Thus, I bestow unto you, dear reader, The Sound and Fury's first ever Retro Review in Cinema.
***
When Robocop came out in 1987, I was about 11 years old, and I viewed it as just a cool science fiction movie with a half robot, half man, cop that was really good at kicking ass. Taking nothing away from its science fiction roots, though, upon viewing it again as an adult it's clear that this film has more going for it than just cool battles and neat SFX. Robocop, besides being the obvious science fiction film, is every bit the dark satire. One that presents quite a compelling social discourse on life in America in the 1980's.
Director Paul Verhoeven is known for his acerbic approach to films (see Flesh & Blood or Basic Instinct), and certainly Robocop never shies away from the blood and grit of its dystopic setting, but scattered amongst the myriad scenes of brutality and terror is an essay on the wastefulness and indulgence of 1980's American culture that is as clear now in reflection as it probably ever was. Robocop, it seems, belongs among higher company than its smash-'em-up sci-fi contemporaries.
Peter Weller plays a beat cop called Murphy who, at the start of the film, has been transferred into a crime-ridden district of Old Detroit as a result of the restructuring and privatization of the city police force. As luck would have it though, no sooner than Murphy can strap on his light-weight armor and helmet, meet his new partner, and grab a cup of coffee, he is caught up in the pursuit of the city's most violent offender. Predictably, the bad guys get the drop on Murphy and his partner, and Murphy suffers several gunshots including one to the head.
Enter OCP (Omni Consumer Products), a mega-corporation responsible for the buy out of the police force, which also happens to be an industrial-grade weapons manufacturer. OCP has just finished developing a technology that can take the nearly dead Murphy, and rebuild him into a cybernetic police officer that OCP hopes will make the human cop obsolete (and make them a ton of money at the same time).
Murphy, it just so happens, gets to live to fight another day as the Robocop.
Murphy, it just so happens, gets to live to fight another day as the Robocop.
Of course, with a beginning like that it's hard not to see the obvious revenge plot scenario at the heart of the film, and in this way Robocop's story line is nothing new under the sun. But the deeper message that eventually reveals itself (not wanting to spoil the whole movie) is one of greed, corruption, and of political machinations that still are, and have been relevant, for centuries.
The mean streets of a futuristic Detroit, with its abandoned factories and steel mills, provide the perfect utilitarian backdrop for the film's dystopian setting, but also speaks in a metaphorical way to the subtext of the film. Robocop seems to postulate that as Old Detroit rots from the inside out, so too will the fabric of the narcissistic, self indulgent, American ideal that seemed to be the order of the day at the film's release in 1987.
Not only are the set pieces dark, but the overall tone of the film is pretty bleak. Life and death are portrayed grimly in equal measures. The violence is pervasive and in-your-face throughout the film, with the innocent, not-so-innocent, and downright bad being dispatched with equality. One scene involving one of the film's antagonists is particularly disturbing: He has the contents of an entire toxic waste tank dumped on him, and the audience is treated to the spectacle as he begins to mutate and the skin melts off of his body as he pleads for help from his fellow bad guys.
Not only are the set pieces dark, but the overall tone of the film is pretty bleak. Life and death are portrayed grimly in equal measures. The violence is pervasive and in-your-face throughout the film, with the innocent, not-so-innocent, and downright bad being dispatched with equality. One scene involving one of the film's antagonists is particularly disturbing: He has the contents of an entire toxic waste tank dumped on him, and the audience is treated to the spectacle as he begins to mutate and the skin melts off of his body as he pleads for help from his fellow bad guys.
The film is scattered with bits of black humor including several fake television news casts, commercials, and billboards. Pay close attention to one particular commercial for a family board game called (wait for it)... Nukem. It probably wasn't that funny at the time, but in retrospect it's hilarious.
I picked up the two-disc, 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition of Robocop at a local DVD resale shop for about 10 bucks, and I have to say that it was worth every penny paid. I haven't listened to any of the commentaries, or watched any of the extras yet, but I did watch the extended version rather than the original. And for the record, I didn't recognize which scenes were added to the theatrical version.
Verhoeven's Robocop spawned a franchise that included everything from film sequels to comic adaptations, but none of them ever lived up to the original film. But with the advent of so many Hollywood remakes these days (including a possible Robocop remake), it seems that these original films will be nice to have in the library, not just for entertainment, but to serve as reminders that sometimes... newer isn't always better.
Score: 4/5
Verhoeven's Robocop spawned a franchise that included everything from film sequels to comic adaptations, but none of them ever lived up to the original film. But with the advent of so many Hollywood remakes these days (including a possible Robocop remake), it seems that these original films will be nice to have in the library, not just for entertainment, but to serve as reminders that sometimes... newer isn't always better.
Score: 4/5
Kirk out.
