The Verhoeven Paradox
Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers, those 3 movies make Paul Verhoeven one of the great scifi movie makers
Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers.
Those 3 movies make Paul Verhoeven one of the great scifi movie makers.
But between Recall and Troopers, Verhoeven made the thriller Basic Instinct, notorious for Sharon Stone’s leg crossing moment, and the movie widely considered the worst ever made — Showgirls.
Verhoeven’s movies were “peak Hollywood”, peak sex, peak violence, peak effects pre-CGI. They all share a hyperreal cinematographic style and amazingly beautiful people.
But Verhoeven’s real talent was smuggling satirical messages attacking consumerism and militarism into the blockbuster movies loved by American consumers.
It couldn’t last forever.
I’m joined in The Verhoeven Paradox by filmmaker and longtime member of our community Olga Yakimenko as we trace PVs paradoxical career through his major movies.
