Classic 80s Movie: “Robocop”
Today’s Classic 80s Movie guest post comes from John Wheaties.
Movie Title: Robocop
Year: 1987
Writers: Michael Miner, Ed Neumeier
Lead Actors: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Plot Summary: In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 80s Movie: In the era of high-concept, this one is about as high-concept as they come. As Scott pointed out in the comments, the one word title — ROBOCOP — completely conveys the movie’s premise. Complete sentences are for high-concept wusses!
While SCARFACE and WALL STREET portrayed the excess and greed of the 80s, ROBOCOP showed us what it would ultimately cost us. Released close to the end of Reagan’s second term, this purely and perfectly entertaining comic book of a movie tells a story of humans becoming completely expendable as they are deprived of their humanity — the end result of the Gipper’s particular strain of cheerfully brutal politics. It’s also one of the best action movies ever made — in these shaky-cam times, Verhoeven’s mastery of staging, economical coverage, and geography seems radical. And for my money, especially among all the CGI cacophony these days, it’s still the best superhero film going.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: Robocop has a nightmare about his death in his past life, wakes up, figuratively breaks his bonds, and begins his personal quest for vengeance and justice.
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie: I didn’t even mention the brilliant satirical aspects, and the darkly hilarious dialogue — “I’ll buy that for a dollar!” — that goes hand in hand, but my favorite exchange is the menacing call-back by Robocop as he confronts one of his killers.
RoboCop: Drop it! Dead or alive, you are coming with me.
Emil Antonowsky: I know you. You’re dead! We killed you! We killed you!
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: The trio of great actors who went on to participate in some of the best television shows of later decades — Kurtwood Smith in THAT 70S SHOW, Ray Wise in TWIN PEAKS, and Paul McCrane in ER.
Paul Verhoeven getting funky in his cameo in the scene where Robocop apprehends a criminal in a nightclub (you might need the pause button for this one).
Verhoeven talked about consciously making Robocop a Christ-like figure — spot the references to this primary Christian myth, there are at least four.
The many ways this film is frighteningly prescient about trends in today’s society — among them TV vulgarity, the confluence of the military and corporations (One coporate boss says “We practically ARE the military”) and the downward trajectory of Detroit, which declared bankruptcy recently.
Parodies of real-life political figures Dan White and Abbie Hoffman.
Thanks, John! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Tomorrow: Another Classic 80s Movie!
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