The movie is not really based on the book. It's supposedly a parody of it, but the director literally did not read the book, so it's actually a parody of what he assumed it was about.

(eg "service guarantees citizenship" is presented as a fascist idea the movie is parodying, but IIRC in the book you could get it by being a mailman.)

> but IIRC in the book you could get it by being a mailman

No, it's explicitly noted in the book that the civil service options are supposed to be at least as unpleasant as being a soldier - even if that means inventing useless make-work for someone unable to perform other duties. The explicit example given is that a blind man with only a single functioning limb might be given the duty of counting hairs on caterpillars by touch on a cold moon base for his full tour of service.

Of course, that's leaving aside the basic problem that the idea only works in an idealized abstract state where nobody in the basically unaccountable government ever indulges in even a little bit of nepotism when it comes to who gets picked for or promoted out of certain kinds of drudge work.

Whoever wrote the screenplay or script for the movie definitely read the book.

Several Starship Troopers movie scenes are lifted directly from the book, almost word for word.

The scriptwriter did. I think the director had him write chapter outlines of it.

It's less a parody of what the book was about and more a parody of Nazi Germany - and showing what great fun and how exciting war is to the kids.

It’s a send up and mockery of American culture around their military. It is parody, quite mean parody (as is typical of Verhoeven), and it wasn’t well received at the time (in the US).

As an Australian, I laughed heartily, and considered it just deserts for that Simpsons episode. ;-)

The movie is a commentary on the seductiveness of Fascism.

Verhoeven is something of an expert on this, since he grew up in The Hague during Nazi occupation.

There's an interview out there where he says when he making the film he was wondering if his movie was in-your-face enough about Nazis, to really make sure his movie wasn't too subtle or that people would miss the point he had the former Doogie Howser actor wear a SS officer's trenchcoat.

If only he had embedded a short parody of Triumph of the Will, a decidedly seductive film IMO (YMMV).

I believe, it was pro-military, but not pro-war. The book idealizes the state and social system, and uses war only as a backdrop.

It was actually pro-facism. This isn’t the first time a movie was based on a book, where the movie was a dark comedy, by simply representing the argument in the book. Similar thing happened with Dr Strangelove, which was based on some crummy Cold War book.