score: 1

      Democracy severely restricted? Nothing like that in the book; separate states have their own governments, and ANYBODY can get Federal citizenship by putting in a 2-year tour of Federal service. You can't buy a franchise, you have to EARN it - but it's open to EVERYONE. If you have one eye and one hand and an IQ of 80, they'll find something for you to do for two years.

      So anybody EXCEPT tetraplegics, disabled, and anybody who opposes the war. And you think that's democracy. Sad!

    19. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by dwye · · Score: 1

      . . . and the other with the Skinnies, who went from allies of the Bugs to allies of humanity. There was no explanation as to why in the novel.

      The Terran army landed of the Italian mainland, metaphorically speaking.

    20. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by dwye · · Score: 1

      The people who don't serve will just sit around smoking weed or meth, bitching about being oppressed, and making money like mini-Trumps, according to the book.

      Rather like the Equites class in the Roman Republic, who hadn't the expensive lifestyle requirements that the patricians had, and could concentrate on trade, instead.

      Of course, to use the Roman analogy, this assumes that the patricians don't go all Sulla and take over the state to eliminate their enemies, permanently.

    21. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      In the books I vaguely recall that the bugs weren't primitive or stupid and were a deadly foe.

      For most of the book, almost nothing was known about "the bugs," including what their capabilities were. At several points in the book, events looked as if "the bugs" were learning from the humans, as the humans were trying to learn from the "the bugs".

      Heinlein was, in part, looking at the questions of "What if we met an enemy that was as good as us? How much effort would we put into 'jaw jaw' instead of 'war war'?" And as a military man, Heinlein was quite sure that humanity would put a lot more effort into 'war war' then into 'jaw jaw'.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    22. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if you survived in a war against a near peer interstellar enemy.

      The Federal Service = Citizenship existed long before the war with the Arachnids began.
      In fact, at the beginning of the book, most people don't even think about 'the war'. Sure, there's some fighting going on out there, but normal people are just going about their lives, taking vacations to Mars, and running the business.

      At least, until the Bugs destroy Buenos Aires.

    23. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More like a simply unnecessary job, one that subjected you to systemic indoctrination and peer pressure. Like the poor shlubs who got drafted into Vietnam, and were placed in the position of gunning down innocent villagers minding their own business and watching their friends in the platoon get shot by snipers.

      You mean, they starred in fictional movies about things that didn't happen?

    24. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Squach · · Score: 1

      From Wikipedia - Heinlein made a similar claim, over two decades after Starship Troopers's publication, in his Expanded Universe and further claimed that 95% of "veterans" were not military personnel but members of the civil service and that only retired veterans could vote or hold office.[48]

      And, the important point of federal service was that it was elective, not mandatory - it was something people chose rather than something they were forced to do.

    25. Re:Will Starship Troopers Follow Heinlein's Book? by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      Actually, in the book they'd take *anyone*, on the basis that a disabled desk jockey freed up someone able-bodied to fight.

      All could serve within their capacity to do so.

  13. what could possibly go wrong? by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like they are giving it the Ghostbusters, Total Recall, Godzilla treatment. How about the concept of if you find the original too fucking offensive then stay the fuck away from it rather than trying to reimagine it as a steaming pile of shit.

    1. Re:what could possibly go wrong? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know you didn't mean to do it, but a Ghostbusters, Total Recall, Godzilla movie sounds pretty epic even if its shit. Please sir, take my money now and let me see this marvelous thing!

  14. so then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    " The script will be written by the writers of the upcoming Baywatch film starring Zac Efron and Dwayne Johnson."

    Macho marines running down dark corridors in tight red swim suits?

    1. Re:so then by umghhh · · Score: 1

      No suites - this will be a nice pr0n movie!!!
      Cannot wait to see it!

    2. Re:so then by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Worked for Sean Connery, sort of.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  15. Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own good. by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm afraid that if someone produces a sincere, straightforward film adaptation of the novel, the result will be unintentionally hilarious. At least Verhoeven's take is satirical on purpose. Verhoeven's original project "Bug Planet" probably would have been a good movie, too, even if they hadn't opted to get the Heinlein license after the similarities to Starship Troopers became apparent. My point in bringing that up is this: Verhoeven's people had a movie idea, and it wasn't just "adapt a novel". The idea "young beautiful people fall in love, fight aliens, become Nazis" was the kernel, and they built a great movie around that. I'm not sure "make Heinlein's book into a movie" is in and of itself such a great idea. I would need to know more before I thought it was good or bad. Would you like to know more? (Click here.)

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  16. so have the script wirters actually read the book? by kallen3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have the script writers actually read the book and understood it or are they just going to go by the movie and what today's self entitled individuals want? Just try to tell someone now that they have to put in 2 years of civil service to vote or hold certain jobs and they will claim it is facist, racist, sexist or some type of istism as 2 years of any type of service would interfere with their lives.

  17. Starship Troopers is one of my favorite films by Britz · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I watched Starship Troopers when it came out in the movie theater and had no expectations at all. And I loved it. It was a fun action movie and, at the same time, a fun satire of fascism. And the fact that I enjoyed it harmlessly until the last couple scenes (where it became obvious to me) managed to show me how much I enjoy fascism. Which is an important lesson, IMHO. Especially considering how enjoyable and thus rating friendly Trump currently is. The stuff is awesome.

    1. Re:Starship Troopers is one of my favorite films by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump? Fascist? Should we assume you believe Clinton is a force for good and honesty and democracy in the world?

    2. Re:Starship Troopers is one of my favorite films by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump? Fascist?

      Yes. Why is that even a question? It couldn't be more blindingly obvious.

      Should we assume you believe Clinton is a force for good and honesty and democracy in the world?

      Not really, no. But compared to Trump? Hell, yes.

      The real question is why the vast majority of voting fools in the US keep voting for what they perceive to be the lesser of two evils, instead of doing what's right: Voting only for someone/something they do believe in, and if there is no such option, then don't vote at all.

      The fools voting for the lesser evil need to grow a fucking spine and stand for something.

      The US public has sunk far, indeed.

      Yes, there are exceptions, but they are far, far too few.

    3. Re:Starship Troopers is one of my favorite films by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      do you even know the definition of Fascism? It seems no one on this thread does. Here:

      "a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government, a way of organizing a society in which a government ruled by a dictator controls the lives of the people and in which people are not allowed to disagree with the government" from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism

      Now in ST they were required to do a period of service in order to be allowed to VOTE, everyone had the same rights, but some, those who served for a 2 year period, were ALSO allowed to VOTE. NEWSFLASH: You do not vote for a dictator. Fascism, see definition above, has a dictator.

