Dutifully, if none too successfully, sold as a Cowboys and Indians Space Opera for the Gung-Ho/Gonzo crowd, this Paul Verhoeven film found second life as subversive fascist allegory hiding-in-plain-sight . An achievement perhaps clearer now than at the time.* With its co-ed army of chiseled perfection (strong of jaw, high of cheek, tight of ab, orgy-free group showers) dressed in Nazi-inspired insignia & uniforms and outfitted with ultra-advanced weaponry, they take to the universe to challenge indigenous Arachnids (aliens bugs) on their own extraterrestrial turf fighting with nothing but natural powers of destruction as they attack the humanoid lifestyle. So, who you gonna root for? Heck yeah, the attractive humans with the big guns. Generally good fun, with a funny/nasty cutting edge, the film might have been even better if Verhoeven hadn’t let the actors in on what he was up to. Playing with their beautiful tongues in their beautiful cheeks, they tend to give the game away instead of blankly going thru their duties to the MotherLand. The winking holds things down, dulling (though not killing) the meta-joke mocking of Top Gun patriotism.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Maybe the film simply plays better in home viewing where the political allegory isn’t submerged by deafening audio and busy visual design elements. Also, the smaller scale helps tamp down the brain blinding effects of gross out war fluids.
DOUBLE-BILL: Neil Blomkamp’s DISTRICT 9/’09 was built on similar alien vs human conflict, but wore its humanism on its sleeve so you couldn’t miss it. Sure enough, critics picked right up on the theme. Much as the hip anti-nuclear comic warning of DR. STRANGELOVE was to the earnest/square nuclear endgame of FAIL SAFE, so too STARSHIP TROOPERS to DISTRICT 9.
No comments:
Post a Comment