Re: SPOILER<<STARSHIP TROOPERS REVIEW>>

On Wed, 05 Nov 1997 23:33:28 -0600, "Mark A. Siefert"
<cthulhu@csd.uwm.edu> wrote:

I'd thought I'd comment on some of Mark's nitpicks.

>	Major nitpicks:
>	1.  How are the bugs capable of hurling asteroids from one side
of the
>galaxy to another in such short a time?  They obviously don't have any
>starships or plot device drive.  

Real good question.

>	2.  BTW, why do I have the feeling that the asteroid that hit
Buenos
>Aries should have done a lot more damage than it did.	All that
happened
>was a South American city got flattened.  I real life... does anyone
>remember what happened to the dinosaurs.  I got the feeling that they
>were try to combine "Starship Troopers" with "The Moon is a Harsh
>Mistress."  They failed miserably.  

Point taken, but I'll forgive them this as they tended not to
concentrate too much on what happened on the Earth. It would have just
gotten in the way of the story.

>	3.  Rasczak wasn't Rico's teacher.  Mr. Dubious was.

The character was a composite. Movies do this all the time.

>	4.  OK, not only do men and women fight with one another (which
I don't
>have a problem with as long as the women can met the physical demands
>that combat calls for), but they also share the same barracks and
SHOWER
>TOGETHER.  Someone told me that they were trying to say that sexual
>mores have changed in future... what I really think that the writers
>were doing was a lame attempt to throw on some tits and ass. (Pardon
the
>vulgarity.) It comes to no surprise that the director of this horror
>also directed the equal poor "Showgirls."

Actually, I didn't find this at all to be a lame attempt at T&A. You
actually see more of the men than the women. My friend Lorna liked
this scene. She thought it was refreshing to see a movie where men and
women naked together weren't necessarily involved in anything sexual.
Apparently this happened all the time in the USSR during the war, when
men and women fought side by side. 

Lorna also told us about a sign that was posted in one of the co-ed
barracks. It was just after the US and USSR linked up at the end of
the war. It was obvious that the person who posted it didn't expect
any Americans to be able to read it. It said something like, "Please
do not have sex while the Americans are around."

>	5.  It surprises me that the bugs are able to evolve into such
useful
>creatures,  warrior bugs, huge heavily armored bugs that spit acid,
>flying bugs that have an uncanny knack for cutting of people's heads,
>bugs that can shot down starships from orbit with a plasma fart, bugs
>that suck out peoples brains to learn what they know... OH COME ON. 
>Evolution just isn't this lucky.

I didn't get the feeling that this was evolution. I got the feeling
that the Brain bugs were capable of biogenetic creations, and that the
various bugs were constructs. Of course most biologists believe that
giant bugs are impossible anyway. The inverse square law plays hell
with exoskeletons. In this, Heinlein was just as guilty.

Allan Goodall  -  agoodall@sympatico.ca

"The secret rules of engagement are hard to endorse,
 when the appearance of conflict meets the appearance of force"
		       - The Tragically Hip