The plot of the film is very typical; it can be compared to many other films including Star Wars. Basically Rico wants to go into the mobile infantry but his parents won’t let him so he rebels and does what he wants. This can be compared to Luke joining the Jedi warriors in his fight to bring down evil. And also very similarly both Luke’s and Rico’s parents are murdered by the enemy, so what do they do? They both decide to avenge their parents death and fight the evildoers. This plot borrowing really shows the audience how easy it is to create another movie using the same pretense. Maybe the director of the film was trying to show his audience that Hollywood uses plots and themes like this to exploit its audience and make money. However the plot may have an underlying current that is screened behind its easily generated plot.
Stylistically the movie uses short camera takes and fast paced shots to emphasize an action packed, excitement stressed film. The film also uses close up shots to express how ridiculous the movie is. The director uses this style to really stress how absurd the plot to the film really is. The film is so bad in parts that it urges the audience to laugh at how horrible the acting is. The director might have been using this ridiculous acting and lines to front its fascist themes throughout the film.
The film is highly fascist and militaristic. Basically the film stresses that the only way to get ahead in life is to join the military. As Rico signs up for the infantry he talks to another soldier who was in the army himself. The man gets up and shakes his hand saying “the mobile infantry made me the man I am today”, however what the audience sees is a man with a motorized hand and shoulder which had obviously been blown off while he was serving. The film also promotes the military in weird sort of propaganda style of infomercials that appear ever so often throughout the film. These infomercials discuss how to join and why to join stating that “everyone is doing their part” while the audience looks at a scene of execution by the bugs. These infomercials have very funny scenes in them, like children playing with guns, old women killing small bugs and hundreds of infantry lined up with their guns getting ready to go to war. The militaristic theme really comes out with the extreme violence and gore throughout the film. The film is very violent so much that it numbs the audience. This seems to be what the director precisely is trying to say with the amount of violence in the film. Violence is ever so prevalent and very brutal, the infomercials show live executions of criminals, executions of bugs that are tied up and massacred with machine guns. There is a scene in the movie when a news anchor is covering the battle scene and right in the middle of his coverage he is attacked by a bug and killed on camera. To display the fascist theme there are many generals and public figures saying that the "bugs must die and that the we as humans must eliminate their race"? Also, even though the humans are basically the evil race killing off the others, the director makes them the minority in the battle. They are the underdogs with less ammunition and less manpower to overcome the bugs. This underdog usage makes the audience side with the humans instead of the bugs. To top off the fascist and pro-military themes, the sets where the battles take place closely resemble WWII cities in ruins. This can obviously allude to the idea of Hitler’s fascist regime during WWII against the Jews.
Another theme yet somewhat contradictory upon first glance of the film is the amount of feminist roles in the film. Two characters really come out as being feminist, Dizzy the girl in love with Rico and his girlfriend played by Denis Richards. These two women play important roles throughout the film. The second scene of the movie is a football scene where both Rico and Dizzy play on the same team. Now normally the women in most sports oriented scenes play the cheerleader or are fans in the crowd, basically the damsel in distress waiting for her big strong man to win the championship for her. But on the contrary Dizzy is the quarterback, the leader of the team, the one who calls the shots. Now to your average person who does not play football the quarterback is usually the most talented player on the field. This role positioning really shows the audience that in this story line women are not subordinate to males. This is made solid when Dizzy actually hits Rico to pay attention in the huddle. The film really progresses with this theme when the recent graduates enroll in the military. The film really presents the women as having superior roles to men, the men are all in line for mobile infantry and the women are in line for flight crew or something more respectable. The flight crew is basically made up of women and Denise Richards just happens to be one of the smartest and most excellent pilot’s to come around for a while. This illustrates to the audience that the women are the true authority figures in this movie and that the men are your basic ants who are just performing a job. This higher ranking also displays the idea that all women are intellectually superior to men. The final display of feminism is in the giant “Brain bug”, this bug is basically as smart as humans and has adapted to its environment to defeat the humans. Now that is nothing odd but when the “Brain bug” becomes visible for the first time one could notice that the bugs face seems to look much like female genitalia. This not only proves the point that femininity is apart of this movie but the sheer fact that this bug is the smartest of all the bugs really takes aim at how much authority the director is really giving women. To top off the femininity the bug plunges its sucker into the male pilot instead of the women thus proving that its priority is to kill off the male race.
So in fact the director may have actually been promoting a feminine fascist regime where women control all men and beings. This is seen through the militaristic style of this film, the amount of blood and guts are strewn all over the place, how the only way to get ahead in life is to join the military and fight the bugs. This horrible militaristic theme is accompanied by a lack of masculinity and uproar of femininity; this is displayed through the higher rankings of women, in general over men. Also the fact that the “Brain bug” has feminine genitalia promotes the idea that women are the “brain bugs” in their own society. Some believe that in fact theses two themes contradict each other because there is no real connection between the two. But from the evidence that has been brought up one has to at least consider the possibility that the director in fact was encouraging a feminine fascist regime, where the women are the dominant force in life.
In short, this film even though it seems like a film with one sole purpose, to make money, may in fact be deeper than most audiences really perceive. The film has some real underlying themes of fascism and really promotes violence and destruction and war. The film may in fact be saying even more than one could read into it. It delves into the controversy of women in this world and really displays women with much more authority than women are given today. Although some do not make the connection between the two if one reads carefully enough one can discover that the film could be cheering on the idea of a feminine run society where the women call the shots and the men sit back and take the orders. Even though this may be a far-fetched connection, this film definitely has some themes that can and should be studied. This film although seemingly stupid has some real forms of art with it, which is woven into the film spectacularly.
