Sonic Youth Gossip - Career Arc: Paul Verhoeven

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Career Arc: Paul Verhoeven

http://grantland.com/features/career...aul-verhoeven/

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It’s neither the beginning of his career nor the peak, but if we’re going to talk about Verhoeven as a historically shortchanged auteur, we have to talk about Starship Troopers, from 1997. It’s a movie whose critical reputation has shifted pretty radically since it was first released, and in a lot of ways that shift mirrors a broader change in the critical consensus around Verhoeven’s whole filmography. Troopers critiques the red-meat militarism of Heinlein’s book in a kind of Stephen Colbert way, by pumping it up until it short-circuits. With its wooden but eugenically perfect cast, its comic depiction of a futuristic society’s cheerful and media-stoked march to war, and its over-the-top visual nods to Triumph of the Will, Troopers is more obviously a satire than any other Verhoeven film. But it’s also the Verhoeven movie that was most widely misperceived as something else when it first came out.

I forgot this dude even made that movie, and I sometimes think that in 1997 I was the only person who understood it was satire.

Lets not forget the masterpiece that is Total Recall.

Quote:

At night in his old neighborhood, he told van Scheers, “you could see the enormous beams of the searchlights above Rotterdam and hear the noise of anti-aircraft guns. Sometimes a plane would be hit and disappear behind the horizon, burning. And yet these images did not fill me with fear; instead, they were exciting — the ultimate special effect. You couldn’t wish for anything better really.” He’s said things like this in interview after interview, seemingly unconcerned about sounding like exactly the kind of cold-ass psychopath his detractors assume he must be.)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

http://grantland.com/features/career...aul-verhoeven/
I forgot this dude even made that movie, and I sometimes think that in 1997 I was the only person who understood it was satire.

People still don't always take me seriously when I try to explain that.

Satire or not. I love Heinlein and that movie can fuck right off.

Quote:

Originally Posted by floatingslowly

Satire or not. I love Heinlein and that movie can fuck right off.

seriously, I wanted to throw things at the screen.

Genre journalist Stefan Jaworzyn once told me that when he saw "Starship Troopers" in the States during it's first week run there, so many audience members missed the point of the film, that the US Army may as well have set up recruiting booths at every screening!

Something tells me that americans aren't very good at getting satire.

I think I got the point of the film when I was about 12. It's not like it's a subtle movie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

Lets not forget the masterpiece that is Total Recall.

I swear when I saw this in the theater in Allston when this first came out it showed Sharon Stone's boobs, full frontal, but the DVD does not.

Funny, I just watched ROBOCOP the other night. I was mildly obsessed with it when I was a kid and I decided on a whim to watch it again.

Though some of the effects are dated, they have dated charmingly, and the satire is still spot on. Detroit Police department is privatized? What a hilarious backdrop for a weird clash between a half-man/half-robot and some colorful villains. I thought the whole thing was pretty genius. I'm not sure I understood any of this when I was a kid, but I still loved it. It says a lot when a goofy, violent film can delight kids and adults.

(The new one is rated PG-13. That in itself will keep me away.)

i'm one of the people who missed the point at first seeing starship troopers. i liked the effects and i liked denise richards, but i really disliked the movie. but i don't blame myself for it. it really appears different post-iraq.

yes, on recollection it's mocking a ridiculous mindset, but i originally thought the movie was justifying a ridiculous war mindset-- places like that cave when they blow up that big bug sort of give away these people are assholes, but you still doubt it as a whole. kinda like if you at first watch colbert without context (some article linked up there mentions colbert) you might think he's serious. first time i stumbled upon colbert i didn't know it was in the comedy channel and it took me a while to get it.

because think about it-- when i first saw a fox news broadcast i couldn't tell it wasn't a parody. i couldn't believe the things that would come out of those people's mouths. the complete bullshit and distortion. only later i found out that people believe that shit in earnest and fox has high ratings. it blew my mind!

also when i first talked to an educated creationist (employed at ibm no less!) i thought he was pulling my leg with the bullshit about god planting fossils to trick us. seriously! i just couldn't reconcile that a smart successful person could earnestly believe such utter bullshit. but it happens. and it happens a lot.

i mean, america can be its own caricature.

e.g.:

^^ is this a joke or is it in earnest? tell me, o so-clever ones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tesla69

I swear when I saw this in the theater in Allston when this first came out it showed Sharon Stone's boobs, full frontal, but the DVD does not.

yes indeed.

Bteween Starship Troopers and Omega Code, the acting is sooooooooooo wood