RoboCop (1987)
A fantastic science fiction film, subversively posing as a cheesy b-movie, RoboCop is one of the smartest, funniest, and gutsiest movies of its era. Filled to the brim with cheeky social commentary, this is one of those rare action films that hits you heavy with satire, while also engaging you on the surface level with an intriguing story and a strong visceral dynamic. After the originally intended Jonathan Kaplan signed on and then off the project, and a slew of other American directors turned down the opportunity, Dutch film-maker Paul Verhoeven, who had been a lifelong science fiction fan despite not yet making a film in the genre (he cited a lack of funds for expensive sci-fi and effects technology in Europe as the key reason) was brought in, having already worked for the studio, Orion Pictures, for his previous film, Flesh + Blood. At the suggestion of his wife, who had read the script and thought it was perfect for him, Verhoeven, who had initially dismissed it completely, came around on the notion that he could take the pulp premise and do something visionary, while also introducing himself to American audiences, crafting the first of several of his engaging, ultra-violent films that would also rank among the best genre films of their era.
RoboCop is set in near-future Detroit (it would actually be mainly shot in Dallas, TX, because the producers liked the more future-forward look to the building designs, as well as having its share of run-down areas), where the city streets are just about completely dominated by the criminal element, while the police are neither respected nor welcome; they are virtually walking targets out there. Desperate to clean up the crime-ridden community and build a gleaming new one in its place, the government officials turn to OCP, Omni Consumer Products, to build and manufacture the future of law enforcement, robotic police that are more powerful and well-armed than anything anyone has ever seen. However, when the first prototypes prove inconsistent, the city officials balk at the idea, so an upstart faction within the OCP comes up with a newer, more “human” cop, a cyborg built using the remnant body of downed officer Alex Murphy (Weller), and dubbed simply as “RoboCop”.
Things proceed splendidly for the RoboCop program, that is, until the human side of the cyborg begins to recollect his past life as Murphy, plagued with flashbacks to the family he lost and the psychopathic criminals who all but ended his life as he knew it. Determined to bring the bad guys that did him in to justice, RoboCop sets out on a mission of his own, not realizing that the gang in question is actually in cahoots with a rogue entity within the OCP, who for all intents and purposes, also own the city, the police department, and the machine side of Murphy.
Verhoeven is a whiz here, treading the fine line between social commentary and exploitation in a way that he actually manages to pull off the double feat of being a great example of both. While much of RoboCop is extremely schlocky in execution, it is intentionally so. It makes fun of the very conventions that it also readily embraces, then kicks things into overdrive with over-the-top relish. A gamut of popular culture phenomena is skewered, from Detroit’s crime-ridden reputation to the pacifying tendencies of bad television to senseless advertising to ratings-driven news reports to the decline of the American automobile industry to the apathetic stranglehold of American corporations on all facets of government. A brilliant blend of exhilarating action, psychological pathos, and dead-on funny satire makes for one of the more adrenaline-pumping action vehicles of the 1980s.
The film also marks the debut of screenwriters Michael Miner, a director of shorts and music videos, and script reader Edward Neumeier. Neumeier’s interests began taking shape as he poured through literary properties that he felt could be translated into movies. After seeing a poster, Neumeier became hooked on the notion of Blade Runner, except with a robot hired to take down humans, rather than the other way around. Meanwhile, he envisioned a new story from a number of ‘dark tech’ comic books that had a cinematic appeal: Marvel’s “Rom”, “Machine Man”, and “Iron Man”, plus, from the UK, “Judge Dredd” – all four properties that would shape the ideas for RoboCop‘s conceptual design. When he discovered Miner was already working on a property in which a human cop turns into a cyborg, they decided to combine their ideas into much of what we would eventually see on the screen.
The script is full of semi-surreal assertions on the folly of humankind when it comes to our use of technology, especially when used to privatize and commercialize essential government functions like law enforcement, causing smart engineers to have to work overtime to make products that make the populace less intelligent, (such as the recurring sitcom where the main character’s oft-used line is, “I’ll buy that for a dollar”, a reference to a character within the influential (and, it would seem, prophetic) science fiction novella about a world in which all but a few elites who ran the world were of low intelligence, written by Cyril M. Kornbluth, “The Marching Morons”, who would ask, “Would you buy that for a quarter?”), or revealing news stories told on TV, such as one briefly mentioning that a Strategic Defense platform, code-named Peace (an irony, given that its use is for war), has malfunctioned in orbit, eventually culminating in the destruction of a big part of Southern California in the resulting wildfire. That last part is a motif within RoboCop of how the desire for money and power cause these products to rush to market without the proper testing or expenditures on safety guarantees, which sets the table for the folly of the robotic police force idea that is being propagated in order for billionaires to increase their wealth by eradicating the criminals so they can make good on their Delta City project. The more we, as humans build, the more we destroy, from cannon guns to toxic waste, the Detroit of our future is full of the nasty byproducts of human quest for money and power over life and environment.