  18. Are the sequels any good? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would anyone care to comment on the quality of the sequels? I didn't even know they existed until now.

  19. out of step with contemporary audience needs? by jgfenix · · Score: 1

    Then you can't make a movie based on any book older than 20 years old. Those proslavery romans, those misogynist Knights of the Round Table (and no, Xena didn't defeat those pigs) ...

    1. Re:out of step with contemporary audience needs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Homosexuals are gonna getcha and force you to be gay! They're going to gay marry you!

  20. A rare admission by taustin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The studio is not remaking the film but is said to be going back to the original Heinlein novel for an all-new take."

    So, by "all-new," they admit that it won't be based on the actual novel. Because that wouldn't be new.

    A more accurate description would be, as always, "Based on the title of a popular novel we didn't read."

    1. Re:A rare admission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Based on the title of a popular novel we didn't read"

      I'm dying! LOL.

    2. Re:A rare admission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It could be worse. They could have made it into a shitty tv series.

    3. Re:A rare admission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Based on the title of a popular novel we didn't read. Again."

      Fixed that for you.

    4. Re:A rare admission by dwye · · Score: 1

      Or it might be like the remake of Campbell's "Who Goes There" that DIDN'T have sentient carrots and scientists going over to the other side, but DID have Wilfred Brimley and Kurt Russell.

  21. Blinkered audience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... decried as promoting fascism ...

    That means all from-the-trenches war movies promote fascism but nobody complains about them. So many American television shows glorify war, one of the few countries to do so.

    The books '1984', 'Fahrenheit 451', 'The hunger games', plus the movie 'Equilibrium' were also about oppressive government and to a lesser extent, war. Nobody complained about those stories.

    Nobody lauds the shower scene emphasizing that men and women truly did live and fight in the same unit. Why is that?

    1. Re:Blinkered audience by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      Nobody lauds the shower scene emphasizing that men and women truly did live and fight in the same unit. Why is that?

      Because the vast majority of people are dipshits.

    2. Re:Blinkered audience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know what's worse. The idiots who don't recognize satire, or the idiots who don't recognize satire and think the ideas presented are actually good ideas that we should implement.

  22. Of course not by cfalcon · · Score: 1

    Of course it won't. It won't be anything like the book. A modern movie has to film some percent in China so they can get a release there, and the book discusses a future that is not particularly bright for several reasons, and it does not do so critically- it portrays it in the same way that a story that takes place in the middle ages has feudalism- as an unfortunate effect of the setting. I'd be literally shocked if it was true to the book. There's a reason all these amazing writers only have their best stories told after they are dead and can't say no- they are utterly shit on in the translation.

    1. Re:Of course not by skam240 · · Score: 2

      The Lord of the Rings movies, while not without flaws, were really rather good and pretty true to the books. Likewise with Phillip K Dick's A Scanner Darkly, which considering the treatment his work usually gets by Hollywood, truly surprised me with how close to the original source material it was. Especially since it was a Keanu Reeves movie.

      I agree the odds are against it, especially considering the budget required to make it look good and the writing credentials of the script writers, but it is possible for it to be fairly true to the books.

      --
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    2. Re:Of course not by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The Lord of the Rings movies, while not without flaws, were really rather good and pretty true to the books.

      You and I saw different movies if you think they were true to the books. Faramir, srsly. Yet, like the movies we're discussing now, they were true to the central theme of the books. Some details were changed, but the central theme was not changed at all.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Of course not by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      A modern movie has to film some percent in China so they can get a release there,

      Do you have evidence to back up this assertion?

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    4. Re:Of course not by skam240 · · Score: 1

      They're just about as true as one can realistically expect from a movie based on a book.

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      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
  23. Re:I give up. by umghhh · · Score: 1

    I think you can get that. Looking how hostile political debates have become in the West I think a war is inevitable.

  24. Re:I give up. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    I give up. "Starship Troopers has been decried as promoting fascism and being racist ..." ... ...

    Liberals and their poisonous madness must be forever abolished, by force of arms of necessary.

    Does somebody want to tell him or should I?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  25. Racist?? Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The hero of the novel is from frickin' Brazil. They act like it's some white nationalist thing...

  26. Re:Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...Would you like to know more? (Click here.)"

    Verhoeven is a serious Political Director foremost, check out his early "Soldier Of Orange". But he eventually went into Satire, because Politics is rarely good Boxoffice. (I have no idea what "Showgirls" was all about...) The problem with Satire in the US, especially Political Satire, is that the average US audience doesn't understand or like it. (See "The President's Analyst".) Thus all the venom, especially here on Slashdot, where whenever Heinlein is brought up, most regulars turn into obsessed 12 year olds again. In Verhoeven satirizing Heinlein, they feel personally offended.
    Personally, I think Verhoeven, especially with his ongoing religious interests, would be just perfect for next directing "A Canticle For Leibowitz", even as he is nearing 80. But keep Eszterhas away from the screenplay...

  27. Do Not Fear the Arachnids! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The God Emperor Trump will lead us to absolute victory!

  28. you met him, talked to him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and commented on him, yet mispelled his name the exact same way the author of the linked editorial in the above sumbission did. you and joe.ie both spelled his name Casper van Deim instead of Casper Van Dien. I think you made up the bit about meeting him to put some weight to your point.

    1. Re:you met him, talked to him by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      No it's true! He was at the Comikaze expo in LA last weekend. I met him, but didn't get a photo cuz that was like $40.

  29. and furthermore... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in most societies in human history, government has had the absolute RIGHT to just grab people (often serfs or residents or subjects, NOT even "citizens" with rights) off the street and stuff them into uniforms and send them to war, expecting them to only come home if they win.

    In the USA, people who were citizens with rights were nonetheless DRAFTED and sent off to fight in WWII, Korea, Vietnam... that only ended in the 1970s and would return in a heartbeat if there were an existential threat to the nation that could be solved with brute manpower.

    Society today is mainly becoming mushy and snowflakey because we have had the luxury of relative peace and relative prosperity for so long that most have never known full-scale mobilization and war, or true poverty (the sort NOT softened by government checks) and we have been teaching our kids all sorts of cultural PC bull excrement instead of actual history. when reality crashes into the snowflake generation, which it eventually will given the $20 trillion dollar national debt and the Clinton/Obama effort yo enable nukes in North Korea and Iran, half will probably turn to drugs and the others will assume the fetal position and cry themselves to death.

