Dir: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O’ Herlihy, Kurtwood Smith
Run time: 102 minutes
One of the grandmasters of action cinema, it’s hard to truly quantify how influential Robocop has been to movies in general. Paul Verhoeven’s satire of corporate greed is what happens when a director is allowed to pursue a vision, no matter how implausible and absurd it may be.
And what a vision it is. Verhoeven’s world of future Detroit is diseased with crime, infested with the kind of gibbering, cackling, psychopathic thugs that were a mainstay of 80s cop movies. In this reality, Detroit’s police force is perpetually on the backfoot, giving mega corporation OCP incentive to buy their way into law enforcement.
OCP’s plan is to develop and deploy a mechanised police officer to defeat crime, then make millions by selling it to the military. When their first attempt – the monstrous ED-209 – fails, it leaves the corporation without a solution.
Enter newly-transferred cop Murphy, who arrives in Detroit eager to clean up the streets. After a gruesome shoot out – which no doubt traumatised countless kids who watched it underage – Murphy is transformed into OCP’s leaner, compliant and more able Robocop. He quickly becomes the shining beacon of law and order in Detroit, much to the chagrin of crime lord Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith)
What follows is a superbly paced, often hilarious and action-packed satire that blasts along at a decent clip. The world is so well established here, and that’s thanks to subtle (and not so subtle) visual queues, news broadcasts and TV adverts. That stuff already exists in this world, and doesn’t all need explained to the audience as if we’re stupid. That’s always refreshing.
Not only is the world setting overblown and brilliant for it, the violence is simply glorious. The amount of squibs in this film is insane, with bodies getting blown into chunks, almost as if someone on the production had stock in a fake blood company.
The characters are also ramped up to eleven. Star of the show is Kurtwood Smith as Clarence. He’s a sneering dickhead, loathsome scumbag, and has killed countless people – yet he’s brilliant. His one liners are also on point. “Can you fly, Bobby?” and “Bitches, leave.” remain ’80s pop culture icons. He and his band of psycho thugs, including the brilliant Ray Wise, are clearly having a ball on set, hamming it up and running riot in every scene they’re in.
I remember enjoying this as a kid, but it never stood tall among the Die Hards, Rambos and Terminators of the world. That was because of how immobile and seemingly invincible Robocop is. I used to find most action scenes lacking in peril, but over the years and with each repeat viewing, I cared less about that and bought into the satire and ludicrous concept.
Paul Weller also plays the role with weight and, once Robocop starts to remember who he really is, acts with real, wounded emotion. Over time, I appreciated more that he initially sees himself as a product rather than a human being, a prisoner in the robotic shell keeping him alive. But by the end, Murphy has regained his humanity and sense of identify, and that’s a great arc for a movie like this.
I even used to think that ED-209 being unable to tackle stairs was also dumb as a kid. But through grown up eyes I could see that was absolutely the joke, and it always makes me laugh now.
And that’s how I came to see Robocop over the years. It’s definitely an action movie but man, it still gets a laugh out of me at many points. It’s just hideously entertaining and overblown – bonus points for that classic, rousing theme song too.
If anything, the future world of Robocop feels more relatable today, with the dumb “I’d buy that for a dollar,” show, news reports of civil unrest and the displays of raw corporate avarice.
Makes you wonder if this is even a satire any more. Hmm…
Final score:
9 reloads out of 10
Pros:
- The world of future Detroit is superbly realised and the satire is still incredibly entertainment
- All the cast perform a slam dunk here, but props have to go to Kurtwood Smith’s Clarence and his crew
- Peter Weller is also great, doing so much with a role that many other actors would have fumbled (just look at the door from the third movie)
- The soundtrack is glorious. That theme song is a classic
- All the broadcasts and news reports are great
Cons:
- The stop frame animation looks a bit janky now, but also quaint and fun.
The Hipfire 