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What's Paul Verhoeven Up To' Click and Find out!
Hey folks, Harry here with the latest on what Verhoeven seems to be doing as he returns back to his roots of Dutch Filmmaking! Personally I couldn't be more excited about this career turn for Paul. I've always loved his filmmaking, even the lesser films, but in particular, it was his Dutch films that always held the absolute most power and awesome display of cinema. We'll keep tabs throughout this development...
Hi Harry
I am a filmstudent in Holland and yesterday i went to an open
interview with Paul Verhoeven at the Dutch Filmfestival in Utrecht
http://www.filmfestival.nl/.
Paul began talking about making movies in the US and that he was
annoyed by the large influence actors, lawyers and accountants have if
u wanna make a movie there. The commercial interest in the US are
deadly for the creativity filmmakers like to have. That's the main
reason he wanted to make a ducth or as he says " european " movie
again, financed by independent studios.
He talked about upcoming projects like 'Zwartboek' a dutch thriller
set in WW2 about a young woman in the Dutch resistance. He will begin
shooting in October.
Then he talked about 'Beast of Bataan'. A story about the japanese
warcriminal Masaharu Homma who was executed by the americans after
world war 2. He said this project is likely to happen and he is very
passionate about it. Then some really exciting news. He is really
interested in making a movie about the Israel/Palestin case. He will
be informed by several specialist about this case soon and he was not
afraid to film there. He even believed Arafat would let him in and
shoot there.
I hope this news sounds as good to me as it did to me. i cant wait to
see more of our best filmmaker.
Call me Optimus|Prime
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The man turns Heinlein's book, an essay about civic responsibility and the sacrifice of soldiers (like the ones that freed Verhoeven's native Holland from Nazis) into a Fascist parody. I can't forgive him for that.
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...and Verhoeven and the Arab/Israeli conflict? Sounds like a recipe for some onscreen brutality...Verhoeven is the fucking man, I'll be there.
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I'm also Dutch and knew about his plans for a long time, but I'm really glad, Verhoeven gets the respect he deserves. He was the biggest innovator in Dutch filmmaking and he was responsible for making the best satire on american society and still leaving room for the goriest actionsequences you've ever seen: RoboCop.
Ofcourse he made some crappy movies too, think Hollow Man and Showgirls, but persons who think Starship Troopers is not good, because it wasn't faithful of the book, is a little loco. -
It was about a society where people served to be citizems...much like Germany of Finland or Taiwan today, where males must serve to become citizens. It was in no way a parody.
As for soldiers, some young men from various Allied countries in WW2 traveled thousands of miles from home to free people they'd never met and countries they'd never been to. Many of them died. Whatever the tragedies of war (and there are many) dying for the freedom of total stranger is HEROISM. -
Just in case you were considering making more unfounded statements, a quotation from Heinlein: "Specifically, [STARSHIP TROOPERS glorifies] the PBI, the Poor Bloody Infantry, the mudfoot who places his frail body between his loved home and the war's desolation...."
If you can't handle the idea that serving one's country in a civil or military context as a requirement for citizenship, you should stop reading Heinlein and never go to Germany, Finland, Sweden, Israel, South Korea, Greece, Algeria, Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Armenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Taiwan, or Chile...all of which require military or civil service for citizenship. -
I do agree with you on your definition of the heroism of soldiers fighting the good fight, but your facts regarding service being a prerequisite for citizenship in those countries you listed is just erroneous. What a lot of those countries have/had is/was compulsory service (either military or civil) FOR all citizens. Citizenship itself is never in the balance for each individual depending on whether they serve or not.
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Yeah, it was completely different to the book, but, y'know what? The book would never work as a film. Just be happy that we got a classic satire out of it, instead of bitching about how the director (but not the writers for some reason) raped the book.
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Hint to Verhoeven, Bataan is in the Philippines NOT Argentina. Just in case he misses it again, like when he altered the Rico character's nationality (Filipino) in Starship Troopers from Heinlein's original. Maybe Casper Van Diem will play Philippine President Quezon.