This idiocy is further explored when a gas station attendant, a college student studying from a book of mathematics, meets the barrel end of a gun held by one of the main goons, who further harasses him by asking if all of his quest for intelligence can stop a bullet from his gun, suggesting that, in this world, that even the dumbest person with the power to kill reigns supreme over the meek who seek to make themselves, or their world, better with education. It should be noted here that director Verhoeven himself is the son of a school teacher, growing up in a part of the Netherlands near a German base where Allied bombs would frequent (nearly killing his parents) during World War II, and would later earn degrees himself in mathematics and physics, cementing his notion that all of this education would eventually be used by the wealthy, powerful, and dumb to do more harm than good for society. The commentary on the Detroit-manufactured car known as the 6000 SUX is a nod to his ideas of American engineering (the commercial tagline is, “An American Tradition”), in which the populace thinks its preferable to have a big, fast, and fancy car, no matter how terrible the gas mileage and engine efficiency may be.
Peter Weller would be sought after several notable actors turned down the role (David Carradine, Peter Fonda, Mark Hamill, and Nicolas Cage among those not interested). As RoboCop would be unemotional (mostly) and only be seen as human in his mouth and chin, Weller was thought to be appealing due to his stoic demeanor, his slender frame (to easily fit into the bulkier suit as compared to beefier front-runners like Rutger Hauer and Michael Ironside), and attractive lips and chin. Weller would spend several months in the lead up to the role with a mime coach to learn how to capture the robotic movements required for the role, especially while lumbering while donning his 25-lb. RoboCop suit, as well as how to devise a way to show some inkling of humanity within that would suggest a cyborg in conflict with his own nature at the same time. Nancy Allen would take the role as Anne Lewis after Stephanie Zimbalist had to turn down the role when her initially cancelled TV show, “Remington Steele”, would be ordered to make more episodes by NBC, primarily to capitalize on “Steele” co-star Pierce Brosnan reportedly being sought to appear as James Bond for The Living Daylights, which had the opposite effect of Bond producers passing on Brosnan and riding their fortunes once again with Timothy Dalton so they didn’t have to wait. Jamie Lee Curtis and Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio also reportedly passed on the role.
Verhoeven makes it all look so easy, so much so that one almost feels guilty for enjoying it, because, on the surface, it looks and feels like such a bad movie. Looks can often be deceiving, as RoboCop is, underneath the junk cinema exterior, one of the more intelligent and savvy thrillers of the science fiction genre, perhaps only bested by The Terminator in terms of blending intelligent, complex sci-fi with all-out supercharged action. Verhoeven is a student of film as well, building upon the world envisioned 50 years prior, in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, which also contains elements of politics, including the fascist nature of capitalism, the monolithic industrial environs, and the sleek but strong design of RoboCop himself. Religious parallels also abound, with Murphy seen as a bit of a Christ figure in his gruesome death and resurrection into a new body, a savior to people who is initially unrecognized, with a climax that includes a moment of walking on water and taking a spear into the body.
Due to the graphic nature of its sadistic violence, RoboCop would initially be burdened with an ‘X’ rating by the MPAA. Orion Pictures appealed several times to try to be bestowed the ‘R’ rating without cuts, on the notion that the film is a black comedy, and that the absurd over-the-top excess within the violence is actually so overdone as to have the effect of being more comical than horrific, and that cuts to the violence would have the opposite effect of bringing things down to being more realistic and serious to the viewer, and therefore, more horrific. Nevertheless, the argument only went so far, and the film-makers were forced to reduce the carnage, and were right about it becoming much more disturbing as a result of not taking things to the point of absurdity.
While RoboCop is a great film for sci-fi and action buffs, it should be noted that if you don’t consider yourself to be among either camp, what you ultimately get out of the film will be limited at best. It’s also quite graphically violent, purposefully gratuitous in many ways, although so absurd that you actually are able to distance yourself from the horrors of the sadism to actually find it amusing without feeling like a sick bastard. Again, if you can’t stomach excessively bloody carnage, don’t attempt.
The film would prove to be a success at the box office, dominating its first two weeks of release, taking in over $53 million in the U.S., placing it within the top 20 highest grossers of the year, and would rake in much more than that worldwide, on a budget of about $13 million. Sequels would naturally be generated, though they lacked the visionary talents of Verhoeven, and could not recapture the mix of absurdity, surrealism, or satire of the original. Despite being far too violent for children, there would actually be a “”RoboCop” animated series made, co-created by screenwriter Michael Miner, that ran for twelve episodes in 1988.
RoboCop succeeds on many levels, but the one I’m most impressed with is in making us actually feel something for the cyborg at the heart of the film, with moments of surprising emotion at the core of what could have been a throwaway Terminator knock-off. For a film so excessive in nearly every department, the subtle moments remain the most powerful.
Qwipster’s rating: A+
MPAA Rated: R for pervasive graphic violence, drug use, brief nudity, and language
Running Time: 102 min.
Cast: Peter Weller, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Nancy Allen, Miguel Ferrer, Dan O’Herlihy, Robert DoQui, Paul McCrane, Ray Wise, Jesse Goins, Felton Perry, Leeza Gibbons
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Screenplay: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner