Born in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 1938, Paul Verhoeven experienced the horror of war almost first-hand during World War II. Living in a house near a German base with V-1 and V2 Rocke Launchers, the base was bombarded by Allied aircraft. His parents were nearly killed when bombs fell on a street crossing. The fact that he survived World War II, considering where he lived, was a minor miracle. After the liberation of the Netherlands, Mr. Verhoeven and his father went and saw American movies on a regular basis. While the man had majored in math and physics, he would devote his time and energy to film-making. After making a bit of a splash during the late 60’s, Mr. Verhoeven moved to Hollywood during the 80’s for a variety of opportunities. It was during this time that Paul Verhoeven would create some of the most memorable movies that are iconic, even by today’s standards, so I would like to celebrate the man and his career by talking about his best work.
RoboCop
In 1984, James Cameron burst onto the scene with one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, The Terminator. There were a number of imitators that followed, but one of the films that really took the world by storm was Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop. The trailer used the main music theme to The Terminator, so it felt like a rip-off, but the film was so much more than that. It was a blatant commentary on certain social issues like rampant consumerism, as evidenced by the numerous faux commercials that would play during the movie. This was also one of Peter Weller’s most memorable roles as Detective Alex Murphy, who gets killed in the line of duty, only to be brought back as the mechanical RoboCop. It was violent, bloody and surprisingly funny at the same time. It got hammered by critics because of it’s excessive violence, so much so, that the film had to be edited to take some of that out. It was still really violent and that would become one of Paul Verhoeven’s trademarks.
Total Recall
Paul Verhoeven comes back with an astounding “adaptation” of Philip K. Dick’s We’ll Remember It For You Wholesale. Featuring an all-star cast that includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox, Total Recall took the world by storm when it was released in 1990. Like most of Verhoeven’s American-made movies, it featured gratuitous violence. The visual effects were out of this world, in terms of puppetry and make-up effects. It was a spectacular film. Again, critics attacked the film for its ultra-violence, but it was so over-the-top, that you couldn’t take it seriously. It had great action, memorable characters and a fairly decent story to back it all up. I highly consider this to be one of my personal favorites.
Starship Troopers
This is the movie where things get….interesting. Starship Troopers is LOOSELY based on Robert A. Heinlein’s book of the same name. By loosely, I mean, almost not at all. It has some elements from the book, but for the most part, Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation is essentially its own entity. When I reviewed the movie, I mentioned that the audience was pretty divided into two groups: The people that read the book before the movie came out and the people that read the book after the movie came out. The people that read the book first, generally hated the picture because it deviated so far from the source material it was unrecognizable. Where were the power suits? Where were the bugs that shot lasers? Where was the queen? These elements were left on the floor, although a prototype suit was built for the movie, but was never used because the budget didn’t allow for it. But the people who saw the film first actually really liked it. I was one of those people. It was visually spectacular, had an awesome cast and a fairly decent story. It also had a bad-ass score by the late Basil Poledouris. The visual effects and CGI in the film were ground-breaking. I hadn’t seen anything like it, and the visuals still hold up after nearly 20 years. Then, I read the book. I understood why a lot of people didn’t like the movie. A lot of the elements in the book were left out. When it was discovered that Verhoeven didn’t actually like the book, that pissed people off even more.
Had the movie been called anything but Starship Troopers, I think it would’ve been better received by the majority of the audience. As it stands, however, it’s still a very solid piece of science fiction and movie with a great visual effects and memorable characters, and that’s what Paul Verhoeven delivered. As was the norm with Paul’s movies, there was a level of commentary throughout the entire film against blind patriotism and use of the military. The use of propaganda in the film was particularly intelligent, because of Paul’s personal experience with the Nazi government. He poked fun at a lot of things in the movie, and a lot of people didn’t get it. It’s smarter than most people give it credit for.
While Verhoeven did other movies like Basic Instinct and Hollow Man, these ones were the ones that really stood out for me from Paul Verhoeven. He’s crafted some of the most iconic and memorable movies that I’ve ever seen. I think the man will be remembered as influential as well as controversial.