Hello
I watched Starship Troopers earlier and I was quite surprised how many similarities the film had with events that have taken place since the film was made. Is the story so sucessful because it deals with what would happen when a society is threatened. Is it because the film was based on the book of a writer who's inspiration was the experiences he had during the second world war and history is doomed to repeat itself? Life imitates art as it where, but in this sci-fi film which is seemingly so abstract from reality were they able to show something true about the human condition.
Similarities
Patriotism
Film: Youth being taught a strong patriotic bond. That there should be almost blind alligence with their society.
Reality: Patriotism has always played a major role in American society. It was really nesessary for a country that was such a melting pot of so many immigrants that people held alligence to America, rather than their countries of origin. Whilst times may have changed, this hasn't. As shown during the many debates about whether the presidential candidates were seen to be 'patriotic enough to be president' http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/07/15/patriotism-shouldnt-be-questioned-just-taught/
Military Glorification
Film: "I'm doing my part. Service guarentees citizenship. Would you like to know more?"
The film clearly shows the wonder with which the new recruits look upto the all powerful military and quite literally put their lives in it's hands.
Reality: The US military has a very active publicity machine designed to boost faith (and 'faith') in the military. In a democracy this is an important thing for a military to do as they need to 'justify' their budgets and support for the military often gives political cover. (Just been reading exerts of this (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zB8J2ho-0k8C&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=Guts+and+Glory:+The+Making+of+the+American+Military+Image+in+Film+synopsis&source=bl&ots=7YXQg6KNmV&sig=TOVBIM2x5PhZQlrmpo0kDg67QMc&hl=en&ei=5lK4Sf2XDtnHjAeMqJmcCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR11-IA1,M1)
"To the extent that the book has a thesis, it postulates that hollywood's creation image of the all-powerful, always victorious armed services through the late 1950's contributed to the ease with which Lyndon Johnson and the best and brightest people in government tok the United States int othe quagmire of Vietnam."
The book not only explains the motivation of some to glorify the military in America but also the effects this glorification can have, positive and negative. How it can pursuade people of the military's invincibility, strength and urgent purpose of it.
BUT.... Yes. But of course these are common aspects of American society. Get to the future bit!
ok!
A Society Attacked
Film: The film shows that an enemy known, but thought to not be a huge threat (Arachnids) are able to launch a massive and devistating attack on Buenas Aries. The routine of peoples lives and training camp exercies suspended as everyone is glued to the news to see this attack. Revenge, anger and loss are all clearly viewable and commented on in the news article. So, what is such a society to do? War.
Reality: You probably know where I'm going with this. You probably remember where you were the day it happened. September 11th. Burn't into all our minds as a great turning point. When we all suddenly felt so vulnerable, angry and vengeful after the terrorist attacks. Just starring at the 24 hour news channels watching the flames and smoke billowing out of the World Trade Centre. It didn't take long for the news to speculate the guilt and start discussing what a suitable response would be. It wasn't long before we all started learning about Afghanistan. I'd barely heard of it before and I certainly couldn't place it on a map. But something 'had' to be done. There would be a 'war on terror'. But it wasn't clear where on the map this war would be.
Knee Jerk Invasion
Film: Very quickly it seems an invasion is planned and launched against Klendathu (sp?). The decisions are based on the societies pre-existing assumptions of the enemy. Assuming that the insects possessed no actual intelligence and that stopping them would be like stepping on a cockroach.
Reality: Whilst everyone got all 'gun-ho' on revenge, a quickly formed alliance started the invasion of Afghanistan. It's fair to say that there wasn't really time to prepare, ensure that training was given on how to handle combat in rocky environments. Equipment shortages were common and a dreadful lack of interpreters lead to breakdowns in communication with locals. But of course the thinking at the time was that we would capture and hold Afghanistan very quickly.
The West would like to see a short, sharp war resulting in the vaporising of the Taliban followed by a quick transition to a regime the West could live with, while grateful Afghan civilians applaud joyously from the sidelines.
Just need to quote the chilling last sentence
However truly terrible the consequences, many will happily rally behind the flag.It's not like no one suspected. But no one listened.
"To fight the bug we must understand the bug"
Film: In the film after the failure of the invasion and the clear misjudgement over the enemy, the leader in charge resigns.
Reality: If only this bit followed the film. If only. Unfortunately it would be another 6 years before the leader that started the invasion would leave.
Also both in the film and in reality numbers of dead seem so abstract. We can't process in our minds the sheer numbers of people who died or were injured. When it started we'd get pages showing the photo's of those killed.. then they stopped doing that. In the film you have the screen with all the names running up, the total at the top over 326,000.
Brains of the operation in a cave.
Film: In the film they identify the leader 'brain' bug who's been co-ordinating the mindless arachnids to devastating effects. The specialist skill of the brain bug is less brain washing, more brain sucking. The brain bug is hiding in a complex network of caves and is captured!
Reality: Of course there was clearly a brain behind the organisation, a face and a name, now known by pretty much every man woman and child on the planet. Osama bin Ladin. He two was hiding in caves, opting to brain wash rather than suck. Building and co-ordinating his terror network. Unfortunately again reality didn't quite measure up to the film and we didn't capture the brain bug. In fact he's still alive and free... somewhere.
SO... Did they predict the future?
No, I'm afraid not. It comes down to this. "Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it." The film is closely based on key world war two events and references with some creative license thrown in for good measure. The big unprovoked attack being Perl Harbour. The invasion, a variation of D-Day, or the landing in Italy, or probably the failure of Operation Market Garden.
The film is based on sound sociological and psychological reactions, because he saw it happen. Unfortunately we didn't entirely learn from our mistakes. The same or similar mistakes made in the Second World War, Vietnam, Korea, Falkland islands and many more.
So the REAL question is. When will it happen again? How long will it take us to forget these things again? After all the true power of terrorism is it's ability to control what we do, move us away from rational thought where we learn and improve and put us in state where knee jerk reactions seem the only rational option.
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