• DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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    9 months ago

    Well, Heinlein was a liberal, if of a militarist and nuke happy bent in the years following his naval career where he helped fight Nazis, and Verhoeven didn’t bother reading the book in his years as a scared Dutch child whose country was liberated, by Americans, from Nazis.

    In the book “Johny Rico” is actually named Juan Rico, and his native tongue is Tagalong.

    He’s a Filipino.

    Heinlein often did this, he’d give the MC a lot of relatable but non-identifiable characteristics for his primary audience (white men) to latch on to, then reveal details like that at the end.

    It’s almost like Verhoeven’s hack ass should have bothered reading a 200 page novel he was paid to make a movie out of.

    • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Eh, to me Starship Troopers has a similar relationship to the book it was based on to Dr. Strangelove. It’s an adaptation that kind of pokes at the ideas therein by adding a large dose of ridiculousness.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        9 months ago

        Which would be fine, if he’d read the fuckin book!

        And if he’d made his satire understandable to the people who needed to see it.

        No one sees Dr Strangelove and says “Wow, nukes are cool and we should let the government make more of them,” but there are countless chuds who thought Starship Troopers was a great bug zapping movie, no notes.