It’s the famous co-ed shower scene from Starship Troopers.
Entertaining scene, but some of the laziest character development in the history of screenwriting. Guy walks into a shower and asks each person in turn why they joined the infantry.
Still …
If you have to do a gratuitous exposition scene, you may as well do it naked. This film DID follow the Scoopy Prime Directive: “If the R is for V, the tits are free.” If I were the messiah of screen nudity, director Paul Verhoeven would be one of my most dedicated disciples. He always abides by my rules.
I like Starship Troopers, and I dislike it. It’s a strange film which constantly gives off mixed signals. It’s a creature film. It’s making fun of creature films. It’s a stirring war film. It’s a parody of war propaganda. It’s a love poem to military fascism. It satirizes military fascism. I still can’t figure out whether is it pro- or anti-fascism. I don’t know whether I was supposed to deplore the fact that the human race has evolved into a mind-controlling fascist state, or be thankful for it, since that seems to be our only hope for survival as a species.
This must be a pretty good film, at least in the sense that both pro-military and anti-military viewers extol the fact that it championed their values. It has that in common with Patton, although Patton is a great film, while Starship Troopers is merely an entertainment confection.
Starship Troopers is based on a 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein, who happens to be my all time favorite writer. I haven’t read the novel since I was a kid in the early 80’s or maybe late 70’s. I would have to reread the book to offer a truly informed opinion, but I recall the most controversial aspect of the book (limiting voting to military veterans) struck me as more of a thought experiment than a call to fascism. Heinlein is basically the Godfather of libertarianism (and polyamory). I had a sociology professor in college that told me that libertarianism is a precursor to fascism but I can’t think of two political ideologies more ideologically opposed.
I was happy the Verhoeven film kept the voting being limited to veterans in the film and also explain the argument in favor (a citizen makes the defense of the Federation their personal responsibility). As interesting an idea as that might be, I still favor a much broader eligibility for the franchize. In other words everyone (adult citizens anyway) should be able to vote. Scoopy is right. It is a fun film. But it will always have a special place in my heart as it was the first big budget film based on a Heinlein work.