Starship Troopers director Paul Verhoeven has said Donald Trump’s administration should be aware that the film’s heroes are all “fascists without knowing that they’re fascists”, after the US president shared a proposed Space Force uniform based on the 1997 film.
Earlier this month, Trump posted a mock-up of a “next generation” design for Space Force uniforms – dark, sharply tailored uniform with a peaked cap, tall black boots, and Space Force delta insignia on the collar, sleeves, cap, and belt buckle.
The graphic said the design was “inspired by the discipline and functionality of the Starship Trooper uniform” and “modernised for the guardians of the space domain”.
The Dutch director, whose satirical film has spent nearly three decades being misunderstood by some as a straight-faced celebration of militarism, has now confirmed what many have been saying this entire time: that its imagery was deliberately modelled on fascist propaganda.
“When [the Trump administration] talks about Starship Troopers, they should be aware that it’s based on the style of Leni Riefenstahl,” Verhoeven told The Hollywood Reporter.
Riefenstahl was a German filmmaker who became closely associated with the Nazi regime through films including Triumph of the Will, her 1935 propaganda film about the Nazi party’s 1934 Nuremberg rally. Her work used striking imagery and filmmaking techniques to glorify Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist movement.
Verhoeven continued: “I don’t know if this president is aware that the movie says these [characters] are fascists without knowing that they’re fascists. That’s the point.”
Starship Troopers follows Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), as he joins the United Citizen Federation’s Mobile Infantry and is sent into an interstellar war against the Arachnids, insect-like creatures known as “bugs”.
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Denise Richards plays his former schoolmate Carmen Ibanez, while Dina Meyer plays fellow recruit Dizzy Flores, with Neil Patrick Harris as intelligence officer Carl Jenkins and Michael Ironside as Rico’s commanding officer Jean Rasczak.
Verhoeven shared that many from within the film’s cast and crew “were disappointed when they saw the result”.
“I knew what I was doing, but I don’t know if many of the actors and actresses realised,” he said, adding that “its heroes are, without knowing, Nazis”.
He continued: “That’s been a problem. I thought people would understand and laugh about it. But that was not the case. I’m a Dutch citizen, and I cannot vote. I’ve been here in this country for 40 years and it’s still difficult for me to understand the political culture here in America.”
After Trump shared his post, social media users called out the obvious parallels, with menswear writer Derek Guy writing: “This is the kind of design costume designers make to tell you who are the bad guys in a space movie.”
“Designing the Space Force uniforms to look like the evil bad guys from Star Wars, who are led by an elderly, power hungry tyrant, who lose, repeatedly, is a bit too on brand, no?” healthcare advocate Melanie D’Arrigo wrote on X.
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