    1. Re:and furthermore... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use homosexuals are gonna getcha! We're gonna castrate you and make you gay!

  30. Classic SciFi was great BECAUSE it was... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    like a "thought experiment" The authors created very different societies, environments, etc and then offered scenarios that were interesting and thought provoking turning many norms upside down. The fact that an author showed an idea and toyed with it and said, in effect, "here's where this stuff MIGHT lead" did NOT mean that either the author or the reader agreed with it all or endorsed it. It was all interesting and THOUGHT PROVOKING.

    Any time I hear anybody say that Starship Troopers is fascist, or that the author was a fascist, I know I am listening to a pablum-spewing moron.

    If Starship Troopers and Heinlien are fascist, what does that make The Twilight Zone" and Rod Serling???? Have people SEEN all the episodes? Some of the best were portraying societies far worse than in Starship Troopers - Does "Obsolete Man" ring any bells? - hell, we're even partway there now with Zeke Emannuel (one of Obama's advisors on Obamacare) having openly advocated a "whole Life" system in which the value of a person would be judged by government based on his/her age and those who are youngest getting little medical care (because they are easily replaced) and those who are old getting little more than pain pills (because they have little left to offer society), thus making them "obsolete" though not yet directly because of occupation (only by lack of occupation).

    I get annoyed by most SciFi films and TV PRECISELY because most is NOT faithful to the original stories. The previous Starship Troopers film was an appalling mangle of art - like a crayon drawing by a monkey being the pop culture version of the Mona Lisa. I'm not convinced that the collective IQ of Hollywood is sufficient to address SciFi, it seems they often just use the visual elements to amp-up an otherwise non-SciFi action flick (add space ships and ray guns to a car chase storyline) and they often cannot tie things up coherently in the end so most seem to fall apart in the last ten minutes.

  31. "Faithful" by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Will The New 'Starship Troopers' Reboot Stay Faithful To The Book?

    Should it have to?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  32. Ah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they want to make a film that will be approved of by Chinese audiences, and pretty much the audiences of the majority of the world which is very traditionalist and authoritarian, yet who miss out on the sarcasm,
    then the biggest mistake they can do with the movie is make it more "acceptable" and politically correct which is something only cared about by Western media houses and a minor and insignificant population of white guilt correctness evangelists from the standpoint of the much wider and bigger world around us.

  33. Wrong way to look at the 1997 movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I used to think that, Starship Troopers was a bad adaptation of the book, but a website explained it differently a few years ago. I think of the 1997 movie, as being a propaganda film in the book's universe. It's like Beverly Hills, 90210 in the book's universe. The 'would you like to know more' bits hint at it, but I'd like the movie to be more explicit.

    Of course, it will just be some people shooting aliens in space.

  34. 1997 Movie was awful by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    I was actually amazed that the movie followed the plot of the book as much as it did. But, traveling across the galaxy to fight bugs with assault rifles at 10 ft range was absolutely stupid. This is a book where soldiers fight in powered armor suits, parachuting from space and tossing tiny nuclear bombs around! Think Iron Man meets Star Wars! The plot about service to society as well as the basic training plot were critical to understanding the point of the book. The movie nearly cut out the heart of the book. I hope the reboot doesn't just turn into another action movie.

    1. Re:1997 Movie was awful by dbIII · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is a book where soldiers fight in powered armor suits, parachuting from space and tossing tiny nuclear bombs around!

      True, there's an entire huge category of Japanese Animation more closely inspired by the book than the movie was.

    2. Re:1997 Movie was awful by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      This is a book where soldiers fight in powered armor suits, parachuting from space and tossing tiny nuclear bombs around! Think Iron Man meets Star Wars!

      That would be both expensive and difficult to connect with because of the scales involved. That sort of thing translates a lot better to a video game than to a movie. A sort of Halo meets Mechwarrior would be welcome. The Lost Planet games had moments of glory where you really felt like you were piloting something and where there was a big battle with a lot of combatants, but nothing really warlike in scale.

      Where is my Assault on Klendathu FPS?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:1997 Movie was awful by CmdrTamale · · Score: 1

      And there was the 6 part anime OVA "Uchuu no Senshi" [Starship Troopers]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(OVA)

      which leads up to a romantic conclusion, with Johnny Rico declaring (confessing) his love for [I forget who].

      Not very much like the book, either.
      --
      Sign in a restaurant in Cyprus: âoeWe have no Wi-Fi. Talk to each other.â

    4. Re:1997 Movie was awful by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      I was actually amazed that the movie followed the plot of the book as much as it did. But, traveling across the galaxy to fight bugs with assault rifles at 10 ft range was absolutely stupid. This is a book where soldiers fight in powered armor suits, parachuting from space and tossing tiny nuclear bombs around!

      Because that makes so much more sense?

      When depicting stupid, they might as well go with more relatable stupidity.

  35. Johnny Rico by Archfeld · · Score: 2

    The main character Johnny Rico was part Filipino in the original book.

    --
    errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    1. Re:Johnny Rico by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      And he was born and raised in Buenos Aires.

    2. Re:Johnny Rico by Archfeld · · Score: 1

      Yes, that part was still used in the movie, but I'd say there was no way anyone could mistake Casper Van Dien
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... as a Filipino of any sort of descent.

      --
      errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    3. Re:Johnny Rico by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And he says kill 'em all.

    4. Re:Johnny Rico by SvnLyrBrto · · Score: 1

      You sure? I could swear I remember Rico being raised in the Philippines in the book, and BA only coming into play because his mother was on vacation there and died when the bugs hit it. His father most definitely stayed in the Philippines and survived the whole book tho.

      --
      Imagine all the people...
    5. Re:Johnny Rico by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And your point is? Argentines are as likely to be mestizo as Filipinos!

    6. Re:Johnny Rico by Archfeld · · Score: 1

      Merely highlighting another way in which the movies were drastically different than the book, both in tone and content.

      want to know more ?
      http://www.heinleinsociety.org...

      --
      errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
    7. Re:Johnny Rico by wyHunter · · Score: 1

      I don't think it was ever discussed where he was born in the book. I know his mother was killed when BA was destroyed by the bugs but it never said, one way or the other, whether he was born in BA. Certainly he didn't LIVE in BA.

