Robert Heinlein is not overly concerned with subtlety. Perhaps fearful of some particularly dense reader missing his unmitigated support of the military, big government and capital punishment, Heinlein places only the thinnest of sci-fi veils over his long-winded political monologues. This does not make it a bad read – the plot is still compelling – but when I reach the scenes of History and Moral Philosophy classes, I do want to throw something at him, as roseblack says. This future world in which Johnny Rico operates has indeed been radically altered. The military has risen in power and influence, technological advances are responsible for major military and social changes, and the increased globalization of Terra has resulted in cultural assimilation. The film version, while truly atrocious when taken seriously, takes on a new and deeper meaning when read as an oppositional text.
As Heinlein portrays it, Rico's society is near perfect, or at least a great improvement on our own. The new style of democracy "insure[s] that all who wield it [the vote] accept the ultimate in social responsibility…to wager his own life…to save the life of the state" (184). The Federation of the film, however, has definite fascist tendencies; they control voting rights, reproductive rights, and the media. Significant segments are viewed through the Federation's media channel, heavily laden with World War II style propaganda and an almost sadistic celebration of executions and gore. An authoritative male voice narrates, and in one advertisement asks "Want to know more?" over the sound of a crowd cheering at a death sentence. They seem more to be hallmarks of a dystopia than a perfected society.
The main character, Juan Rico, is renamed John Rico in the film, the actor's blonde hair and blue eyes stereotypically Anglo. It underlines the loss of ethnic and cultural diversity in Starship Troopers, something that Heinlein glosses over or even celebrates in his writing. In the book, Rico is from Buenos Aires but is still an English speaker. He is part of the social elite, one of the richest of his peers, part of the hegemonic order that clearly adheres to a Western patriarchal society's ideals. Globalization has destroyed all other culture's values. The film highlights this in its transformation of Rico, indicating his adherence to our social order. Further underlining this Western hegemony is the only Hispanic in the movie, a fellow member of boot camp who admits he is only in the military because his family does not have enough money to send him to Harvard, placing him in the same lower classes than the current stereotyped image of Hispanics today. Religion, pretty much the most powerful divider throughout human history, has only the slightest presence in the book, meriting only a passing mention in the beginning that the same Catholic priest is sufficient for "Moslems, Christians, Gnostics, Jews…"(4). Even religion does not really matter anymore.
A final stake to the heart of the book is in the film's battle scenes. Heinlein's military is at its peak of efficiency and power. The M.I. are superhuman, well-trained killing machines. In appearance, the film's soldiers are barely different from today's; the only improvement seems to be the increased presence of nuclear weapons, which are more just big bombs than the ultimate in death and destruction. Soldiers run in disorderly swarms across the screen, firing indiscriminately, and poorly, in the general direction of the Bugs before beating a hasty, and often cowardly, retreat. They come across as badly trained and just plain unequipped to deal with a threat, rather than the book's depiction of a dominant fighting force that has finally met its match in the Bugs.