Starship Troopers Analysis 2 and 3

1. What are the institutional factors that may be important?
1. as a production of a specific producer (i.e. Walt Disney), institution (Disney Studios), specific economic factors (Studio Film), or a political background? (U.S. politics 1959)
2. What is the film’s historical significance?
1. as a document of its time?
2. as a part of history of film?

III.  Socio-cultural context

1. What is the film’s socio-cultural context?
1. as a work from a specific country?
2. As a work from a specific culture?
3. As a work representing a specific part of its society?
4. As a work made for a specific audience?
5. As a work made for a specific reason?

During the time when the film was made, we were currently fighting in the Iraq war. It was also the year when Osama Bin Laden declared war on the free world. It mocked the news that constantly assured us ‘We’re winning were winning!” as during many other wars that we seemed to be losing , like Vietnam, or Iraq. The similarities don't stop there, however, and the parallels between Vietnam, War on Terror, continue to compile. That the Troopers fight in a desert against bugs who hide underground in “bugholes” is no coincidence (Neither is the similarity between “Arachnid” and “Iraqi”). From Paul Verhoeven’s view, the film is a mocking of fascist society by over exaggerating its features to point out it’s insane ideals. This was due to his early childhood filled with Nazi’s violence and discontent with the Allies (being born in the WW2 Nazi-occupied Netherlands). Daily, allied bombing raids left dead in the streets. Conversely, Ed Numeier wrote the film as a parody of US involvement in guerrilla wars and absurd international policy, himself being American. This is primarily why every actor recruited is “American,” yet they live in Buenos Aires. This suggests that the whole world has been Americanized, parodying our aggressive American expansionism which the US government is constantly trying to justify. Even the news reporter suggests that maybe the bugs attacked them because the humans expanded into their territory, and they felt threatened. Unfortunately, Starship Troopers was marketed as a action B-movie, and the audience that attended saw it as such. Intellectuals failed to see the deeper meaning as the failed to be attracted to such a “mindless” movie.