    8. Re:Johnny Rico by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the idiots that say the book was racist are morons. They forget to notice that Rico was from Buenos Aires, that he was of 'mixed' race, that the whole book had NOTHING about race in it, that black/white/Asian/Hispanic troopers were all EQUAL (and male/female troopers too)

      and the commenters on this thread making sweeping statements about military being taught to hate and kill like animals, they can go fuck themselves.

  36. Re:Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own go by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid that if someone produces a sincere, straightforward film adaptation of the novel, the result will be unintentionally hilarious. At least Verhoeven's take is satirical on purpose. Verhoeven's original project "Bug Planet" probably would have been a good movie, too, even if they hadn't opted to get the Heinlein license after the similarities to Starship Troopers became apparent. My point in bringing that up is this: Verhoeven's people had a movie idea, and it wasn't just "adapt a novel". The idea "young beautiful people fall in love, fight aliens, become Nazis" was the kernel, and they built a great movie around that. I'm not sure "make Heinlein's book into a movie" is in and of itself such a great idea. I would need to know more before I thought it was good or bad. Would you like to know more? (Click here.)

    I see from Comment Moderation that I've been accused of trolling for the parent comment. Anyone who is offended care to explain? I don't get it. Who have I offended?

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  37. Re:I give up. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, the liberals will self-exterminate sooner or later.
    The less liberal societies and cultures are the ones who are birthing the most,
    while the more liberal "civilized" societies and cultures are the ones who are becoming more of a minority due to negative birth rates.
    And those with an emphasis on feminism are especially going doing quickly and being replaced by sturdier and more resilient migrants who don't give a fuck about
    this hugspace shit.
    Look at USA for instance. The biggest contributor to birth rates are the most traditionalist/conservative collective - the Latino collectives. They mostly scoff at this political correctness shit, and they will become the majority soon.

  38. oh god please fuck off by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "updating Starship Troopers to make it more acceptable to today's audience,"

    FUCK OFF

  39. Its one of those shows by future+assassin · · Score: 1

    that should be left alone. Personally I love the show and the CGI, my kids loved it too when I played it for them. Its got action, cool CGI and some cheese for the ultimate SCIFi Action Flick.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  40. sorry, but there was nothing "smart" about it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Verhoven is a hack. Camera angles and 'splosions. beep! beep! vroom, GIANT BUGS! Blam! Splat!

    His politics are mind-numbingly stupid and shallow, though given the current crop of college-age morons who need to be protected from any ideas they might disagree with, I suppose he might be a man for this moment. His typically-European view of politics reminds me of a horse with blinders on - personally pleasant but only able to see a very narrow perspective of what his owners allow him to see because he would be too frightened and unable to cope with something to his left or right. He is trapped in marshmallow socialism with a patina of democracy (but not actual democracy where candidates with real differences would be allowed). In a political spectrum 10 kilometers wide, he is trapped with the modern European idea that only a 4 centimeter wide part of that overall spectrum, and located 4 kilometers left-of-center is allowable with anything to the right of that leftist box being fascist/nazi.

    There was no depth to his flick, nothing serious about it, and the "fascism" he pretends to mock is the comic book form which the left has erected within the culture to distract from ACTUAL fascism which the left is eagerly implementing across western civilization. REAL fascism, as created by Italian socialist Benito Mussolini and then adapted by Germany's National Socialists, was indirect socialism where government controlled INDIRECTLY through corporations while running a police-state of total government surveillance, speech controls, and constant war....

    Do we have constant war? yup, and not just from the Bush family, but also the Clintons and Obama
    Do we have speech codes? yup. The Clintons introduced "politicial correctness" into the federal government in the '90s when they plugged Donna Shalala into HHS and she brought in her University of Wisconsin "speech codes"
    Do we have total surveillance? yup. It got ramped up during the 1990s under the Clintons in the 1st internet bubble, then the Bush admin put it on steroids post 9/11, and now Obama has it pumped-up even more thanks to his admin being completely in-bed with Google (about 250 people have been back-and-forth between jobs in this admin and Google)
    Do we have government controls in the economy indirectly via corporations? yup. The 2008 meltdown had government corporations "Fannie Mae" and "Freddie Mac" as its ground zero. Under Obama, government has taken-over the entire student loan business, and Obamacare turned American healthcare fascist (government forces the population to buy the product, and government set the design parameters for the product, and government controls what companies can sell the product...)

    Verhoven encourages people to be scared of the type of fascist you see in an Indiana Jones flick, so you do not see actual textbook fascism in the real world.... and then the very people who are sliding gently into actual fascism now wonder how the civilized and intelligent Germans slid into fascism in the 1930s.... it happened with an assist from the media. It's called propaganda.

    1. Re:sorry, but there was nothing "smart" about it by Boronx · · Score: 1

      The movie works pretty well on that level. Certainly its world of endless war, relentless propaganda, soldiers as the clean shaven heroes we all look up to, leaders, cool looking leaders who have our best interest at heart, even if they have to ask others to make a sacrifice, looks familiar. It is missing the corporate angle.

  41. Bring the remake. by Charcharodon · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Loved the book, and loved the movie, each for different reasons.

    Would love to see a movie that was very true to the book, though I think a lot of liberals heads would explode at the concept of service meaning picking up a gun and standing between danger and society. That you can't vote or hold office till you serve and as a "civilian" (non-citizen) are only allowed to have 1 child.

    Imagine if that was the world today. Nearly all the Democratic part and most of the Republican party would be fired from office/ineligible to vote.

    1. Re:Bring the remake. by Catbeller · · Score: 1

      Odd, as almost every single conservative Republican officeholder in Congress ducked military service, whereas the cowardly liberals have dozens. Reagan did propaganda films in Hollywood, Bush W decided he didn't feel like flying anymore and discharged himself.

    2. Re:Bring the remake. by breeze95 · · Score: 1

      Loved the book, and loved the movie, each for different reasons.

      Would love to see a movie that was very true to the book, though I think a lot of liberals heads would explode at the concept of service meaning picking up a gun and standing between danger and society. That you can't vote or hold office till you serve and as a "civilian" (non-citizen) are only allowed to have 1 child.

      Imagine if that was the world today. Nearly all the Democratic part and most of the Republican party would be fired from office/ineligible to vote.

      Loved the book, and loved the movie, each for different reasons.

      Would love to see a movie that was very true to the book, though I think a lot of liberals heads would explode at the concept of service meaning picking up a gun and standing between danger and society. That you can't vote or hold office till you serve and as a "civilian" (non-citizen) are only allowed to have 1 child.

