Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi classic, introduced and discussed by Nolen Gertz, Assistant Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente.

Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers (1997) forces us to ask some very timely yet uncomfortable questions, questions such as: What is the proper basis for having the right to vote? What should the relationship between politics and violence be? Is there something appealing about war? How do you know if the enemies you’re fighting are really your enemies? Is it okay to send teenagers off to war? While for Robert Heinlein, the author of the book the movie was based on, these questions were easy to answer, for Verhoeven the answers are less clear. Verhoeven turns his version of Starship Troopers into a challenge to Heinlein’s version, satirizing the patriotism and militarism that Heinlein championed. But does Verhoeven go too far with his satire? Is it possible that in depicting the absurdity of fascist propaganda Verhoeven has nevertheless created a movie that could itself be mistaken as fascist propaganda?