What’s truly wild is the misleading media coverage of Glazer’s speach. Variety initially quoted him as saying, “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness.” That reads totally different than what he actually said: “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.” He’s refuting the hijacking of their Jewishness, not their Jewishness itself.
Then NBC News covered his remarks in an article titled “Jonathan Glazer condemns violence in Gaza and Israel in Oscars speech” and subtitled “In his remarks, the director said in part: ‘Whether the victims of October the 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack in Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?’” They thus give the impression that Glazer’s comments were a condemnation of both sides of the conflict, not the targeted criticism of Israel’s occupation that it was.
I’ve wondered what the reception to Starship Troopers would have been if it was released 10 years later in 2007, as the US was bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Instead it was released during the era of dumb action movies and was treated as such.
There’s a book by John Steakley called Armor that reminds me a lot of Starship Troopers and really captures the feel of an embattled military operation.
I’m wondering if I read this. There are two points that I remember. First they were going through whatever device to another world and he gets a bad feeling and against protocol he readies his weapon before he goes through. And thus is one of the only survivors. The second part I remember is him or another person got snuck up on by one of the insects, and someone was bugging them imitating how a huge insect would sneak up on someone. Is that the book?
Yeah. Basically there’s this on going war, the Ant War, with any like alien creatures. There’s high casualty cost like in Starship Troopers and the main character is infantry. Most infantry only survive a couple drops but he’s done like 60 or something.
I’m not asking what the book is about. The question is more along the lines of: do you remember the points I outlined happening in Armor? Because I’m trying to remember if that’s the book.
To reach out to the modern people, I really think that we need to move away from books. Attention spans are getting a shorter, and who the fuck has the time to read a book? I think we need media to update themselves for the times if they want to message to reach the largest audience possible
I read lots of books and, honestly, I often find them more compelling than most visual media. When I read a book I see the world and the characters in my imagination. When I remember books I read I remember the visuals from my imagination, not the body of that text.
I do like being able to share the experience through movies and shows with other people though.
I suppose being one of those old millennials I’m not really representative of that younger changing culture anymore.
Paul Verhoeven is such a mixed bag. You get inspired trash like Robocop and Starship Troopers together with actual trash like Showgirls and Hollow Man.
But I don’t agree that the timing would have made much of a difference. If anybody took more notice of the movie, it’d be the chuds who mistake the lampooning of fascism as glorification. I’ve been quoted Rasczak’s class lecture about force and democracy unironically more than once.
A friend of mine screens tender matches by asking potential dates about Starship Troopers or Fight Club. It’s hilarious bc the chuds think she’s chill af right up till she unmatches.
He made a movie about fascism when no one was taking about fascism or eternal wars or anything like that. This was the blissful period between the end of the cold war and the start of the war on terrorism. It was the time of kick back, turn your brain off, and watch Arnold blow shit up. Watch aliens blow up the Whitehouse. Starship Troopers completely mismatched the time.
I was way too young and credulous to understand what starship troopers was doing. Other than feeling a little bad for the alien worm at the end i just watched it like an action movie.
Now that I’m a more experienced adult, it is overt in its commentary to the point it’s hard to believe i missed or the first time.
I use this lesson for myself when i find it hard to believe other people cannot see the propaganda that we are immersed in daily, or get a different message from a piece of media.
After all, I missed it too. I watched the same movie at two points in my life and saw two very different things. I think about that alot
I use this lesson for myself when i find it hard to believe other people cannot see the propaganda that we are immersed in daily, or get a different message from a piece of media.
This is a very good take away from that experience. One of the worst things to assume is that you are any different.
Something similar happened to Whoopi Goldberg when she was hired for Star Trek Generations. They said she would be actively working with Nichelle Nichols, who ultimately had nothing to do with the project. In the opening scene when she is rescued from The Nexus by Chekov her reaction of shock is genuine because she was told up until that point that it would be Nichelle who was starring in that scene and was genuinely surprised to be across from Walter Koening instead.
Oh that's very interesting. The script was actually written for it to be Kirk/Spock/McCoy rather than Kirk/Scotty/Chekov, but Nimoy and Kelley both said no because they were happy with where TUC left things for the TOS crew - which is why (for example) Chekov ends up running sickbay despite no evidence before of him having any medical training.
I'd never heard they had a version claiming Uhura would be there too.
her reaction of shock is genuine because she was told up until that point that it would be Nichelle who was starring in that scene and was genuinely surprised to be across from Walter Koening instead.
While she may have been told Nichols would be in the film when she signed on, she didn’t fucking “find out” when they were literally filming the actual scene, you absolute pancake. That is not even remotely how film production works.
The surprise would, at the latest, have happened the day before when Goldberg might have noticed Nichols wasn’t on the call sheet, but in reality probably far before that during the normal course of production communications. Jfc
Oh wow, I had never heard that about the production of the Generations movie before but that’s a really fucked up thing to do. Particularly because Whoopi Goldberg was at the height of her fame during ST:TNG’s TV run. She was only on that show because she loved Star Trek. Frankly, at that point in her career she was easily “above” being on a basic cable syndicated TV series.
Nichelle was the reason she was so into Star Trek. She was her idol more or less. It was really empowering to Whoopi to see a black woman on the bridge and it gave her tons of hope for the future.