      Imagine if that was the world today. Nearly all the Democratic part and most of the Republican party would be fired from office/ineligible to vote.

      And you are a fan of this? You think this level of fascism is a good thing? To each his own...I guess.

    3. Re:Bring the remake. by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Would love to see a movie that was very true to the book, though I think a lot of liberals heads would explode at the concept of service meaning picking up a gun and standing between danger and society.

      To which the liberal would say:

      1) No American has died to defend American soil since the war of 1812

      2) Your gun nuts with their dick extenders are part of the problem. Not the solution.

    4. Re:Bring the remake. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1
      You have no idea what "fascism" means. Please stop using that word. In the words of the immortal Inigo Montoya:

      "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    5. Re:Bring the remake. by PennyHassett · · Score: 1

      'Would love to see a movie that was very true to the book ... as a "civilian" (non-citizen) are only allowed to have 1 child.' ... I don't remember that and I've just grepped through the text and can't find it. Anyone tell me where it is? OTOH I do remember Johnny talking about a class-vote that decided that every child should have their own room and I can't find that either. I sometimes wonder if there is more than one version of this book. Samuel Delany is reported have read a passage in the book in which Johnny looks into a mirror and sees his own chocolate brown face; my version doesn't have that but does say that Johnny's family spoke tagalog at home.

    6. Re:Bring the remake. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Would love to see a movie that was very true to the book, though I think a lot of liberals heads would explode at the concept of service meaning picking up a gun and standing between danger and society.

      You can't stand between danger and society by picking up a gun, only between danger and yourself. The gun, when used as intended (especially military weapons which really are designed specifically for shooting people) is a dangerous thing. That's not an argument against guns, I own several. I own lots of other dangerous things as well. I have cars and machine tools and drones and hand tools and flammable and toxic chemicals and tanks of propane and the list goes on, really.

      The thing is, the people who negotiate peace are standing between danger and society at least as surely as those who pick up a gun to repel its enemies. In the long term, even more surely, because picking up a gun and shooting someone just leads to having to do more of that in the future.

      In the balance, of course, it is still better to shoot someone who is trying to shoot you than to get shot. But the best thing is to stop them from wanting to shoot you.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Bring the remake. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      Nice bias there.

      Currently there are 80 veterans in the House. 17 are Democrats.
      Currently there are 26 veterans in the Senate. 14 are Democrats

      Turns out Bush was a RINO (progressive) so we no longer claim him as a Republican. If you really hated his foreign policy you are going to love Hillary's even less. Turns out hers is EXACTLY the same as his only instead of only starting a war in Afghanistan/Iraq, she is going for the whole region (Syria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan) and is currently picking a fight with Russia.

    8. Re:Bring the remake. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      No I don't like Fascism, aka Socialism, which is more or less the system we already have in the US.

      Frankly we don't need to vote on much as it is. The basic rights are all taken care of. So not much voting needed there. So what do we vote on? That's right social programs, welfare (corporate/individual), and regulations. Things that are the foundation for Fascism (Socialism). (Social/welfare programs and corporatism)

      IF we are stuck with said system then you should have to earn the right to wield such authority (violence) which was a point in both the movie and the book.

      So you what you are saying is you like Fascism without responsibility. To each his own...I guess.

    9. Re:Bring the remake. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      1861-1865 Civil War

      1898 Spanish American War

      WWII Both the Nazis and the Japanese entertained ideas of landing forces on both coast to conduct terror attacks and sabotage. The heavily armed population is generally accepted to have had an impact on not putting those ideas into action. That and the hoards of US troops already pushing back in both theaters made it impractical to do so.

      Of course we wouldn't have had to fight WW2 if there hadn't been so many damn pacifists in Europe and the US that let the Nazis rise to power and expand their territory. One or two small military smack downs as soon as they tried pushing the boundaries would have ended the whole thing before it got started.

    10. Re:Bring the remake. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      I may be mixing it up. The movie definitely had it set up for 1 child per civilian family. Not sure if that was in the book.

      Johnny Rico was not a white boy in the book. They may have changed it in later editions of the book. I read it back in the 80's.

    11. Re:Bring the remake. by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      Yes you are technically correct, but it was more about earning the privilege of wielding the power of the collective. In a Fascist(Socialist) country your vote can harm others (you can vote to inflict laws, take away freedom/property, etc) You had to put your ass on the line before you were allowed to do so. Your personal individual danger maybe only symbolic in terms of society, but for you individually it is not.

      You are correct about the best thing is to stop them from wanting to shoot at you in the first place. Being a pacifist will never stop evil people from trying to harm you, but the threat of massive violent, deadly retaliation will nearly always work. When it doesn't you do the next best thing and kill every last f-ing one of them....and then they won't try to shoot you anymore.

    12. Re:Bring the remake. by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      WWII Both the Nazis and the Japanese entertained ideas of landing forces on both coast to conduct terror attacks and sabotage. The heavily armed population is generally accepted to have had an impact on not putting those ideas into action.

      Bulshit.

      On the alleged influence of the "armed population", not on whether or not the Germans/ Japanese/ Italians had any plans for landing saboteurs on either coast.

      Sabotage and/ or infiltration programmes depend on secrecy, not fire power. Being recognised is normally time to bug out and fade away. That worked for the resistances in France, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and Poland - until they engaged with a military (or police : same difference) force, they kept as low a profile as possible. Then hit and then faded away.

      I would suspect that the main reason for the Germans and Japanese not landing appreciable sabotage/ fifth column efforts in America was the same as for them not being noticeably successful in Britain : they couldn't find enough turncoats willing to stay brought. That raises (again) another significant question about how much contact the Italian fascists had with the Mafia. And of course, whether the Mafia stayed brought, or took the bribes then shopped the agents anyway.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    13. Re:Bring the remake. by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      as a "civilian" (non-citizen) are only allowed to have 1 child.'

      That sounds more like "Ender's Game" than a Heinlein. Heinlein (as an author) was all for having as many children on his daughters and mother as possible.

      Then again, Heinlein's main characters were almost always members of the 1% (honourable exceptions to "Citizen of the Galaxy" and "Farmer's Freehold", possibly others).

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    14. Re:Bring the remake. by cwsumner · · Score: 1

      Admiral Yamamoto rejected the idea, saying "We cannot land on the mainland of America, every blade of grass would have a rifle behind it!"

