You are one very very very lucky person. The second film was an abomanation. At least the first one you could just turn your brain off, forget the book, and think it's a mildly entertaining popcorn flick, but the second one was an atrocity.I never saw the second movie.
It's like the NJO, times two.So its the NJO?
From what I remember of the movie (only saw it once), there are about a dozen soldiers running away from a large swarm of Bugs running straight at them. They hide in some sort of large building with a landing pad on top, and turn on this electric fence thing that surrounds the biulding, keeping the bugs out.Why didn't they have any combat? Aren't they in a war? Did the actors spend the whole movie just standing in a room?
It's like the NJO, times two.
Hummm, watch the movie... or be nice to the french? I'll take death from a spoon for 300 alex!From what I remember of the movie (only saw it once), there are about a dozen soldiers running away from a large swarm of Bugs running straight at them. They hide in some sort of large building with a landing pad on top, and turn on this electric fence thing that surrounds the biulding, keeping the bugs out.
They then discover this new type of bug which burrows into your head and takes control of your brain. It takes over one of them, and then starts killing/taking over the rest of them. At the end, I think one of them survives when a ship comes to rescue them.
Read Heinlein's book and you will realize just how much those commercials fail to live up to the tone of Heinlein's intent.Monroe wrote:I love the political comercials in these movies.
I really liked the first movie and this one looks like it'll be a continuation of that. I just hope they stay away from the format of the second movie.
Well, in the book, Heinlein actually makes the effort (though it probably pained him to do so) to rationalize the semi-fascist nature of the global government, and to actually extol its merits - perhaps a bit cynically, however. As far as that scene, I get the impression that Verhoeven was ignorant, not necessarily with willful disregard for the book. The recruiter in the book does make the point that the government doesn't consider each of the recruits personal, just as bodies; however, the intent of that is more than it seems in the book. The "uncaring" of the government is not about whether you get injured - it's about whether you sign up at all, because you'll simply be disenfranchised if you don't. The further point is that the MI is what it is because only people who get past that scene - and by implication, truly WANT to be there - will be a member, and therefore a future citizen.GrahamKennedy wrote:I've watched the DVD commentary on the original ST movie, and it's pretty clear that Verhoeven actually thinks he's being quite faithful to Heinlein. Because he has the basic idea of "serve to get citizenship" in there, and things like the fact that many veterans are missing limbs, he thinks he's got it.
In fact the missing limbs thing is a perfect example of how he messes the book's ideas up. In the movie the recruiter is made up to have Rico joining up; his amputated limbs are used to show how brutal serving is, give you the idea that nobody really cares if these people are chopped up in wars. The government just wants "fresh meat for the grinder".
In the book it's the complete opposite. In the book the recruiter is deliberately chosen because he is missing limbs, with the express intent of stopping people from enlisting. He's a horror show put there to make civilians go "oh wow, no way!" and walk out.
Because in the book the government isn't the militaristic fascist nonsense of the movie.
Um, the Federation government as depicted in the book is not fascist in any way.Mikey wrote:Well, in the book, Heinlein actually makes the effort (though it probably pained him to do so) to rationalize the semi-fascist nature of the global government,
Not quite that. Rather, it's that they have so many volunteers that they don't need to make any kind of effort to recruit. It's like today's army had ten times as many volunteers as it needed; why would they bother to advertise? In fact they'd do well to chase people away so that only the most determined enlisted.The "uncaring" of the government is not about whether you get injured - it's about whether you sign up at all, because you'll simply be disenfranchised if you don't.
It's not dwelled upon, but many of the characters in the book are not American. Johnny himself is Fillipino IIRC. Zim didn't speak English until he got to boot camp, and many of the recruits in Johnny's class were non American. I think the idea is that Heinlein is making an anti-racism point, albeit a subtle one.I have a bit of a tangential question. After re-reading the book 20 years later, I notice that toward the beginning Johnny calls Carmen Ochee Chornija. Am I reading too much into it by considering that to be an allusion to the globalization of government coinciding with a more oligarchic and totalitarian state?
Is that possible?
