In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.
“RoboCop” was Paul Verhoeven’s Hollywood debut and it marked the beginning of his magnificent run following up with the fantastic “Total Recall” and the psycho-sexual thriller, “Basic Instinct.” “RoboCop” opens with a news bulletin full of dystopian despair, the US Government’s misuse of technology has caused a massive wildfire around Santa Barbara. And in local news, a gang leader named Clarence (Kurtwood Smith) is declaring war against the Detroit Police Department. The time period is the near-future although the police culture is a bit more Euro-centric. The locker rooms are co-ed, and the underpaid force is considering a strike, it’s rare that anyone in the US fights for their labor rights. Murphy (Peter Weller) is a charmingly forgettable new officer transferred in from his smaller town to the crime-ridden Motor City.
Meanwhile, the mega-corporation OCP (Omni Consumer Products) unveils a new plan to manipulate the rampant crime issue with a hulking robot called the ED-209. OCP has privatized the prisons, healthcare, and secured lucrative military contracts with the government. The CEO strong-arms the police force by threatening to cut funding unless they let his company oversee the department. It’s incredible how prophetic the 1987 screenplay is to our current late-capitalist world. Today in 2019, politicians are privatizing prisons, local police have military-grade equipment, and powerful corporations rather outsource or automate the human workforce than provide a living wage. In a great scene, the ED-209 enters the boardroom meeting adorned with gun turrets and the show and tell goes terribly wrong when an executive is executed in a hilarious physical comedy scene akin to Buster Keaton. An over-ambitious junior executive Bob (Miguel Ferrer) sees an opportunity to fuse the cyborg component with a more human touch. Bob’s plan comes to fruition after Clarence and his gang ambush Officer Murphy blowing off most of his limbs and nearly delivering a coup de grace with a brutal headshot.
After surgery, Murphy is awakened and placed in large matte-chrome body armor obfuscating his entire body except for his mouth. His gun looks like a modified desert eagle that can shoot automatic or semiautomatic rounds and is cleverly holstered inside his armor. RoboCop has three directives: 1. Serve the public trust 2. Protect the innocent 3. Uphold the law. Even though he’s wrapped in a ballistic proof uniform he’s still haunted by traumatic memories of his murder and the family he left behind. His former partner Officer Lewis (Nancy Allen) attempts to reconnect but he doesn’t remember her. RoboCop begins his street-sweeping crusade against crime with lots of bullets and his policing which some have accurately described as “fascism for liberals.”
The film clearly has left-leaning politics and there’s a lot of relevant moments scattered throughout the screenplay. The camerawork is fluid and brilliantly captures a fair amount from RoboCop’s POV. The action is at times a bit clunky which perhaps is intentional due to the constraints of the robotic suit. Regardless, the film still holds up with its stunning make-up effects by Rob Bottin (“The Thing”) and Phil Tippett (“The Empire Strikes Back”). Verhoeven’s progressively comedic vision is something to be cherished and let’s just pretend that dull remake never happened.
Now available on a Blu-ray 2-Disc Limited Edition Collector’s Set from Arrow Video