    15. Re:Bring the remake. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > No I don't like Fascism, aka Socialism, which is more or less the system we already have in the US.

      OK, I'll bite-- what industries are government-owned (nationalized) in the US?

    16. Re:Bring the remake. by sabbede · · Score: 1

      Don't forget that many members of Congress, and late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had children serving as well. False claims about that were also circulated.

    17. Re:Bring the remake. by sabbede · · Score: 1

      I don't think you know what Fascism is, what it means, or what the underlying political philosophy is. Ditto for Socialism.

    18. Re:Bring the remake. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      No I don't like Fascism, aka Socialism

      If you really don't know the difference, I'd suggest reading up on those concepts. In Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, corporate overlords had a lot of power, since Fascism is a degenerate political system based on Capitalism. It also tends to be nationalistic and irrational, appealing more to emotion, and it doesn't care about voting. Socialism is another economic system, without corporate overlords, which tends not to be nationalistic and is generally rational (if not necessarily correct) and at least nominally democratic. While typically left-wing, it has been pushed by a few apparently right-wing movements (the Showa restoration fans in Japan were certainly right-wing, and I can make a good case for Bellamy's Nationalism). It has also been the basis for degenerate totalitarian political systems, but pretty much anything can be.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    19. Re:Bring the remake. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Which novels had main characters that were part of the 1%? Double Star is one, and Time Enough for Love, and you can make an argument for Stranger in a Strange Land, but that's three novels and I'm coming up with numerous in which the main character is far from the 1%

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    20. Re:Bring the remake. by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      Which is why the first thing one does before landing an amphibious assault force is to remove any blades of grass by bombardment with high-explosive shells from your seaborn and airbrn forces.

      Mass invasion is a different thing to landing sabotage / Fifth column forces. Neither Germany nor Japan was within some thousands of mile of close enough to non-Alaskwiian USA mainland for it to be a plausible scenario. Possibly you might wish to enquire why Ghengiz Khan didn't invade Japan by sending forces to California (from Szechuan) and invading from there.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  42. Anime version is still available by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    6 episodes, pretty good, old school drawings.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZty-Eol4s

  43. recap on Islam by harvey+the+nerd · · Score: 1

    It might be better to call Islam a slaver's codex with a religion and a nasty genocidal streak. Their "holy books" seem to spend more time on how to enslave, mistreat or murder other people than on Mohammad or Allah.

  44. Exoskeletonization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, I hope they include the part where...um...where the humans become more and more like their enemy as they don exoskeletons to fight bugs.

    (Also, powered armor.)

  45. I think we were just ric-rolled by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The script will be written by the writers of the upcoming Baywatch film[...]

  46. Not a fan of the movies by buss_error · · Score: 1

    Heinlein's books that have been made into movies strayed a long way from the master's works. The movies are nothing more than a money grab. The books are much better.

    --
    Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
    1. Re:Not a fan of the movies by dwye · · Score: 1

      The books are much better.

      With the exception of The Count of Monte Cristo, when is that not true?

  47. Writers of Bay Watch - seriously? by frnic · · Score: 1

    Well, we can always hope the re-re-boot might be better.

  48. Dismissed As Satire and Fascism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People want to dismiss the book and the movie as satire and fascism because they do not want to consider the idea that a person needs to purchase their political franchise with service. It's a serious idea worth considering. It's not to far afield from the Guardian calling every politician they don't like a far-right extremist.

    1. Re:Dismissed As Satire and Fascism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People want to dismiss the book and the movie as satire and fascism because they do not want to consider the idea that a person needs to purchase their political franchise with service.

      It's not that, it's just that the WWII-style boosterism and propaganda are laughable on their face looking back through the lens of Vietnam.

      There's no way today's American audiences could take a straight adaptation of the book seriously because it seems so naïve to modern, jaded eyes. If you never saw Apocalypse Now or Platoon or Born on the Fourth of July, maybe.

  49. Juan for All, All for Juan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I absolutely loved the movie because the special effects made the bugs look super real. The interactions and acting with the bugs was very believable. Truly superb CGI, set design, costumes, and script. If you can't appreciate a movie about militarization of society then you are too stupid to understand the absolute brilliance of the movie. It's in the same vein as Idiocracy or 1984 for being a warning message to society of what not to do but set against a fictitious alien enemy. It would have drawn a lot more criticism if it was set against another nation. It's absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately the movie series degenerated in quality in every possible way with each successive title. I enjoyed Starship Troopers 2 to a degree, some of the acting was sub-par. By the time it got to Starship Troopers III it was as if a 10 year old wrote the script and a high school drama club did the acting. As bad ass as the marauder tech was the whole mega mind plot sucked. All they had to do was keep the bug ground war theme that made the first so successful. It was obvious that the budget for CGI dwindled to almost non-existent and got too abstract with the ideological messages turning it into a convoluted mess. Even if Starship Troopers III had Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt it still would have been a tragedy and waste of time. I'm all for another movie as long as it's done like the first, properly. I've never read the book just a fan of the movies. From all the discussion here about how different the book is; I think I'll go read it. Starship Troopers with the Rock? Yeah I'm down for that. If possible bring back Casper Van Dien (Johnny Rico) he really does make the whole series tie together and is a great actor (my opinion). He's a bit older now so make him a general and make his son Juan Rico. That would make the movies prequels to the book? That would be cool.

    1. Re: Juan for All, All for Juan by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      Starship troopers 3 really lost me with the whole "no religion" thing, since in the book they made sure to point out that every single individual unit had a soldier pulling double duty in a religious capacity and that all religions were welcome and expression of religion was in fact encouraged.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  50. Hollywood Reporter Article Written by Idiot by skam240 · · Score: 1

    Given the controversy surrounding Starship Troopers the book — and, to be blunt, some of the flaws of the book itself, which reads much like polemic with (too) many scenes taking place inside classrooms with characters expressing the author's militaristic worldview to the reader as if they were one of the students — it's difficult to imagine a faithful screen version of Starship Troopers finding much success with modern audiences. Indeed, the very prospect seems oddly reminiscent of Ender's Game, a similarly beloved — and controversial — sci-fi novel that received its own movie version in 2013.

    The Ender's Game failure was due very much to its NOT sticking to the book. It was an incredibly shallow movie because rather than focus on the humanism that the movie was literally about it focused on whatever flashy special effect could be applied to it. Yeah, that single battle room scene felt right out of the book but the battle room scenes served a greater purpose in the book.

