"Starship Troopers The Superbit Edition" on DVD

Heinlein Meets Verhoeven. Both Win. Sort of.

by Jim Bray

I'll confess right off the top: Heinlein is my favorite author, and "Starship Troopers" one of my favorite Heinlein novels.

But a book's a book and a movie's a movie, and often the twain never meet. It's rare that a movie can capture the spirit of a good book, and even rarer in the science fiction field. Starship Troopers, with its high tech military action, typically Heinlein positions on honour, duty, and responsibility, would be a bugger to film, even in this day of digital moviemaking.

But I'd always wanted to see it as a film and looked forward to it with great anticipation. I hoped, but didn't expect, that this important book would be done justice. Hell, I would have been happy just to see it not raped by Hollywood.

And it wasn't. Well, not completely anyway.

I must admit to having exhibited a certain amount of unease once I heard Paul Verhoeven was helming the project. I liked "Total Recall" a lot, though I thought it overstepped the taste boundaries regarding violence for a few brief shots. "RoboCop" was okay, too, though with the same caveat.

I'd heard it rumoured that James Cameron was going to make "Starship Troopers," and heartily approved. His Marines in "Aliens" seemed taken right out of "Troopers", and I figured he could handle the moral elements with aplomb as well. But he boarded a famous luxury liner instead and the rest is history. And though he wasn't my first choice, I knew Verhoeven could do the job; I was just afraid he'd cross the violence line again.

And his "Starship Troopers" is just as grossly violent as the earlier films, but somehow it doesn't seem out of place in a wartime situation, where horrible instant death lurks around every rock. In fact, I think it made the horrors of war and the tragedy (and forced coming of age) it inflicts on our youngest and bravest more real and much more easy with which to identify.

But, oh, it's gross in places - disturbingly so.

So how does the movie stack up to the book? Well, I'd be surprised if they've used 15% of the book here, but that isn't neccessarily bad: there wasn't a lot of the "Jurassic Park" novel, in that movie either, and it worked fine as a film and remained faithful to the spirit of the book.

That's what Verhoeven has pulled off here, mostly. There's so much from the book that isn't included (yes, including those really neat powered and armored suits) - the Mobile Infantry fights very differently from the book, for instance - but it still works.

The novel is about a group of high school friends coming of age, going off to join the military, and facing the tough things life has to offer. Along the way they learn about loyalty, society, and the meaning of right and wrong.

And that's what the movie's about, too.

Verhoeven has done a good job here, all things considered, and I'm confident that Heinlein, if not reasonably satisfied, at least isn't spinning in his grave.

I wish Verhoeven hadn't chosen Nazi Germany as the inspiration for the future military's look. When combined with the book's moralizing, people (well, movie critics anyway) thought the society being pictured was "quasi-fascist" (whatever that means), when those who've read the book know it was nothing of the sort. And I wish the bugs hadn't been so hard to kill. In the book you could kill them without great difficulty, but it didn't matter because there were so many of them they just kept coming. The movie touches on this with the waves of bugs that try to engulf the grunts, in a couple of scenes, but I found it a bit hard to believe that anyone got out alive with the weak firepower the MI used here.

Rather than get into all the goodies about the plot, and the special effects, suffice it to say that you definitely get your money's worth. The spaceship effects are some of the best ever - and the bugs are creepy enough to give you nightmares. "Starship Troopers" is one heck of a ride! Once you've finished watching this movie you may find yourself wound up tight as a drum, it's that intense an experience in places.

The casting was inspired. Rather than getting big names, and also risk doubling the already huge budget, Verhoeven chose to cast lesser known actors who could pass for teenagers. They may not be the most remarkable thespians on the circuit, but they bring a freshness and exuberance to their roles that's believable. They look and act young - and shouldn't kids fresh out of high school be like that?

I was a bit unsure about a Superbit release. After all, the original DVD looked and sounded terrific, so why bother? Yet the Superbit release is better in both picture and sound, though as with the original release I wish they've have cranked up the volume a bit.

The Superbit anamorphic widescreen picture is even richer and more detailed than the original, with less edge enhancement visible. Color and sound are, as usual with Superbit DVD's, superb for the most part. Audio is now offered, as is the Superit tradition, in either dts or Dolby Digital (defaulting to dts), and other than the comparatively low volume the quality is excellent. The surround tracks come through very well, though I thought the front centre channel was a bit weaker than it could have been.

You lose the extras offered on the original release with the transition to Superbit, but while I love extras in the grand scheme of things I'd rather have the best picture and sound possible and this Superbit release delivers that.

It's too bad Starship Troopers wasn't a huge box office success in theaters; that'll probably discourage Hollywood from filming other important science fiction novels. Hopefully, the video sales will make up for that; I'd like to see more of this type of film - and this quality of film.

"Starship Troopers" - especially in its Superbit incarnation - belongs in every science fiction fan's film library.

Starship Troopers - the Superbit Edition, from Columbia Tristar Home Video
129 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible), dts and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring Casper van Dien, Dina Meyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil Patrick Harris
Produced by Alan Marshall, Jon Davison
Written by Ed Neumeier, Directed by Paul Verhoeven

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