RoboCop (film)
"RoboCop" is a 1987 American science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven, set in a dystopian future Detroit plagued by crime and societal issues. The story follows police officer Alex J. Murphy, who is brutally murdered and subsequently transformed into a cyborg law enforcer known as RoboCop by the corporate entity Omni Consumer Products (OCP). As RoboCop, he effectively combats crime, but he begins to regain memories of his past life and learns that his murderers are linked to OCP's leadership. The film serves as a critical social satire on the era's economic policies, particularly Reaganomics, and explores themes of technology's impact on humanity and corporate greed.
Upon its release, "RoboCop" was notable for its graphic violence, which initially earned it an X rating before being revised to an R rating. Despite mixed reviews, it achieved box-office success, grossing nearly $54 million in the U.S. The film received several nominations for Academy Awards, winning for Best Sound Editing, and remains a culturally significant work, often hailed as a classic of 1980s cinema. "RoboCop" has inspired multiple sequels, a television series, and a 2014 remake, which, while visually impressive, did not resonate as strongly with audiences or critics compared to the original. The film's legacy continues through its ongoing discussions about technology, ethics, and the role of big business in society.
RoboCop (film)
Identification Science-fiction action film
Director Paul Verhoeven
Date Released July 17, 1987
RoboCop, a violent social satire on big-business capitalism, features a cyborg police officer seeking revenge while trying to regain his own humanity in gritty, near-future Detroit. The film earned significant critical attention and became a 1980s cultural icon, leading to a multimedia franchise.
Key Figures
Paul Verhoeven (1938- ), film director
At the time of its release, Orion Pictures' RoboCop was one of the most graphically violent American films ever to make it to theaters. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) originally gave the controversial film an X rating, but Dutch director Paul Verhoeven trimmed enough graphic violence to earn it a strong R rating. The film was a box-office success, grossing almost $54 million in the United States.
The film is set in a futuristic, dystopian Detroit where crime, drug abuse, and unemployment are pervasive. The city employs the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) to take over the police department, replacing traditional patrol officers and methods with new, high-technology weaponry to cleanse and eradicate "Old Detroit" and to create a utopia called "Delta City." Police officer Alex J. Murphy (Peter Weller) transfers to an exceptionally dangerous precinct in Old Detroit and is viciously killed by a gang of thugs on his first assignment. He is officially dead, but OCP finds him to be a "prime candidate" for its experiments, and it fuses his body with cybernetics to create the cyborg RoboCop.
RoboCop inflicts swift justice on the lawbreakers of Detroit, and crime is reduced to a standstill. However, soon RoboCop begins dreaming of his former life and discovers that his killers are working for the president of OCP. He ultimately turns against both his murderers and his creators, killing them all, and regains a semblance of his former identity.
Verhoeven brought to RoboCop a European sensibility previously unseen in mainstream American action films. RoboCop is not only an incredibly violent film but also an intelligent social satire, especially toward the overarching economic policies of the time, known as Reaganomics, which resulted in a recession in the early 1980s and in a drastic reduction in social services. The villains in the film, members and employees of OCP, represent big business, and the downtrodden denizens of Old Detroit clearly represent the middle and lower classes. RoboCop acts as a champion for the common people, overthrowing the evil empire of OCP. He is also a liaison between technology and humankind, significant in the context of the great technological change occurring in the United States in the 1980s. There is a current of criticism running through the film regarding new technology's trend of dehumanizing individuals and eroding conventional social structures, of which RoboCop himself is a prime example.
Impact
While RoboCop was a box office success, it faced mixed reviews at the time of its release. Many influential critics, such as Roger Ebert, praised the film for its subversive social commentary woven into the blockbuster action-thriller format. However, other reviewers found the intense violence offputting and criticized other aspects such as the depiction of women. RoboCop was nominated for Academy Awards for best editing, best sound, and best sound editing, winning the latter category. It also received multiple BAFTA Awards nominations and won several Saturn Awards in the science fiction genre.
RoboCop raised the bar for shocking and graphic violence in American cinema and formally launched Verhoeven's career as an American director. It also spawned two less successful and poorly received sequels, neither directed by Verhoeven: RoboCop 2 (1990) and RoboCop 3 (1993). A 1994 live-action television series, a 2001 miniseries, two animated series, and numerous video game and comic book adaptations in the franchise followed. The original film's critical and cultural standing remained strong over the years, and it came to be seen as a classic of 1980s science fiction cinema. It was included on numerous retrospective lists and rankings, including Entertainment Weekly's 2007 compilation of the greatest action films of all time, Empire's five hundred greatest films of all time list in 2008, and AMC Filmsite's list of the best films of 1987.
The enduring popularity of RoboCop led to a remake of the same name, released in 2014. The new version was directed by José Padilha and starred Joel Kinnaman as Alex Murphy/RoboCop along with Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson, and Abbie Cornish. It received decidedly mixed reviews, with praise generally given to the cast and visual design even as most critics felt it fell short of the original. The updated satirical elements were particularly divisive, as some reviewers appreciated the efforts but others considered them a weak point. The 2014 film also had only moderate impact at the box office, grossing over $242.6 million on a $100 million budget but underperforming domestically. A sequel was planned but reported as canceled in 2018, when it was announced that the next entry in the franchise would instead be a direct sequel to the original RoboCop based on an unused script by Ed Neumeier and Michael Milner, the writers of the first film.
Bibliography
Beck, Kellen. "'RoboCop' Is a Prescient Satire Worth Revisiting." Mashable, 15 Feb. 2019, mashable.com/article/robocop-watch-of-the-week/. Accessed 17 May. 2019.
Duncan, Paul, and Douglas Keesey. Paul Verhoeven. Los Angeles: Taschen, 2005.
Ebert, Roger. Review of RoboCop, directed by Paul Verhoeven. RogertEbert.com, 17 July 1987, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/robocop-1987. Accessed 17 May. 2019.
"RoboCop (1987)." IMDb, 2019, www.imdb.com/title/tt0093870/. Accessed 17 May. 2019.
Van Scheers, Rob. Paul Verhoeven. Boston: Faber & Faber, 1997.