    The book Ender's Game would never have become the classic that it is if it was just about showcasing cool action scenes. As some one who was in accelerated academic programs but also felt a bit isolated because of it, the book was a perfect match.

    (Disclaimer: I don't consider myself brilliant and / or tragic. I'm just explaining the book's draw for me.)

    --
    I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    1. Re:Hollywood Reporter Article Written by Idiot by skam240 · · Score: 1

      Awe damn it.

      "...because rather than focus on the humanism that the movie was literally about it focused..." = "...because rather than focus on the humanism that the book was literally about it focused..."

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
  51. Re:Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own go by Carewolf · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid that if someone produces a sincere, straightforward film adaptation of the novel, the result will be unintentionally hilarious. At least Verhoeven's take is satirical on purpose. Verhoeven's original project "Bug Planet" probably would have been a good movie, too, even if they hadn't opted to get the Heinlein license after the similarities to Starship Troopers became apparent. My point in bringing that up is this: Verhoeven's people had a movie idea, and it wasn't just "adapt a novel". The idea "young beautiful people fall in love, fight aliens, become Nazis" was the kernel, and they built a great movie around that. I'm not sure "make Heinlein's book into a movie" is in and of itself such a great idea. I would need to know more before I thought it was good or bad. Would you like to know more? (Click here.)

    I see from Comment Moderation that I've been accused of trolling for the parent comment. Anyone who is offended care to explain? I don't get it. Who have I offended?

    You have offended the resident fascists, they don't like it when you call them nazis (or fascists for that matter).

  52. Give that fascism is quite en vogue these days ... by quax · · Score: 1

    ... I am sure they'll be doing fine.

  53. Re:I give up. by Boronx · · Score: 1

    What would be the point?

  54. F Hell, do ANY OF YOU READ A DAMNED BOOK? by Catbeller · · Score: 1

    SERIOUSLY. One of you read it. ONE. Yet you all seem to think you know all about it.

    1. Re:F Hell, do ANY OF YOU READ A DAMNED BOOK? by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      Get off your high horse. I've read it twice, once as a kid and once when I was older. I doubt I'm the only one here who can say that.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  55. That is not quite true by aepervius · · Score: 1

    People like me do not mind that you insult/disparage/hunt/kill extremist islamist terrorist. What we find racist is when somebody jump from "extremist islamist terrorist" to "the moslems". That is it generalize to the whole islam. E.g. all those pretending that islam is a religion which makes people violent, or that inherentely all moslem are violent etc...

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  56. yes it is facist by aepervius · · Score: 1

    "Democracy severely restricted? " that is the facist part, citizenship only open to those having gone thru military (federal service). You haven't gone through the service ? Then you are not a citizen with degraded rights. Saying it is open to everyone does not make it more democratic.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:yes it is facist by Squach · · Score: 1

      "Democracy severely restricted? " that is the facist part, citizenship only open to those having gone thru military (federal service). You haven't gone through the service ? Then you are not a citizen with degraded rights. Saying it is open to everyone does not make it more democratic.

      Would that make 17th century England fascist, since the franchise was rather restricted? Does fascism = limited franchise?

  57. Consider the actors involved by IWantMoreSpamPlease · · Score: 1

    The book has a lot of classroom learning, told in the way of flashbacks, that show how society functions.
    There is very little action in the book, compared to the discussion of society.
    Can you imagine Dwayne Johnson sitting in a classroom behind a desk learning about morality?
    The actors chosen show you what kind of film this will be. A Michael Bay style CGI fest about as exciting or engaging as the new ID:4 was...

    --
    So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
  58. Re:Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own go by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I see from Comment Moderation that I've been accused of trolling for the parent comment. Anyone who is offended care to explain? I don't get it. Who have I offended?

    Do not try to make sense of the Slashdot moderation system. That way lies madness. All you need to know about it is that it is broken by design because you can either moderate in a discussion or you can comment but not both. The problem with this is that the people best qualified to moderate are also the people best qualified to comment. The system should permit you to moderate in discussions in which you comment, so long as you do not moderate in threads in which you comment.

    Suffice to say that moderation is frequently abused, and leave it at that, because going down any road is pointless.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  59. No mention of Denise Richards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How can there be almost 300 comments, and nobody has even mentioned the lovely Denise Richards' role in Starship Troopers?

    The nerds are certainly cloistered in their basements today.

    1. Re:No mention of Denise Richards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha, I'm more a fan of Dina Meyer! She kicked ass and looked hot to boot.

      I'd like to see Denise Richards try to take on the Kurgan... ;)

  60. fail.. by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    Not much confidence in the 'reboot' after reading who will write the script...

  61. Re:Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own go by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not sure "make Heinlein's book into a movie" is in and of itself such a great idea. I would need to know more before I thought it was good or bad. Would you like to know more? (Click here.)

    Possibly, but it would still be pretty awesome to see the combat system described used in a space-war movie of any kind. Who wouldn't want to see a movie with spaceships jockying around and shooting enormous guns loaded not with bullets or missiles, but with angry space-marines in power armor.

  62. Re:so have the script wirters actually read the bo by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    Have the script writers actually read the book and understood it

    Have you considered the possibility that they read the book and understood it in a different way to how you did?

    Heinlein does strike me as a right-wing nut job with some serious incest hangups, but he does occasionally show some signs of different, less stereotyped, thinking.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  63. Pity this idea wouldn't work (probably) by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
    Considering that Joe Haldeman's "Forever War" was written as a riposte to "Starship Troopers", it would be really interesting to see the same crews (director, writers, actors, SFX, possibly even props) do both "Starship Troopers" and "Forever War" for back-to-back release.

    OTOH, there continue to be rumours that Ridley Scott is working on a script for the Forever War, which is good news in itself, but bad news for this idea.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  64. So, anyone know a good Filipino actor? by eric_harris_76 · · Score: 2

    If they're going to stay true to the book, they're going to need at least one, to play Juan Rico.

    --
    There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
  65. I Loved the Fascist Content! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The parent is making a telling point.

    Seriously, take out the fascist political ideology and what do you have? A fast-paced action movie, a Sci-Fi epic, lots of good special effects and good looking actors. It would be a popcorn movie, and even though a good popcorn movie, extremely shallow.

    Add in the fascist ideology and suddenly the movie has a deeper morality, it is raising troubling issues. Notice that the fascism is appealing? All the heroics, charming and noble characters, it really sells the fascism. And the fascism itself is presented in the best possible light.

