Writer's Block: Book based
Apr. 27th, 2010 05:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Many books I've enjoyed have been made into movies. But a really memorable, stand-out, bad adaptation was Starship Troopers. Robert Heinlein's philosophy-heavy novel explored military ethics and the necessity of war. Consequently it's come to be seen - whether it deserves to be or not- as a piece of jingoistic, pro-war propaganda. Naturally when the guy who directed such films as Showgirls and Robocop got ahold of it he thought the best way to approach the novel's nuances was to make it... a sort-of comedy spoofing 1940's newsreels, showcasing Dina Meyer's breasts, and Neil Patrick Harris overseeing the violent penetration of a giant anus monster. I am not making this up.
Supporting roles from two Highlander bad guys, a cameo by one Golden Girl, and even the mighty Denise Richards herself could not save this movie. If Denise Richards didn't seem totally into it when she was making out with Neve Campbell in Wild Things it's probably because she still had the taste of this cinematic turd in her mouth.
Oddly enough, the Starship Troopers movie was followed by the animated television series Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles which utilized the characters and setting as they had appeared in the movie, but tied them back to ideas and characters exclusive to the book and following the tone of the book much more closely. If there's a "real" movie version of the story, I consider that to be it.
Many books I've enjoyed have been made into movies. But a really memorable, stand-out, bad adaptation was Starship Troopers. Robert Heinlein's philosophy-heavy novel explored military ethics and the necessity of war. Consequently it's come to be seen - whether it deserves to be or not- as a piece of jingoistic, pro-war propaganda. Naturally when the guy who directed such films as Showgirls and Robocop got ahold of it he thought the best way to approach the novel's nuances was to make it... a sort-of comedy spoofing 1940's newsreels, showcasing Dina Meyer's breasts, and Neil Patrick Harris overseeing the violent penetration of a giant anus monster. I am not making this up.
Supporting roles from two Highlander bad guys, a cameo by one Golden Girl, and even the mighty Denise Richards herself could not save this movie. If Denise Richards didn't seem totally into it when she was making out with Neve Campbell in Wild Things it's probably because she still had the taste of this cinematic turd in her mouth.
Oddly enough, the Starship Troopers movie was followed by the animated television series Roughnecks: The Starship Trooper Chronicles which utilized the characters and setting as they had appeared in the movie, but tied them back to ideas and characters exclusive to the book and following the tone of the book much more closely. If there's a "real" movie version of the story, I consider that to be it.
