Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers is a timeless movie because it works on so many levels. Is it a kick-arse science fiction action film? Yes. Is it a subversive allegory about war? Yes. Does it have complete control of its weirdness? Absolutely. And yet, it can still be more.
As a child, editor Tim Gonzales saw Starship Troopers and loved it. However, being only 11, he didn’t see below the surface. “The political satire throughout the film was completely lost on me as a kid,” he said in an email. “I really just saw it as this big, epic, grandiose scifi war movie.”
So, to celebrate the film’s 20th anniversary this year, Gonzales edited this trailer, which he calls a “Modern Trailer.” Really, though, “Serious Trailer” is a better description. It’s the trailer for the movie he thought he saw as an 11-year-old boy — a movie that’s in there if you look at it a certain way. Would you like to know more?
And yes, that quote at the beginning is real. It’s Ronald Reagan from the United Nations in September 1987.
It’s a testament to Verhoeven that a movie that’s at times so corny, violent, and creepy can also look like this. Starship Troopers is a work of art that can be wholly unique in the eye of the beholder.
[YouTube]