One thing that I thought was very clever in the Starship Troopers film was the use of mock-newsreels to set the stage. Not only are they an interesting throwback to older wars, but they're so over-the-top in their obvious propaganda that they really drive the point home of just how entrenched this society is in its culture of " citizenship ". Scenes like the enlistment ads with the soldiers showing their weapons to little children, graphic depictions of the bugs' carnage ( albeit with certain parts covered with Censored logos ), and kids joining the war effort by stepping on earth insects may seem overly exaggerated, until one realizes that even this kind of propaganda can be profoundly effective in the right climate.

Especially the scenes of the kids stomping on Earth bugs. That was profoundly disturbing to me when I considered that the bugs those kids were killing ( under their parents' explicit approval ) were harmless. Harmless, but still a scapegoat, an allegorical stand-in for real life minorities that happen to be associated with their country's enemies.

It's scenes like this that help convince me that the Starship Troopers film was indeed a clever parody of the novel, though all the obligatory Hollywood garbage ( giant firebreathing CGI monsters, romantic subplots, dying soldiers lasting just long enough to give a melodramatic passage, etc. ) could easily convince me to be more cynical about it. Still, I'd like to think that the director really did have a purpose that got lost through all the executive meddling...