Fascism is more generally characterized by a cult of personality, extreme nationalism, veneration of past glory, militarism, racial superiority, and authoritarianism. Benito Mussolini defined fascism as a merger of corporations and the state. Verhoeven himself said his movie adaptation is “playing with fascism or fascist imagery to point out certain aspects of American society… of course, the movie is about ‘Let’s all go to war and let’s all die.'” He copied some propaganda scenes directly from Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935).īut is the Terran Federation depicted in Starship Troopers a fascist society? Despite the fascist ascetic in the film, it just doesn’t measure up. Characters become less human as the film progresses, until, at the end, they cheer when it’s revealed a captured arachnid feels fear, an emotion that typically elicits sympathy. Instead, in Starship Troopers, characters who originally question the social order, or who are at least indifferent to it, end up embracing it. Mike and Jay argue Starship Troopers inverts a common character arch in which a character living in an oppressive society comes to rebel against that society. They are confined to a “Quarantine Zone,” like the Nazi ghettos. Characters consider the alien arachnids to be ugly, mindless, and inferior to humans. Violence is shown as the only solution, and militarism and war are at the center of this futuristic society.

At one point, characters are wearing uniforms obviously inspired by the Nazi Gestapo. The director, Paul Verhoeven, definitely interpreted Heinlein’s novel in this way. In their review, Mike and Jay take the position that Starship Troopers is a satire of fascism, and that audiences largely missed the point when the movie was released in 1997. I just watched it last week, when to my surprise, RedLetterMedia featured it over the weekend in an episode of “re:View.” Watch the full episode here. Starship Troopers isn’t my favorite film, but I think it’s entertaining and original enough to rewatch every now and then.

Heinlein, and the 1997 movie of the same name, are alternatively accused of promoting or lampooning fascism. The science fiction novel Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. The terms fascist and fascism get thrown around a lot, but rarely with accuracy.

Starship troopers movies in order