09 · 17 · 26

Tippett Studio and Paul Verhoeven: the end of an era between eroticism and science fiction

Rafael Aviña

In the garage of their home in Berkeley, California, the married couple—the director, producer, and visual effects supervisor Phil Tippett, and the producer Jules Roman—founded the modest, yet now legendary, visual effects, stop motion, and go motion animation company Tippett Studio in 1984. The studio’s journey began with the independent short film Prehistoric Beast (1984). That small dream they had soon turned into the backbone of much of Hollywood’s science-fiction cinema and related genres, and became responsible for creating the visual effects, scale models, animations, computer graphics, and more for emblematic movies such as: Star Wars (the original trilogy, during the time working under George Lucas’s direction), Jurassic Park (1993), RoboCop (1987), Bicentennial Man (1999), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Hellboy (2004), Blade II (2002)—both directed by Guillermo del Toro—Cloverfield (2008), Drag Me to Hell (2009), and dozens of other acclaimed films in the genres of action, horror, adventure, and fantasy.

Naturally, Tippett Studio grew impressively; however, although the company still operates through other branches such as the one in Toronto, the studio located in Berkeley filed for bankruptcy and shut down a few weeks ago. Among his most memorable works are several films by Paul Verhoeven, a director whose art—like much of his career—wanders between eroticism and sci-fi. Some examples of this include RoboCop, Starship Troopers (1997), and Hollow Man (2000). The last two films earned Oscar nominations for visual effects, and in the second, Phil Tippett co-directed the battle sequences alongside Verhoeven, while Craig Hayes supervised the creation of the film’s invisible protagonist.

In a distant future, Earth has become a vast federation waging war against the arachnids of planet Klendathu—a monstrous race of giant insects determined to wipe out humanity by using their overwhelming military power: enemies with sharp claws capable of cleaving human bodies in an instant and secretions potent enough to melt their foes. A group of friends and young recruits must confront their inner conflicts while collaborating in Earth’s defense—whether from the command center of an air fleet, on the front lines of the infantry, behind desks, or in laboratories. This film is based on Robert Heinlein’s novel of the same name, who was one of the founding voices of modern science fiction born in the twilight of the thirties.

Starship Troopers revived the classic horror and sci-fi style of the fifties, reshaping it to fit the youthful mindset of Twin Peaks, Beverly Hills, 90210, and similar shows. Moreover, the film deliberately broke away from the perspective of other movies of the time, such as Independence Day (1996) or Mars Attacks! (1996), daring to confront ideas seemingly impossible to reconcile: youthful romance and military warfare intertwined with harrowing gore sequences.

Verhoeven succeeded in crafting an aggressive yet thrilling satire by exploiting the essential elements of a subgenre that emerged as a response to the Cold War’s lingering fear and paranoia. The cinematographer Jost Vacano recycles the textures of 1950s films such as The War of the Worlds (1953) and When Worlds Collide (1951), merging them with the narrative into a strange fusion of Melrose Place and Them! (1954), along with echoes of Full Metal Jacket (1987) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982).

Starship Troopers tells us the story of the charming Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), a young arena-football star, who enlists himself in the Mobile Infantry less for patriotic fervor than to impress his girlfriend Carmen (Denise Richards), who dreams of becoming a pilot in the space fleet. Johnny’s passionate nationalism and rising military career are put to the test by the fiery sensuality of recruit Dizzy (Dina Meyer), who is determined to make him hers.

Verhoeven, alongside his screenwriter Ed Neumeier, transfers the patriotic spirit of the 1940s war-propaganda cinema—Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)—to the dark territories of science fiction and splatter films. In RoboCop, the director turns television ads and news reports into dramatic interruptions rich in sarcastic content, in the same vein as Heinlein. While the original novel stands as a fierce nationalist cry, the film adaptation reveals the story’s proto-fascist undertones through sharp irony, strikingly close to what is happening nowadays in the United States.

The arachnids and their gigantic, repulsive, and highly intelligent leader evoke a slithering and secretive society—a fear of the Other so intense it can desiccate human brains and grotesquely mutilate their bodies. Indeed, the film’s bloody scenes—the brutal eviscerations and dismemberments—compensate for the highly charged sexual outbursts the plot suggests but deliberately avoids. Starship Troopers is an intriguing and entertaining blend of graphic-novel aesthetics, computer-generated imagery, and gore-infused fascism that reveals another disturbing facet of Paul Verhoeven, a filmmaker who thrives on provocation. Both the novel and film turned US-American military insanity into a metaphor. Ironically, Tippett Studio—now coming to an end—foresaw the future: the era of visual-effects filmmaking that now rules the industry. Nostalgia always comes back like a boomerang.

Translated by Michelle Olvera