ROBOCOP (1987)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Country: USA
THE MOVIE
Robocop was a milestone among the hard hitting science fiction/action movies of the 1980’s and was Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s first hit English language movie. It has been called an action movie for liberals and is at once insanely violent and surprisingly intelligent. Like many of Verhoeven’s movies, it features a combination of action and scathing wit. Robocop is a satire on Reaganomics disguised as a bloody cop film. The movie is perhaps the best example of the director’s inhuman humanism, which attacks an exaggerated version of the existing power structure but revels in violence and nihilism at the same time. Paul Verhoeven makes comedies that are frequently mistaken for action movies, thrillers or exploitation movies. It is an orgy of over-the-top violence in the same way that his Showgirls and Basic Instinct were an orgy of ridiculous over-the-top sex.
Robocop represents a liberal nightmare of the conservative agenda, in which a powerful corporation runs rampant in a capitalistic urban nightmare where even our most important and public social service, the police, is privatized. It has aged surprisingly well in the twenty years since its release, partially because we just spent eight years under a president who was the ideological heir to Ronald Reagan. Robocop also takes a swipe at the media, which is depicted as a as a series of vapid personalities, misleading news, and idiotic commercials. Yeah, that sounds about right.
The film features one of cinema’s greatest evil corporations, Omni Consumer Products (it’s right up there with Weiland-Yutani and the Umbrella Corporation). In their attempts to take over the police department, they develop an unstable robot police officer, the enormous bipedal ED-209 and ultimately the cyborg, Robocop. Robocop was created from the remains of a police officer who was brutally murdered and he struggles with his remaining humanity throughout the movie. He is one of the great movie cyborgs, along with the Terminator, Darth Vader and The Borg.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
ED-209 is realized through the default special effect for realizing large creatures at the time, stop motion. Robocop is or course performed by a guy in a suit, nicely portrayed by actor Peter Weller. Robocop is not really an effects movie and the emphasis is more on action and satire.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
Yeah, that guy up there. He comes to a bad end.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
Robocop is available in a couple of different DVD versions, including a 2 pack with The Terminator, and a collectors edition which features the original X-rated cut of the movie (for violence of course, you don't get to see Robocop's wang or anything). The movie is also available on Bluray and can usually be found pretty cheap.
SEQUELS
Followed by Robocop 2, Robocop 3, and animated and a live action TV series. Like the Planet of the Apes series, the Robocop sequels coast along on the quality and ideas of the original movie and, although not necessarily good movies, are enjoyable explorations of the Robocop universe. There is also a remake planned, which has been attached to director Darren Aronofsky.
SEE ALSO
Starship Troopers (1997)
THE TRAILER
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