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Starship Troopers is one of the best sci-fi films of the best ten years. You just can't beat Doogie Howser dressed up in SS uniform!
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The greatest living director. It's been too long since Hollow Man. I hope his TV show "Floris" and his documentary "Het Corp Mariners" get a dvd release in the states.
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But still gave it an overall thumbs up the first time. Paul V. really knows how to put a thrill ride together; I was always hoping either he or Tony Scott would get their hands on Terminator 3, but it wasn't to be. A film on Israel-Palestine made by a former A-list director outside the Hollywood system...hmmm...I suspect this'll be far more daring and controversial than anything the studio system could throw up on the subject. Can't wait to see it.
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While I think Starship Troopers was a great movie in it's own right, they should have called it something else - so that we might someday get a proper ST movie that actually does the book justice. As it stands, we may never see that movie - just as we may never see a proper 'War of the Worlds' with Speilberg behind it.
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Popkulturilist: Couple points. In Starship Troopers, Heinlein wrote that not all service is military in nature. No matter what kind of disability you have, they must find a job for you, but none of the jobs are very easy. Second, Heinlein was against the draft, opposed "for any reason at any time, war or peace" and thought that "the draft is involuntary servitude, immoral, and unconstitutional no matter what the Supreme Court says." Finally, if there are no punitive consequences in Germany for no doing your 'compulsory' service, then I withdraw Germany from that list. As for 'not knowing what I'm talking about', I was born in one of the countries on the list, and live in another. The book tries to make some points about how important citizenship is and how responsible we must be to use that power. If this idea makes you think 'fascism', obviously you enjoyed the movie. If you think 'yes, that's interesting, that's a good point' then you can understand why the book was a exploration of an idea and not any kind of 'parody'. Do you remember the scene in the movie where the girl says she 'wants to join so she can have a baby'? That's the real satire. There was no requirement of citizenship for having children in the book, but Verhoeven and his screenwriter wrote it in. This and the fact that the soldiers are completely underequipped to do their jobs in the movie make the movie a satire, but doesn't really reflect the world of the book.
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Then weep. Even Dutch porn directors are better. At least they don't bastardize and turn their source material around, I should expect.
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Sep 26, 2004 3:32:05 PM CDT
to all ST book fans, SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! movies and books are di
by filthy fox
when a director like verhoevan works from a novel, he is going to change it and make it his own. there is no way a director could capture everything in a book, it has to be made in to something new.
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I'd be interested to know which countries on that list have entire populations of people who don't become citizens of their nations until after service.
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seriously, what the fuck?
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Why did the new showgirls DVD not have a Verhoeven commantary on it? Instead we get a comantary from some douchebag 'expert' who just waffels on about how shit the film is. Fuck that, Verhoeven is the king of DVD commantaries and I was hanging to hear his comments on Showgirls! MGM suck!
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STARSHIP TROOPERS is a masterpiece of filmmaking. It will remain so for the next 100 years. It is a savage indictment of the military mind and the politically inclined. It also has the best GGI ever seen in a movie to date.
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While TOTAL RECALL is starting to show its age, possibly due to budget constraints, STAR SHIP TROOPERS looks better as time goes on.
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I confess I haven't read the book (shame on me), so I can't compare the film to it - but the movie works just fine as a parody of the modern U.S. military. I've been in the service for 8 years now, and I still laugh my butt off at the recruiting ads in the film. They aren't so far removed from that "Army of One" crap they're airing now.
And I, for one, don't think enlisting automatically makes you a hero, either. -
HOWEVER, I am glad that Paul is going back to his roots. His Dutch films of the late-70's/80's are fantastic, especially SOLDIER OF ORANGE, which is probably the best WWII film ever made.
SPETTERS is one of the most realistic looks at teenagers ever. Ever moron that chided Paul's movie "Basic Instinct" for being sexist has obviously never seen SPETTERS. Paul equally praises male and female sexuality -
Sep 27, 2004 3:27:27 AM CDT
Total recall, Robocop, Starship troopers, Basic instinct, Hollow
by theginger twit
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