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[Zarkumo]

I'd like to pick up this topic from another thread and I'd like to hear what you guys think about these different Starship Troopers "products" (btw did you know that there is also a Multiplayer FPS under way, by Empire Interactive?)

Originally posted by Jim6+Mar 26 2005, 01:44 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Jim6 @ Mar 26 2005, 01:44 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
<!--QuoteBegin-Zarkumo@Mar 25 2005, 10:59 PM

Hey, Starship Troopers is a very good example of a great movie and a pretty good computer game based on a sh***y novel.* k:

I honestly can't express how much that post appals me. The book Starship Troopers is Heinlein's greatest novel; an excellent critique on America, and one of, in my opinion, one of the greatest Utipian novels of the past century. To say that I have lived no small part of my life by an approximation of the beliefs espoused within would be no understatement. Well, I suppose I couldn't declare freedom without reading stuff like that... [/b][/quote]

I remember having this discussion a few years ago with an American (I'm German) who was also a big fan of Heinlein's and especially of his Starship Troopers novel, and he hated the movie. Whereas I LOVE the movie but didn't appreciate the book that much.

One point was that he claimed that the movie was crap because it is nothing like the book. True, it isn't. But I don't think this can be a criteria for judging the movie. You have to see the movie as a product of art in its own right. There are other movies based on books which are significantly different from original which are still great or even better than the book (e.g. "Clockwork Orange"). But maybe it's not easy or even wrong to compare books and movies anyway, as they are different mediums that work completely differently.

What I thought was interesting is that he also said that the novel was an excellent critique of America, but he failed to see the same critique in the movie. He claimed that they turned this great, inspiring book into a stupid action movie. I don't see that. I think the movie bursts with satire, irony and critique. The action is so ridiculous that I just can't take it seriously. And I think the very fact that Verhoeven turned the book into this Hollywood action movie kind of thing is an ingenious addition/continuation of the critique in the novel (taking into account that the novel is from 1959 and the movie from 1997; a direct translation of the novel content to the screen just can't be expected to work after 30 years...)

What I don't like about the book is what I don't like about most utopias: they are heavily detailled, tedious descriptions about societies that don't exist and have no or only alibi story lines.
I prefer novels which tell stories set in our society/world which I can relate to and from which I can draw insights or conclusions about the world I live in, and which not only make me think, but also make me understand, laugh or cry. The novel just fails to do that (for me).

Well, anyway, what do you think about the movie, the book, or the game?