Anyone like Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles?

ChanceKell said:
The Special Edition DVD I have has a really nice commentary with Verhoven and co.. He describes a lot about how people thought he was making a pro-fascist movie, despite the fact that he spent his childhood in German-occupied Amsterdam.
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Verhoeven was all of 8 years old by the time Germany surrendered, and Amsterdam pretty much got a "kid gloves" treatment by the Nazis. Yeah, that's a wonderful excuse for totally missing the book's issues and throwing in unrelated crap because it fits preconceived notions born of willful ignorance.

:rolleyes:

(Jerry Pournelle had a not-dissimilar problem at one point, with the German translations of one of his Falkenberg's Legions novels [don't recall which one, but I'm thinking The Prince]; the translator basically made Falkenberg into a caricature of the character as originally written, using all of the worst cliches about fascism, because he thought Pournelle was a jack-booted fascist.)
 
Death said:
Yeah, that's a wonderful excuse for totally missing the book's issues and throwing in unrelated crap because it fits preconceived notions born of willful ignorance.
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Verhoven actually admitted he didn't read the novel until after the film was made. Go fig.
 
If you ask me, the novel realizes the necessity of war, if anything.



*stares at ChanceKell's last comment*

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh!!! Why am I not surprised?
 
Verhoven is a complete idiot who doesn't have any idea to what he's talking about. On the "Robocop" special edition DVD, he compares Robocop to Jesus, and then to Che Guevara.
 
Delance said:
Verhoven is a complete idiot who doesn't have any idea to what he's talking about. On the "Robocop" special edition DVD, he compares Robocop to Jesus, and then to Che Guevara.
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Those crazy Dutch! (Insert wholebelly laugh here.)
 
(Jerry Pournelle had a not-dissimilar problem at one point, with the German translations of one of his Falkenberg's Legions novels [don't recall which one, but I'm thinking The Prince]; the translator basically made Falkenberg into a caricature of the character as originally written, using all of the worst cliches about fascism, because he thought Pournelle was a jack-booted fascist.)
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I'm pretty sure (~73%) that it was The Mercenary.

Then if I might add that one of the best anti-war books I've ever read was Slaughterhouse Five.
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Thanks, internet:

I said that to Harrison Starr, the movie-maker, one time, and he raised his eyebrows and inquired, "Is it an anti-war book?"

"Yes," I said. "I guess."

"You know what I say to people when I hear they´re writing anti-war books?"

"No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?"

"I say, ´Why don´t you write an anti-glacier book instead?´"

What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that, too.


On the "Robocop" special edition DVD, he compares Robocop to Jesus
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Well... they're both robots... and they're both cops.
 
Delance said:
Verhoven is a complete idiot who doesn't have any idea to what he's talking about. On the "Robocop" special edition DVD, he compares Robocop to Jesus, and then to Che Guevara.
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I think that makes some kind of sense. I mean, we live in a world where William Gibson said that a Keanu Reeves character was more important than everything Christ ever did.
 
It's a crazy world. Good thing we have WC to take our minds off it for brief periods of time.

I was looking at the SST movie sequel. Is it just me or does it look bad?
 
There are multiple film versions of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, as well as movies with similar knock-off themes dressed up in different ways (a number of romantic comedies would probably fit the bill...), all of them less deep than the books they're based on (that should go without saying), and as far as I know, not particularly classic films (I've certainly never heard of a classic version of P&P or Jane Eyre that is just a stunning work of cinematic art that everyone absolutely must see, the way people might talk about "A Clockwork Orange" or "Gone with the Wind" or "Das Boot").

I think we need to separate a book being a classic, and a movie being a classic, and movies based on classic books not necessarily being classic. :) Under those criteria, Starship Troopers, Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice are all classic books. In fact, I believe Starship Troopers is required reading for Marine officers. However, I don't know of any film adaptations of any of those books that I would call classic.

"Debbie Does Dallas" may also be a classic movie, although I've never seen it (or any similar movies), so I can't comment on its merits compared to other films, in its genre or otherwise. ;) I suppose I have to do a Google as to why people think it's a classic, just to satisfy my curiosity...
 
By the way, has anyone seen the concept for the US army's new uniform?

I52926-2003Jun12L


And a robotic exoskeleton developed by scientists at Berkeley

bleex.jpg
 
Well, that's what we all though when we saw it... "Hey, Starship Troopers!"

(Of course, we ignore the message Heinlein was trying to convey...).
 
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