Film: Robocop (Released: July 17, 1987)
Featuring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Miguel Ferrer, Kurtwood Smith, Ronny Cox & Dan O’ Herlihy
Written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner
Producer: Jon Davison
Director: Paul Verhoven
Special Note: Film score by Basil Poledouris
I know this is going to sound crazy, but the first time that I ever saw a print ad for Robocop was in MAD Magazine. I thought it was some sort of joke at the time. But sure enough, sometime after July 17th, I was awakened in the middle of the night by my older sister who had just seen the movie and was raving about it. Unfortunately for me, I ended up seeing it on VHS much, much later.
Set in a dystopian future, the city of Detroit, Michigan is on the verge of financial collapse and ruin due to what appears to be a mega recession and severely unchecked crime. A “Mega-corporation” OCP or Omni Consumer Products has entered into a contract to run the city’s overwhelmed and undermanned police force. Run by the enigmatic C.E.O known simply as the “Old Man (Dan O’ Herlihy). OCP secretly has plans to rave the entire city of “Old Detroit” and replace it with a corporate owned Utopia, Delta City.
Robocop tells the simple story of Veteran police officer Alexander James Murphy (Peter Weller) transferred to the crime-ridden Metro West precinct and partnered with Anne Lewis (Nancy Allen). On their first patrol, they chase down a team of criminals led by Clarence Boddicker, one seriously ruthless crime boss. After tracking the criminals to an abandoned steel mill, Murphy investigates the hideout separate from his partner, is ambushed and literally blasted to bits by Clarence and his gang.
Murphy’s remain are literally owned by OCP who uses the occasion to realize a top secret project. Murphy is turned into the world’s first cyborg-Robocop!!
Guided by three prime directives written into his programming, Robocop makes a thrilling and spectacular debut on the crime ridden streets of Old Detroit in what can only be described as one night of “Shock & Awe”.
1.) Serve the public trust.
2.) Protect the innocent.
3.) Uphold the law.
Robocop is able to single-handedly deal with much of the violent crime in the city, causing the rest of the police force to become worried they may be replaced. OCP’s new “product” appears to be a raving success, but unknown to everyone else, Murphy’s dormant conscious is starting to surface as the Robocop unwittingly begins investigating his own murder.
It is important to note here that nothing regarding this film is done by the numbers in Robocop. Director Paul Verhoven, a recent transplant to the states took time to study, pop culture, 80’s politics and the rampant consumerism at the time. This shows in his U.S. film debut. Robocop is littered, rather peppered with satirical prop commercials for items like a board game called “Nuke’Em” and the 6000 “SUX”, a new top of the line commercial vehicle which plays into a humorous aside between Clarence and one of his subordinates later in the film. These skits are designed to subliminally immerse you into the world of Robocop.
Also of note is the nearly obscene and copious amounts of Ultra Violence present in this movie. Violence pushed purposely into cartoonish levels. Verhoven has stated in a number of interviews that he wanted to show the absurdity of violence in our culture. When I say that Murphy is blasted into bits, it a very literal term.
The competent direction and production of this movie could be used as a template for other adapted properties. For example, Lexi Alexander definitely could have used this film as a template for her Punisher film.
This movie effectively took the 80’s and magnified its moirés and ME Generation ethos into every frame of film as evidenced by the introduction of two of what I call the greatest BAD GUYS in films of that time. Clarence Boddicker is a cold, reckless killing machine with a ceaseless anarchistic mean streak that fuels most of his actions.
This character is a handful in and of him self, but writers Neumeier and Miner overshadow him with the Ultimate 80’s Bad Guy stereotype, OCP Senior President, Dick Jones … As portrayed by Ronny Cox, Jones has balls the size of the moon. He runs the day to day operations with an Iron Fist, always seeking profit for profit’s sake.
When his pet project lovingly called the ED-209 malfunctions and executes a senior staff member during a board meeting, Dick simply refers to the murder as a programming glitch that can be “easily repaired”.
Also of note here is Miguel Ferrer in the role of Bob Morton, a snarky junior executive and coincidental benefactor of the recently deceased Murphy. Morton is depicted as a corporate social climber who bears a slight resemblance in attitude and spirit to Dick Jones. In short, Morton is a dick with delusions of grandeur as Jones later points out to him in the movie.
The soundtrack score for the movie was composed by Basil Poledouris (1945–2006), who used both synthesized and orchestral music as a mirror to the man-versus-machine theme of the movie. The score alternates brass heavy material, including the memorable Robocop theme and ED-209's theme, with more introverted pieces for strings, such as Robocop’s home-coming scene.
The aforementioned scene foreshadows the overwhelming theme of loss for the resurrected Murphy. By the time Robocop removes his visor revealing in a shocking scene just what is left of Alex Murphy, the viewer is already thoroughly immersed in the character’s shades of grief at what he has been made into.
This by the way is what makes Robocop a classic in the comic book movie genre. Simply put, the movie is about a Hero’s Journey. Murphy begins the movie as an optimistic individual with everything in front of him, suffers loss and disillusionment in the center of the film and closes the circle once more after regaining some semblance of his humanity and a greater understanding of his new place in the scheme of things.
Basically this film rocks!!
Robocop is a great comic book movie and definitely weathers the test of time.
Check it out ... Shadowgeek10 returns to the shadows.