Quote:
Originally posted by baltassoc
[Starship troopers] The movie completely shifted the philisophical underpinnings of the book. It did retain the obvious military service for citizenship theme, but really dropped the more interesting theme of the book that explored autonomous thought versus centralized command.
|
See, that's what I thought the movie translated beautifully, albeit very differently. The theme was in fact about autonomous thought vs. central command, and they illustrated the issue by reference to the same historical moment that was Heinlin's essential reference: WWII and post WWII, and the political ideological issues and conflicts apparent in the subsequent rises of fascism and communism. To the extent the movie subverts the book's take on it (i.e.: the book toys with the idea that fascism might be both a logical result of and actually the best environment for a flourishing and successful individualism, while the movie, with it's marvelous US propaganda jokes, makes the point "the great 'individualists' who famously defeated the fascists and communists are in fact no different from the fascists - and maybe not the communists, either"), I think it does it quite validly (and necessarily) for a different generation with different political histories watching a different medium with its own different history.
