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(...if you've ever read the actual book by Mr. Heinlein, then watched the flick that claimed to be from that book, you'd know exactly the kind of mental rape that Hollywood is capable of...)

Actually, I think that this is one case where Hollywood improved on the original.
DPH

Ah, but let's dissect this. For a moment, set aside whatever political and ideological thoughts you bear...

The movie completely ripped the originally presented civics theory to shreds, turning it into some sort of tin-pot fascism. The original was at least interesting and somewhat worthy of debate, pro or con. The movie version made the whole thing infantile at best, and conveniently left out the parts where civil rights are guaranteed to the entire population, etc...

The main story arc - that of a young boy becoming a man, learning about duty and honor along the way - was cast out entirely, and replaced with some garbage formulaic (originally, the guy grows up, gets over his infatuation with the young pilot chick, and finds someone who wasn't as glamorous but far more willing to love him in return - the Hollywood version was, well, typical Hollywood).

They ditched the drop-ship and mech suit tech completely (originally, the soldiers had high-powered mech-armor suits that made each one superhuman, and they were dropped individually from space in their own little re-entry cocoon of sorts). IMHO, Quake 2 (the game) did a better job of copying the book's tech than the movie did, and even they left out a lot.

The movie had its moments (the Mormon settlement getting splattered was a bit of schadenfreude :) ), but it completely misrepresented the original work - much like (I believe) the remake of Yellow Submarine and Harvey are about to do.