Vagabond wrote:

"D. -

I liked ST enough to buy the DVD, and so have listened to the Director's Commentary. So most of this comes from that.

Also, please bear in mind that I've neither watched the commentary nor read the book in more than a year. As I read a novel in about three days, and watch a movie roughly twice a week, there's a whole lot of other stuff crammed on top of that. But, from my memory, Verhoven was actually trying to take a script that deviated significantly from the novel, and yet retain the theme ""War makes facists of us all.""

Now, I can't recal if that theme is found in the book. I do recal that Verhoven thought so; he says this explicitly, several times, while defending himself from the charge of being pro-facist.

Verhoven was also trying to make an action-movie that Hollywood execs would approve of, and there are some compromises in there. One that he mentions: When the Roger Young narrowly avoids the first bug meteor, and looses part of her superstructre, there was supposed to be a scene in it where several people get suck out into space. The studio felt that, having lost crew members, the captain couldn't possibly be so pleased with Denise Richard's character, and made Verhoven take it out (it later ended up with the bits whe Young breaks up).

The other thing to consider: The movie wasn't originally intended to be Starship TRoopers. It was written as a ""Kill lots of bugs"" movie, mostly because the screenwriter knew a guy who had made a really nice CGI bug. The studio said, ""Hey, that sounds like Starship TRoopers!. We've got the rights. Turn this script into that.""

I will be the first to say that the book and the movie are very different in tone, and somewhat different in story. But I would say that Verhoven was attempting to put forth the same theme. And for myself, I think he succeeded.

And I'm glad I asked about ""taking the piss."" I'd interpreted it as somewhat more... hostile.

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11 November - LEST WE FORGET

""It starts! It runs. It goes. It goes fast! It turns. It doesn't turn!!""
-Red Green, The New Red Green Show"