RoboCop

RoboCop (1987)

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Writers: Edward Neumeier, Michael Miner

Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Miguel Ferrer, Kurtwood Smith, Dan O'Herlihy, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Paul McCrane, 

Synopsis:

Alex Murphy (Weller) is a Detroit cop in a dystopian future, where the city has become overridden with crime  and gang violence. While pursuing a group of bank robbers with his partner Ann Lewis (allen), Murphy is violently killed. OCP, the mega-corporation contracted to run Detroit's police department, reconstructs Murphy's body with cybernetics turning him into the ultimate crime-fighting machine, RoboCop. While, RoboCop is successful at stopping crime, he is soon brought up against the gang responsible for Murphy's death, led by Clarence Boddicker (Smith), who was hired to take him out. 

First Impressions:

I didn't catch RoboCop in theaters as I was only 11 years old when it was released and I'm pretty sure my mother would be appalled at the gratuitous violence depicted in this film. As a result, I had to wait to see the movie on the small screen. I'm not sure exactly how old I was when I finally saw it, but I know I was still way too young. I remember I saw it a friends place, whose parents weren't so concerned about what he watched. I also remember that like The Terminator, the sheer amount of gratuitous violence in the film was almost mythical for kids my age. Of course, being a over-stimulated pre-teen, I thought the movie was terrific on first viewing but that was just because there was explosions and blood (and even a couple of boobs!). When I saw it again much later in life, I was able to appreciate the film's more subtle features. Even though sci-fi action in the 1980s was dominated by Schwarzenegger and Cameron, I always felt that RoboCop tended to get kicked to the sidelines a bit. Of, course the recent attempt to reboot the franchise didn't help much.

Story/Direction: 

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me."

On the face of it, RoboCop, seems like a stupid, shallow 80s action pick with more explosions than brains. even the name, RoboCop, seems more appropriate for a B-movie, rather than a blockbuster summer action film. However, the film is really a scathing commentary on American corporate culture in the 1980s. I'd even go so far as to say the film is almost satire. As I've gone back and looked at my of the favorite films of childhood, I've marveled at how the themes explored in many of them still ring true today. Not only are the themes explored in RoboCop still relevant, the film itself was damn near prophetic in some cases. Throughout the film's 102 minute runtime, we see many things that would be at home on the news today, including the militarization of police, the privatization of key government services and unethical corporate greed. It's almost scary when you think about it.

From a directorial standpoint, Paul Verhoeven really is terrific action film maker. He shoots the action in such a way that the audience knows what's going on and can follow things easily. He was also one of the most visceral directors of his time, literally. Verhoeven did not shy away from showing the physical impact that violence has, particularly on the human body. I'm sure have of the movie's practical effects budget was spent on fake blood because there is a lot of it in this movie...a LOT. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that the movie initially was rated NC-17 because it was so violent. Outside of the action scenes, Verhoeven also had a really great handle on how to do sci-fi well, particularly dystopian cyberpunk. While he didn't go all-out with the visuals like Ridley Scott did in Blade Runner, Verhoeven instead used news in-world breaks and commercials to show the audience the state and and the mindset of the world the movie is set in. This is a tactic he also used to great effect  in Starship Troopers. 

Acting:

Academy award-worthy acting performances aren't generally something someone expects froma movie like this but don;t sleep on it as there are a couple of noteworthy performances here. First and foremost is Peter Weller's turn as Alex Murphy/RoboCop. Weller starts the film as the congenial Alex Murphy and then shifts to a cold, emotionless cyborg. However, as the film progresses and RoboCop begins to rediscover his humanity a bit, you see flashes of his former personality eke through the stone-faced facade. It really is a pretty good performance.

I can't talk about the acting in this film without bringing up it's two primary antagonists, Kutwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker and Ronny Cox as Dick Jones. Smith, who is apparently a sweetheart of a guy in real life, is clearly having the time of his life playing Boddicker. The character is basically every bad impulse a person has ever had rolled up into a man that would look more at home doing my taxes than shooting at cops. Likewise, Ronny Cox really plays up the callous corporate exectutive for his turn at OCP's second in command. An action movie is really only as good as its villian(s) and RoboCop's success had a lot to do with these to guys. 

The rest of the cast ranges for pretty good, like Miguel Ferrer's arrogant junior executive Bob Morton, to meh, like Nancy Allen's Officer Lewis. It's not that Allen didn't do a good job, it's just that she wasn't given a heck of a lot to do.

Visuals:

The special effects in this movie are a bit of a mixed bag, some look good, while others date the movie quite a bit. The make-up and costume effects are pretty solid overall, with RoboCop himself being a standout. The RoboCop costume is big, bulky and looks like it was a pain to wear but I think it was designed this way on purpose to underscore Murphy's transition from human being to soulless machine. There's also a good amount of make-up effects and because its a Paul Verhoeven film, they're used mostly to horrify the audience with over-the-top gore. There's plenty of splatter-y bullet wounds, limbs getting blown off and even a character that is literally melting. 

The movie also utilized many shots from RoboCop's point of view. It's a tool seen in other similar films in the era, including The Temrinator and Predator, used to great effect here. Like his bulky costume, it highlights how Murphy views the world now, as pure raw data to be analyzed. 

On the not so good side, the movie uses a fair amount of stop-motion, which dates it quite a bit. While in some instances, stop-motion animation can be quite charming, in RoboCop, it's a bit jarring and took me out of the film a bit. Overall, though the effects are fairly solid considering the era in which the film was made. 

Score/Music:

In my opinion, the music in this film is one of the better action scores of the 80s and quite a bit underrated. It was composed by the late Basil Poledouris, who was responsible for some epic scores over the years, including Conan the Barbarian and Hunt for Red October. I think the score in RoboCop fits the movie perfectly and really captures the cyberpunk feel of the film. Of course the real question is, did I find myself humming it after viewing? Yes, yes I did.

Action:

There is no shortage of action in this film and, as mentioned earlier, it's pretty graphic. Verhoeven uses the gory action to poke a bit of fun at American action movies of the era, so while it's certainly graphic, it's played almost for laughs, which works well. There's also a good amount of action set-pieces, including a great car chase/gunfight at the beginning of the movie, as well as a fun montage of RoboCop stopping crime throughout Old Detroit and an exciting final battle in an abandoned factory. Like its action movie contemporaries, there's a lot of good action in this movie and, really, it's one of the best reasons to give it a watch.

Final Verdict:

This is still a really fun movie to watch and even though there's a few bits that might cause some cringey for a viewer with modern sensibilities, there's still a ton of on-point social commentary that remains relevant 30+ years later. Definitely worth a watch and much better than the crappy remake.