    One can start to draw interesting historical parallels. Why did fascism take root in Europe, prior to the Second World War? Well it was appealing. It offered a simple authority figure to obey and follow. It offered simple boogey monsters to blame for societal problems. And for people who didn't like Communism, it offered a simple oppositional ideology to battle Communism. Fascism had some real appeal and to ignore that is to risk opening the door to fascism again today.

    Thus, the fascist content in Starship Troopers makes it a much better movie, IMO. Making the political content "acceptable for today's audiences" will almost certainly dumb down the movie. What you will get will be very much like the Star Trek reboot. All action, no ideas worthy of consideration.

  66. Re:Verhoeven's version is too smart for its own go by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 1

    You have offended the resident fascists, they don't like it when you call them nazis (or fascists for that matter).

    Hmm. That would be shooting the messenger. I didn't make up that "Beautiful young people fall in love, fight aliens, become Nazis" summary. That's from the supplemental materials from the laserdisc of Verhoeven's Starship Troopers. Anyone offended, don't blame me. I recall this being the summary the production crew worked with when first creating this movie. If you find this offensive, there's some piece of this story somewhere that you need to understand better. Anyway, I didn't call anyone a Nazi, and I don't like the accusation of trolling.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  67. Paul Verhoeven by sad_ · · Score: 1

    Does Hollywood have something against Paul Verhoeven? All his movies are being remade (robocop, total recall, now starship troopers), while they are all perfectly fine. If anything, there's a bunch of OTHER movies which could perhaps benefit from a remake, so why pick on Verhoeven?

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    1. Re:Paul Verhoeven by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

      I don't think they're picking on Verhoeven, so much as Verhoeven historically did great movies that are good candidates for remakes.

      It's like saying Moby Dick was obviously a crappy novel, because so many people are 'trying to do it better.'

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  68. Good, the other film was shit. by sabbede · · Score: 1

    I don't really have anything else to add. Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus.

  69. Not military service - Government service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The right to vote in Starship Troopers did not require military service, merely that you did _some_ community service for a term of not less than two years. Military was one option. Antarctic labor was another. Medical guinea pig was another. Heinlein mentions several in passing.

    The idea was "prove you can put the whole before yourself, to justify giving you the authority to govern the whole."

  70. The book is not as it is crtiqued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    0) The 1997 movie bears ABSOLUTELY no resemblance to the book, period. I walked out the the movie 30 minutes in.
    In the Book:
    1) The main character, Rico, is not white..he is Filipino. So not racist. There are characters in leadership of all races and genders. Women commanded most of the spaceships. A huge deal given the book's publication date, 1959. He would have gone further but the audience would have bought it.
    2) The prime exploration in the book is three things: a) Should society have a republic along the lines of ancient Greece, which required service before holding office. What would the implementation look like in a space-faring world?, b) How does discipline of children affect society? (spoiled millennials..this means you), c) how should a future military look? How should officers and enlisted troops be trained and selected?
    3) A big question for the main character is this: Why serve? He finds his own reasons as the book progresses.
    4) The book predicts many modern infantry technologies (not bad, since the author served in the navy in the 1930s) including common operating picture, the role of airborne in limited actions, and combat armor and powered suits.

    If they are not going to follow the book precisely don't bother. If you haven't bothered to read the book, your opinion is degraded at best.

    FYI.. I did serve in the US military myself, and recommended this book to my cadets when I became an instructor for this reason: why are you going in, exactly?
    Is it a blueprint for US society, not quite, and it wasn't meant to be.....I have read almost everything Heinlein wrote, and if you read Stranger in a Strange Land you might get how Heinlein really writes.,..he liked to go all the way to the wall when exploring concepts.

  71. Rasczak Roughnecks! by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    First off the movie Starship Troopers (1997) wasn't all that true to the book anyway (as mentioned by many), so if the reboot is or not is sort of irrelevant. I enjoyed the movie a lot and have seen it many times. I'd say one of the primary reasons was the over the top nature of political satire which is common for books of that era/genre but sadly missing from pretty much all movies for a number of reasons (most modern movies want to be as middle of the road and PG13 as to not alienate any potential demographic that would get in the way of making money and viewership). Having a movie with the courage to go there these days might be unlikely. Movies like Deadpool might change some peoples minds in that it was widely successful despite limiting itself to an R rating. That said, if it did manage to go there it would be all the more great in that only so few go there these days. I'd say the second thing that was good it that the acting in in what actually pretty good given the context of the movie. The best of which I thought was Michael Ironside as Rasczak. If they can cast the movie well that will also be a big deal. They may have their work cut out for them however as that kind of movie likely won't attract a lot of interest from many actors. In many cases it seems that once some actors get known for that work, they are stuck in that genre forever and it turns out not to be the most successful path an actor might take. Anyway I'd probably check it out no matter what simply to see how it turns out...

  72. what? by wyHunter · · Score: 1

    The book was racist? When citizens had names of numerous races in them? Democracy was exercised by people who chose to do national service. You were not restricted from national service, but you had to serve your term. Oh wait, I forgot, this goes against the SJW creed that anything that requires achievement is racist, sexist, etc.

    1. Re:what? by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      You ignore vastly changed cultural realities that would have had Heinlein write an entirely different book if he were alive today. When he wrote Starship Troopers, families needing two working parents just to provide the necessities of life for their children were unheard-of. And the social contract of the time ensured that if somebody went off to perform national service and earn their right to vote, they would be compensated well enough that their family could bear their absence economically.

      In today's world, we have had it beaten into us that none of that would be true. When Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers, the United States had a middle class. Today it has an upper class, a poverty-stricken lower class, and a lot of people struggling desperately to avoid slipping off the last rung of the ladder.

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  73. a solution... by Archfeld · · Score: 1

    I personally think that anyone that is coming from a combat zone should be reassigned to a non combat zone for a term prior to be released back into mainstream society. We expect people to go from be shot at and returning fire in a combat zone to passive without difficulty and that is already proving to be very difficult. If combat vets from the war zones were reassigned to non combat zones while still under military discipline for a period to 'decompress' prior to being cut loose completely and all of them were required/given counselling and some retraining back to the civilian world it would help those that need it most while not singling them out for getting/seeking help. I have nothing but respect for the volunteers that serve in our countries military, the way our country treats them when they are done is sad and in many ways shameful.

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  74. going back to the original for a brandnew take by KingBenny · · Score: 1

    thats one way of selling it
    as in : does an e-book contain less wisdom than the paper version ?

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    Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?