Poor Captain Zot here.
Excuse me, Carol, but I can't let your dissing me go unchallenged.
If you want to use the tactics here that they use over there, then please, get the facts straight.
I have reposted my response to you with your comments intact and will continue responding to you at the end of the repost.
>Carol laments:
>> Too bad. Now I don't have to see it.
>My apologies. That certainly was not my intent. However, to each >their own, I suppose, when it comes to taste in movies.
>> Starship Troopers is Heinlein's most difficult book.
>> It's about the obligations and responsibilities of a citizen
>> to his country and his government. Of course, this was very
>> unpopular when it was published in the middle of the Viet
>> Nam war. Most people still don't understand the theme.
>That was a theme that was used in the movie, although one didn't get >the feeling that it was quite as strongly expressed as in the
>book. Remember, I was a teenager when I read it originally and living >during the threat of really going to war myself, so the
>themes of citizenship didn't mean quite the same things to me then >that they do now (although I did win a countywide speech
>contest at the time, sponsored by the VFW, the Voice of Democracy >contest. I need to find a tape of that and review it).
>> The ads on TV looked like it is nothing more than "Alien
>> Meets Top Gun". Sounds like they ripped the guts out
>> and the heart out,too.
>Sort of, I suppose, and yes, there was a lot of gut & heart ripping, >(pun intended).
>> Just another empty "effects movie". There's
>> a totally different movie in the book. Too bad they didn't
>> have the courage and imagination to film it.
>My guess is they wanted a commercially viable movie, and this is the >story that the powers that be saw to accomplish that.
>> Let's all boycott this turkey.
>As I said before, everyone has different tastes. Rather than boycott >it, go see it, then get the book and re-read it.
>Captain Zot
>OPEN MIND MODE = ON
Okay, continuing on...
First of all, I wouldn't say you were sandbagged, only that you were disagreed with for criticizing a movie that you had only seen previews of on tv. Most previews only show the flashiest stuff to attract moviegoers, most movie adaptations of books are rarely true to every element of the books (hence "adaptation"), and I am not a professional movie critic, just another science fiction fan who has eclectic tastes and appreciates Hollywood's current efforts in presenting better sci-fi movies than they did in my youth.
Secondly, I agree with you and hope Mrs. Heinlein made a ton of money from the sale of movie rights, but I wouldn't want her to bankrupt the producers or we as fans might have one less resource for future enjoyment of our interests.
As to the part where you say, "Poor Captain Zot says the book/movie is not about the "duties and responsibilities of the citizen" living in a free society, but rather a sarcastic view of a repressive, totalitarian government", I believe that if you will review the above exchange, you will see that I never said anything like that, and that in fact, I agreed that those themes were present (duties and responsibilities), but were not as strongly expressed in the movie as they were in the book, and I don't recall saying anything about the movie presenting a "sarcastic view of a repressive, totalitarian government".
About Heinlein's military career and his patriotism, I never questioned that and do not now. You, on the other hand, do appear to question mine, and I take great umbrage from your statement about me regarding that. Like Heinlein, I, too, served honorably in the United States Navy and received an honorable discharge in 1974. I also participated in combat duty in the Vietnam War during a period when much of this country was suffering through a moral dilemna regarding that effort. I had no problems with my moral philosophy, my knowledge of history (which I did NOT ditch), nor my patriotism and service to this country. While I may not have agreed with all the politics that put me there, I never questioned my obligations as a citizen to perform my duty as my country saw fit to discharge them. Nor have I taken those obligations lightly since those days, having served in public office for a number of years in an effort to help those around me to be able to live better lives and be better citizens themselves.
So now I hope you "know better" and won't have to sigh at your perceptions of my alleged shortcomings in regard to these matters. Perhaps you should examine your apparent feelings of hostility on these matters and see if you can't draw some different conclusions.
I am a science fiction fan like many others around here, however, I try to be open minded enough that I do not cringe when Hollywood does not exactly recreate on screen something I have read in a book, but rather, like Matt, am greatful that one of my passions is being displayed in another forum that may help to create more fans of the genre. Remember, sometimes a medium has to appeal to more basic elements in the beginning in order to grow. Sophistocation in the display of things comes as the medium matures.
Captain Zot