Subject: Retrospective: Robocop (1987)

From: "Dragan Antulov" <[email-masked]>
Date: 12 Oct 1998 03:12:46 GMT

ROBOCOP
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 1998

When science fiction is discussed by people not accustomed
to the genre and its concepts, they usually associate it
with fantastic tales about little green men and space operas
in distant futures and galaxies far away. In reality, some
of the best and most influential works of science-fiction
had its basis solidly in the Here and Now. The most
elaborate imaginary worlds of the future were actually built
by simple yet logical extrapolations based on the current
trends, like Orwell did in his dystopic masterpiece 1984.
Last decade, one of such dystopic worlds was created for the
purpose of ROBOCOP, SF action thriller, known today as the
great Hollywood debut of talented Dutch filmmaker Paul
Verhoeven.

The plot is set in a very near future that hasn't seen much
change from the Reagan Years. America is run by powerful and
greedy corporations of the military- industrial complex who
thrive through the Star Wars projects and low intensity
conflicts in Latin America. In the mean time, industrial
heartland of America has decayed and once proud city of
Detroit is a pile of abandoned steel-mills and factories,
drowned in poverty and rampant crime. Local authorities,
with their financial power drained through industrial decay,
low-taxes and laissez-faire economics, is forced to turn
public services to private companies. One of them is Omni
Consumer Products, who now runs Detroit Police Department.
However, despite the best efforts, policemen can't cope with
the well-armed criminals and Dick Jones (Ronny Cox),
vice-president of OCP offers new solution - powerful,
heavily-armed and almost indestructible ED 209 robot.
Spectacular presentation of ED 209 abilities, however, turns
into bloody disaster and the Old Man (Dan O'Herlihy) is
willing to listen to the alternative plan by young, hot shot
yuppie executive Morton (Miguel Ferrer). His idea is to
combine the body of deceased police officer with the high
tech equipment, armour and weaponry and create the
invincible cyborg that would rid the city of criminals. The
body needed is Murphy (Peter Weller), good police officer
who died at the hands of a vicious gang of street punks, led
by Clarence Bodiker (Kurthwood Smith). The experiment
succeeds, and Robocop project is put in motion with
formidable results. However, Officer Lewis (Nancy Allen),
Murphy's former partner, recognises the body and the human
part of Robocop starts to remember his true identity.

Superficially, the plot of the movie looks like a
combination of comic book clich‚s: noble man dies only to be
resurrected as a superhero; he fights the bad guys and has
his moment of doubt/weakness before he takes his revenge in
a final spectacular showdown. On the other hand, very clever
script by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner uses such weak
plot in order to spice it up with a destructive satire of
1980s America (like the name used for the latest model of
American car). Especially effective is the use of fictious
three-minute-news in order to illustrate the future world;
two anchors, played by the real-life newsmen Mario Machado
and Leeza Gibbons, present the grim tales about wars,
disasters and human misery with a cheerfulness that strikes
a frightening chord with "news as entertainment" policy of
today's media.

Paul Verhoeven also contributed to this film, offering an
outsider's perspective to the absurdities of Reagan's
America. His background - European welfare-state, with its
own "gentler, kinder" version of capitalism - was a huge
contrast to the dog-eat-dog ultra-individualistic yuppie
culture that flourished in the Decade of Greed. Verhoeven
was probably having a lot of fun by inflating the elements
of those era to the levels of absurdity; it also emphasised
the satirical point of the movie with his trademark use of
over-the-top violence. Nice example is the scene in the
beginning when the unfortunate OCP executive gets
machine-gunned into a small pieces, and the next minute his
friend and colleague uses the opportunity to suck to the
boss. Nausea with the physical violence is effectively
combined with the dark humour. Same is with the very
gruesome, yet funny death scene in the end that can serve as
Verhoeven's comment on environmental problems.

Although ROBOCOP easily falls into the category of "author's
film" and the name of Verhoeven is the first to be
associated with it, the other artists also left their
distinctive mark on it. Peter Weller was very good in his,
somewhat limited role of machine that turns into human; with
its cool, stoical presence of good policeman and good father
he was ideal for the role that Verhoeven himself considered
the retelling of the Jesus Christ story. Nancy Allen is also
very believable in her very un-feminine and very realistic
portrayal of Robocop's trusted sidekick, high above the
usual clich‚s of women in action movies. However, those who
play the bad guys are, us usual, stealing the show.
Kurthwood Smith is excellent as a sadistic punk whose
glasses give away the intelligence that would bring his
criminal career above the street level, unlike his colourful
stooges (played, among others, by reliable character actors
like Ray Wise and Paul McCrane). Ronny Cox is also shadowed
by him as a creepy corrupt executive, the role he would
repeat in TOTAL RECALL.

Another strength of this movie also lies in a tight (and
"Oscar"-nominated) editing by Frank J. Urioste that gives a
movie, despite a lots of content, very fast pace in its 102
minutes. The visual design of the movie is also very
elaborate, with pieces of futuristic architecture of
corporate and technology in stark contrast with the decay of
industrial wasteland. However, the most recognisable element
of the film is Basil Poledouris' musical score, with its
epic theme that is somewhat inferior to his masterpiece in
CONAN THE BARBARIAN, yet very effective. All in all, ROBOCOP
is one of those rare movies that manage to be funny and
entertaining, yet thought-provoking and dead serious in the
same time.

RATING: 9/10 (++++)

Review written on October 11th 1998

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-Mail: [email-masked]
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