Starring Peter Weller and Nancy Allen
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Given the impending, dreaded, re-make / re-boot of this 80s classic, it might be time to revisit the original. Remember how well the "Total Recall" remake went... I'm saying nothing.
"Part man, part machine, all cop. The future of law enforcement." ran the tagline. And boy didn't it do what it said on the tin?!
The story is simple - although it's worth noting that a huge amount of plot is depicted in the 100 or so minutes of the movie's run-time...Honest cop Alex Murphy, family man, celebrated law-enforcer is transferred to Detroit's ultra-violent Metro West area. Three men from the precinct have recently been killed and another is in critical condition... The running of the Police Department has recently been taken over by a corporate giant, OCP (Omni Consumer Products) and the officers aren't happy...
As Murphy partners up with tough-as-nails veteran Anne Lewis and heads out onto the streets, we see something of the workings of OCP. VP Dick Jones has a new scheme for sweeping the streets of crime: the ED-209 droid - a robotic killer which will take no prisoners in the face of offenders. A demonstration in front of the OCP board, sees ED-209 malfunction, brutally killing an innocent executive in the process. It's a horrific scene, but one which drives the plot forward, as it allows another executive, Morton, to pitch his own project to the big boss ("The Old Man" as they call him). That project is Robocop...We find out (extremely graphically) that Murphy, in pursuit of the criminal gang run by Clarence Boddicker, has been killed. But this makes him the ideal subject for the Robocop project...
We then see a procession of scenes of Robocop dealing with the crime he finds on the streets of Detroit, from petty theft at convenience stores, to rape attempts, to hostage situations to gas station robberies. We discover that the metallic marvel has some pre-programmed directives to monitor his behaviour... 1) Serve the public trust 2) Protect the innocent 3) Uphold the law and 4) Classified... we'll find out...Here the two storylines come together. Despite the efforts of his programmers, Robocop retains vague memories of the man he was. And Lewis knows who he is. So the two begin on a campaign to restore truth and justice to the city...Boddicker's gang, it transpires, has been working for Jones all along... Most importantly, Robocop is able to access his own memories, and is gradually able to put together the pieces that made up his life before he was transformed...
What ensues is all out war between the criminal underworld run by Boddicker but overseen by Jones, and the relentless drive for justice shown by Robocop. After alot of violence - and I mean alot of violence - it climaxes at a showdown at OCP headquarters. Robocop defeats ED-209 and has his finger on the trigger to expose all when we discover Jones has a trick up his sleeve...
It has to be said, straight out, that "Robocop" is an all-time-classic. This is why I fear for the remake. The brilliance of the story is in telling us a semi-believable futuristic world in which we can believe, and then spinning away with the story. "Robocop" is all too believable - if you want to cast your mind forward a few years. But likewise it's 25 years old and things haven't happened yet... although that's not to say they won't.
To be noted, the film is extremely violent (even by my standards) - it's why I loved it so much on VHS in the late 80s...I loved the violence but missed the satire... that came later. The film is punctuated by News-Bulletins and fake advertisements, which may date the film technically, but hit the mark satirically in an almost unprecedented manner...The Nuclear War driven board game "Nuke 'em" is a particular highlight... Verhoeven made three science fiction films (if you can call them that) which make an excellent trilogy's viewing..... Start with "Robocop" move on to (the original) "Total Recall" and finish with the awesome "Starship Troopers".... that's an evening and a half...
SB
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