“It Can’t Happen Here (in Outer Space)”

I finally watched Starship Troopers a little while back, and I rather liked it. Like many Paul Verhoeven films, I found that half the fun was in trying to guess which actors got the point of the film, and which ones clearly didn’t.

Neil Patrick Harris got it, for example. Michael Ironside totally got it, and played to it perfectly. But I’m guessing the main guy whose name I don’t remember thought he was starring in a straight action movie. And Denise Richards, bless her heart, was clearly too busy grappling with basic acting concepts – like conveying the way your character feels in your performance instead of just saying it out loud – to wrestle with the deeper anti-fascist themes of the film.

Take Showgirls, to name another example. Kyle MacLachlan was obviously in on it. Elizabeth Spano, probably not so much. I’m tempted to say that Gina Gershon got it, but I’m pretty sure it’s partly because I don’t want you thinking that every pretty girl in a Paul Verhoeven movie is a dunce as far as I’m concerned.

I’m pretty sure all the main players in RoboCop got the admittedly blatant subtext. Even the “I’d buy that for a dollar!” guy probably knew that his cameo served a broader sociopolitical message.

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