Starship Troopers Illustrates How Susceptible Audiences Are to Propaganda

The Big Picture As a satire of fascist propaganda, Starship Troopers is intended to be viewed as a meta film that the highly militaristic United Citizen Federation would make about itself. However, its status as satire was lost to audiences and critics upon release, who viewed it as nothing more than a typical sci-fi action flick, not dissimilar from countless others in the 90s film catalog.

The film’s protagonists were cast for aesthetic reasons, as director Paul Verhoeven believed they would have fit in Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will . Between scenes of war, these characters exist only to deliver schlocky, wooden dialogue in order to forward an inconsequential love story, when not simply expressing their enthusiasm for fulfilling their civic duty in fighting the good fight against humanity's enemies.

'Starship Troopers' Excels at Satirical Propaganda Perhaps it was the lack of any clear dystopian imagery in the day-to-day life of the Federation's populace that resulted in the joke getting lost. It seems that without that heavy nod to the audience to telegraph that what they're seeing is intended to be seen as satirical propaganda, Starship Troopers is basically identical to any other war or action film produced by Hollywood.

Propaganda in Hollywood Films Attesting to this is the recent box office success of the Top Gun sequel, Top Gun:Maverick. Top Gun’s original release in 1986 saw recruitment numbers increase for the Air Force and Navy, as they got to showcase their most flashy hardware being piloted by two young, hot and cool dudes who play shirtless beach volleyball in jeans and aviators, when not tearing up the sky in their F-14 Tomcats and taking on a nameless enemy.

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