Fuck this propaganda shit. Tv, and everybody associated with tv/streaming/movies/sports/ip/critics/partners/senior correspondants/sponsors etc, are always somehow the victim of the evil and all powerful consumer’s whim. This sickening narrative and “toxic fandom” are just stupid little games played to keep the investors placated while they figure out how to cover their ass, because they never had a good idea to begin with. All the while they change the rules to bleed everyone dry while trying to shovel the least entertaining shit into our faces. “Show Chasers?” wtf? Naw, yeah sorry, you unearned parasitic cancerous pustules, we don’t give a shit anymore. May your Mercedes catch fire while tumbling violently off the road to Malibu.
The more I know about Musk, the more I long for the day he is no longer of this existence. What sucks the most is he will probably live longer than me and I’ll have to learn new and existing things about how his influence has changed the world… Usually not in a better direction.
Yes, it seems like a really recent term to me. I first heard it when the writers strike began and never before that.
When I think streamer I think of people on Twitch or YouTube who stream themselves. No idea where calling streaming services/sites “streamers” came from but it always confuses me.
If they sell rights to Trek then that's it for Paramount for sure, it is quite literally The Franchise for them. Although I can see them spinning off different things, like how Bethesda gave rights out to make FO:NV, or how Disney doesn't in-house their games, they let other studios have different ideas.
Star Trek and the Sheridan Yellowstone franchise accounted for about half of Paramount+ demand in 2022.
There is no streamer without those two.
On Prodigy, my emotional reaction is that same deep pit in the stomach that I felt as a kid when I realized TAS season two was only 6 episodes.
Intellectually, it seems like a very shortsighted call. Paramount+ doesn’t have a lot of new animated content and it’s a growing area of demand. In fact, Prodigy’s demand numbers were better in 2022 than any other Paramount+ animated original except Lower Decks. Low audience numbers on Nickelodeon say more about the falling linear demand than about the show.
Besides Prodigy was always an investment in the franchise for the long term, to build audiences and provide a gateway for kids not just now but in future. Our own kids’ gateway into Trek was the TAS DVD set. I bet Prodigy will have a steady pull with preteens for years to come.
So… Are they going to time jump like in the novels, or have studio writers just continue the current story? If the latter, I don’t have a lot of hope for the following seasons.
Well good luck to them, I was a tiny bit disappointed with the finale because I wanted to see Ishido buried from the neck down with a line of people waiting to spit on his head.
no, they're gonna expand the Shogun feudal universe ..... lol. as the season of Shogun advanced, I was charmed by it's beauty and production value, but less so in the story it was hiding. in the end the entire series was about a battle never fought, which was bad enough as a tease, but in reality the battle of sekigahara was fought in reality with sides changing allegiences during the battle, which would have made for a satisfying ending to the season. i'm less enthused about more seasons if they're simply going to toy with their audiences expectations than producing an excellent period peice from history that i'm interested in.
in the end the entire series was about a battle never fought
Yes, that’s the book the show comes from. It’s been a long time but as I recall it, the book treats that battle as even more of an afterthought, something like “of course it ended in a big battle, but the conclusion was already foretold by everything we just talked about, we don’t even need to talk about the battle to know how it went.” The series actually gives even more detail about it than the book when Toranaga clarifies that Mariko’s role was decisive in making the mother of the heir drop her support of his enemy, and that’s it.
The book is not about the battle, the book is about how the battle was won even before it started and how Tokugawa / toranaga made that happen, the battle is irrelevant.
sure, and that's a shitty story, told in a shitty way. the intrigue was only barely interesting, and so over telegraphed for the last 5 episodes, the eventual end was jut empty, devoid of any real punch. mariko giving her life to the cause that toronaga used so maliciously and carelessly along with all the other vassals who sacrificed for him, as well as bragging of trapping the pilot, and laughing he had other sons with his baby, was all so ugly, and weird. the battle of sekigahara was no "afterthought" it was THE place where allegiences changed sides, THAT is where this historical pendulum swung, not in some convoluted public shaming. the show held true to the work it was based on, great, still sucked and was terribly unsatisfying. so, if they're gonna make more of that, they can keep it.
They could simply continue from where they left off in Season 1 and fill in the blanks? I personally felt the ending was a little unsatisfying.
Either way, it’s a bold move. It wouldn’t be the first time a team of writers has had to come up with completely original material and fallen flat on their faces.
Well that’s kinda where the book ends. I find it odd they want to continue…
It looks like a lot of people are whining that they expected more battles, because it doesn’t matter that it comes from a book that is about political intrigue and smart people, not historical bloodbaths. So I’m gonna assume that they’ll give the people what they want, and I won’t expect any of the plotting around that the book did - they’ll probably pretend to care about it, but they’ll just pivot to a simple retelling of historical events. I don’t know who Michaela Clavell is, but I don’t know how much she can help sticking to the Clavell writing style. We have Sekigahara, Shimabara, and Osaka to look forward to.
For shows like this, I don’t even want to see trailers or pictures. I just want to enjoy them without prejudice. Just go in blind. I played the first game so I knew the story, but I haven’t played the second so I’m looking forward to just enjoying the ride
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